The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-10-21
THE YORKTOWN CENTENNIAL.


40 far an to suggest that the matter
is hardly in good taste, yet matter
of so great national notoriety ought
not to be passed over i'll silence By
any journal claiming to be awake.
The ceremonies .tegan on Tuesday
with the laying OF the corner stone OF
the monument at which the Masonic
fraternity assisted with the imposing
rites Of their ancient and honorable
craft. This monument was author
lied by the congress of the old con-
federation in 1881, the year of the
capi,ulation of Lord CORVALLIS, but
for want of funds nothing was don"
until one hundred years afterwards,
when the Congress of thir,y-eight
American States, representing 5o,-
O00,O freemen and not one slave,
revived the act of 1881 and made
what is hoped to prove ample pro-
visions for carrying ont the plan OF
one hundred years ago.
The immediate s.ene of all these
iml osing ceremoni.s, of which we
can not speak in detail, is a drowsy
little village low down OH the Vir-
ginia peninsula, which presents to-
day hardly any more signs of human
energy than 1t did century ago
when the event which these transac-
tions cOmmemorate occurred. While
all the rest of America lras been
moving with railroad speed, the
Virginia peninsular has remained on
dead stand, Yorktown, if possible,
stiller than the rest. But this little
symbol of business stagnation is the
center OF heroic struggles in battle
by water and 10y land, whose results
have been grander in their influence
Tor good upon human society in two
worlds than Maranihon ond Salamis,
Thapsus AMI Zama, Trafalgar, Water
loo and all the famed historical bat
ties said 10 have been decisive in
changing or establishing civilizations
and forms of government. On all
sides within a radius OF fifty miles
from Yorktown are fields wherein
human intelligences higher and
drawer than those of Athens and
Peloponnesus met each other in NOR
tai conflicts which have shed immor-
tality upon the ground.
To the right. facing toward the
sea, is Hampton Roads where the
memorable struggle between the
ram Merimac and the
Monitor, in the spring of ls62, in less
than one hour changed the whole
system of naval warfare and furnished
a bill fcondemnation against every
armed ship affoat on the seas
ot the world. Insignificant as this
victory was by comparison with
subsequent naval engagements Of the
same war, yet in point Of influence
The victories of Themistocles or Mel
son are nothing.
Above and further on about Cold
Harbor and Spottsylvania, every
nile, every Chimp of woods, every
slope and hll and ravine have wit
,essed such conflicts az regarded
either, for the principles at stake or
;he mere physical force engaged,
brow all the historical battles of
freaks against Persians, Romans
against Carthegenians, or Christians
against Muslems into contempt.-i
Looking southwark towards Peters
'urg and AppoIna'tox, the eye lights
Ipon "a scene of the final struggles OF
/ giant rebellion which gave birth 10
, new nation, compared with whose
prospects, already fast approaching
-raiIzalion, the grandest empires and
-epublics Of antiquity assume by
the dwaritd proportions
II a Gulliver in Brubilipuag.
II is, then not in angry. or lima
.urea or iliIimed spirit toward Ei-
gland that this victory is being COM
after the lapse OF ccntu-
y, for in reality the triumph OF the
.o!onies at Saratoga and Yorktown
vas IN fact triumph of the British
over the aspirations OF
lespotism seeking the ruin Of British,
IS well as American liberties. And |
nut for the stern opposition of our
r;enls in Parliament, our fathers
would have been crushed by the
weight of military power before
crushed CORVALLIS at
Z Yurktown.
Says the Standard In passing along
second street yesterday we noticed popu-
ar physician and well known undertaken,
10Th plump jolly fellows. sitting on opposite |
ldes of a table in the office of the latter