Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-10
address of Hon. Wnn. NJ. Euarts.

Oh Inc WIZ. M. GHdIIS.
ADDRESS of Hon. Wn1. NJ. EUdrtS.
Mr.. President Willard and gentlemen,
our fellow citizens and former guests:
1 shall find it easy to conform, for my
share of it, to the distribution of the en-
tire time which has been accorded for this
striking ceremony, to make the date and
place of the completion of this great
public work. Your own address Of vel
come, MIR. President, has recalled to atten-
ton the principal steps and methods by
whicht this noble contamination has been
reached, and the eminent gentlemen who
are to follow me will illustrate, from every
point of view, she magnitude of the
achievement, and give eloquent utteranoe
to sentiments of admiration for the great
qualities and congratulation upon the for
tunate influences which have secured
the result sentiments which
see, as look around me,
swell every breast and brighten every eye.
Indeed, am very glad to feel that thus
placed between what has gone before and
what is to come after, my short speech
may be fairly treated as mere parenthe-
sis, which, the grammarians tell US, may
always be omitted without injury to the
| sense.
1t is true, if I were to make the very
briefest allusion to the manifold inserest-
| ing incidents, if l were merely to touch
upon even the many great things which
have marked the progress of this enter
| prise through all its vicissitudes to its final
success, if were to exhibit only its most
| notable contests with and triumphs over
the difficulties which nature-human, alas!
as well as material-had put
in its way, I should transcend
| all limits of time and your
patience before had got as far as Helena,
starting at either end. But of snch en-
| largement, even, the subject has no need.
In all the long route from st. Paul to
Portland and Pugent Sound, the work has
spoken and will speak the praises of its
conception, its projection, its completion,
in more impressive tones, and with ulster
emphasis, than words can express. If 1
can only run single furrow through the
wide field of observation and illustration
open beforeIus, if I can barely mark the
bright track of prophecy, faith and
works which have wrought out the grand
consummation, the demands of the oc-
casion, 1 cannot but feel, will be quite
satisfied.
| have spoken OF prophecy, faith and
works as all contributory to the success of
this enterprise, and so, indeed, they have
been. Neither of them could haye been
spared from this, or from any weighty and
| imposing task of human endeavor. Fore
cast, confidence and labor will accomplish
whatever is within the compass of mans
power. Let us consider a little the part
they have each played in the work COM
plete, which now, in our presence, its
builder, the Northern Pacific Railroad
company, has Crowned with its last hand"
fortunately for US, neither English nor
Spanish explorers of the, west coast had
discovered the mouth of the Columbia
river before our independence was estab-
lished. fortunately, also, after that event,
though both the English and the Span
iards continued their explorations on that
coast, it was New England trading cap
tan, Robert Gray, of the ship columbia"
that first penetrated the mouth of this
river, to which he gave its name, and veri-
fled and recorded it as a discovery which,
under the rules then prevailing, carried to
his country the sovereignty of the region
drained by the river and its tributaries.
| Thei accurate and circumspect entry
made in his log book by this intelligent
New England shipmaster, was the title
| deed of the United States
to the region embraced in the
state of Oregon and the territory of Wash
ington against subsequent claims Of dis
| covery made by Great Britain, and, in
some sort, by Spain. 1t was upon this
title that we maintained footing of joint
occupation with Great Britain, and finally,
| by the treaty of 1916, of exclusive title up
to the division line of the 10th parallel
| By the treaty of Washington in 1871 under
the arbitration of the Emperor Of Germany
our construction of the division line in
Puget's sound and the communicating
channels was established. Until the acqui-
| sition of California, as the result of the
Mexican war, this region was our sole
| footing upon the Pacific ocean, and this
| excited the interest and ambition of the
| nation for an overland communication
with this remote and unpeopled posses
sion. Immediately upon the Louisiana
purchase in 1903, the forecast and energy
of Jefferson was shown in the project of
the survey of the vast wilder
ness intervening to discover a prac-
ticable route for migration and
traffic. Congress voted the money for an
expedition to trace the Missouri to its
source, to cross the highlands, and to fol-
low down the water courses to the Pacific
ocean. Lewis and Clarke executed this
task. Starting from st. Louis in May,
1904, they wintered fifty miles above the
present town of Bismarck, and came in
eli hf<,e dou Of