The Portland daily press., 1881-06-21
1.-THE STATE OF MAINE"
Ex-senator Hanlin's Speech at the Chi
.cago Reunion of the Sons of Maine.

IaA-O0AatOf daulllu . 0pS6Cl tlt- %tAo SAA
cago Reunion OF the Sons of Maine.
in Chicago in response to a toast 1.-THE State
of Maine''- Ex-senator Hamlin spoke as fol-
lows:
Mr.. sCharman:-I am not advised of the
rules by which this social meeting is regulated
but think have the right to infer that they
are at least of quasi-military character, be-
cause everybody knows, in military circles,
whether in council or in court-martial, the
youngest officer is always called upon first to
express an opinion. Laughter] And be-
sides, Mr.. President, there is something IN
that which don't quite belong to the Judiciary.
You issue, know, your mandamus to enforce
the law, and to guard the right of the citizen,
but here, sir, you come nearer to the highway
man, for your language and that OF the hlgn-
wayman who assails his victim upon the puDn,C;
road is precisely similar Stand and deliver.
Laughter.
Now, am occupying that precise condition
the Juvenile member of your invited guests
from your native State and compelled to speak
under the mandate of your worthy presiding
officer. Laughter 1t leaves me nothing
therefore, but to make the attempt. And Mr..
travelled no thousand miles from Maine to par
take of your hospitality at this generous ban
quet. There was higher motive that stimu-
lated us. We came to testify by our presence
here that we have not forgotten, and we never
will forget, the good men who went from us in
early days Applause. We regretted, as we
had a right to regret, that you should have
sought other, and wider, and, in your iudg-
ment, better fields in which to display your
energy, your ability and integrity, and your
capacity sof every kind. You went from
among us, but we have been consoled with the
reflection that you have established regulations
worthy OF yourselves, and that have reflected
honor upon the State from which you went.
[Applause.] Need I point to all the mighty
West? Need I illustrate by this Empire State
OF Illinois the truth Of my declaration? 1t is
here tonight. In all the relations OF life you
have shed a lustre upon your native State, and
YOU have done her noble and heroic justice
We have been consoled by another reflection on
your leaving us to seek other newer, and more
agreeable homes to yourselves-the reflection
which has been SO we'll stated by your worthy
Chairman this evening that you will not for
get your native State. Applause.
80 never may son of thine,
Whereer his wandering steps incline,
Forget the skies that bend above
His early home'
And then we have been consoled by still an
other reflection; that you are still attached by
all the ties of early youth to the rock-bound
coast OF Maine, to her rugged hills, to her
sloping hillsides, to her sterile soil, and, last
but not least, to the little school-rooms that
cluster along her valleys where we have been
remembered and you will remember them all,
and the ties of early years will never depart
from you. In addition, you have found homes
and new ties, and thereby are prepared and
lifted to exercise or to speak from higher
stand of patriotism as citizen OF whole
country. You have the ties of youth, and
you have the ties of association to tell you how
dear is this good land of ours. True, we are
in the far Northeast. upon the outside, of
Uncle Sans dominions, but when we get
three more States east OF us we will approx
innate more to central position.
But think, with no spirit of boasting,
whether at home or in Illinois, we may exer-
else little of just pride for our native State.
Do you know, Mr.. President, that in old Col
onial times but two men were knighted by the
mother Government for gallant and distin-
guished services William Pepperell of Kit
terry, who CALAMITY led the forces at Louisburg,
and Admiral Phipps, who won his laurels up
on the ocean. And in Colonial times there
was Preble, who was the father of our navy,
who breathed into it the spirit of life, as did
Alexander Hamilton Into the financial policy
OF the Government; and there was Henry
Knox, who was born in that part of Maine
that formerly was in Massachusetts laughter,
and who, when Massachusetts was set of, had
the good sense to come down to Maine to die.
Applause. And what have we done through
our own migrating sons? We have done liter
airy work. Who is the peer of Henry w.
Longfellow in poetry7 We have, too, Willis
and billiard, and host of other f@mouse
mon, almost his peers. In my own experience
in the councils of the Nation 1 once served
with eight members from the little,
broken, sterile county of Oxford. and there
were nearly thirty members of Congress who
had gone abroad to shed lustre upon Maine as
Representatives of other States We have
furnished Governors also; we have one to-day
from that part of Maine which is now Massa-
chusetts and We have had one or two in Mich
igan, one in Minnesota, one or two in Iowa,
two in California, one in Oregon, and I don't
know how many more. If any of the
other States want Governors we have good
men and can furnish them. [Applauso.]
But l am betraying myself into speech
which didn't mean to make, and / will close
with one single suggestion. The wonderful
power OF concentrated steam and vapor has
revolutionized the world. Although it is his
torically true that the people eff the higher
have populated the regions of the lower lati-
tudes, yet this wonderful power contributed
largely beyond natural causes to draw away
from us our population. 1t is true in the last
decade we little more than held our own in
population, but what. my friends constitute
the elements of State in the highest degree
of prosperity which it can reach? 1t is no one
great industry; it must be several. The great
industries that constitute the prosperity of
State and will carry it to its highest point Of
accomplishment are the triple ones Of COM
merce, manufactures, and agriculture. 1t is
true we are not an agricultural State we have
our own home markets and respectable agri-
culture, though we come to buy of you; we
have commercial interest and the history of
the commerce of the past gives us the fore
most position of any State within the Union
The time has been when we constructed two
tifths at least of all of the tonnage built with
in the United States: and in the recent survey
of the water-power of Maine it was demon
strated that our water-power within accessible
reach, to say nothing of that which lies within
the region of our primeval forest, if utilized
as is the Pawtucket River in Rhode Island,
would demand a population OF 100000 of
people. We have these three elements, and
when population shall have equalized itself,
when all the causes that draw our population
from us have answered and accomplished their
purposes, l tell you, the hum of the wheel and
the music OF the loom and of manufactures in
every department upon the water-power of our
rivers that are now running unchecked to the
ocean and untitled by the hand of man, will
give to Maine the position of the first manu-
featuring State of thae United States. lap
plause. 1t is written in the letters of the fu-
ture which can see, and those who shall come
after me shall see it DONE How proud will be
our position; how gratifying will it be to all
our own good sons, whether they have re-
manned at home or stroyed abroad, that we as
sumo within this family of States that consti-
fsrfn 4I,oh Natl Il