Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-19
DOOLITTLE'S EAGLE.
1t Screams and Scars for the Dedication of
Admitting Sons of Scotia in Mil
waukee.

Response of ex-senator Doolittle at
the banquet given by the st. Andrews
society, at Milwaukee, in response to
the toast: ''America-the Land of our
Adoption
Mr.. Doolittle said: In rising to re-
spond to this toast, feel myself over
, whelmed by the yastness of the theme.
| What tongue can tell all that toast
means!
His lips should be touched with a live
| coal from the altar, and his soul burn
with a prophets fire to tell what the
| United States of America has been, is,
| and is TO be; to tell its wonderful past,
| its gigantic present, and above all,
| that astounding future, which no man
has yet conceived.
Think of the boundaries! 1t reaches
east and west across the north temper
ate zone of continent $500 miles. 1t
reaches north and south with an aver
age width of 1,600 miles. Upon its
! broad expanse a circle could be drawn
with q radius of 500 miles: circle
with a thousand miles diameter, en-
bracing lands as rich and fertile as the
| famous valley of the Nile, which,
| though but seven miles in average
width and 700 miles long, was once the
granary of Rome.
Think of its vast resources, and pro-
| auctions from the soil, the forest, and
| the mine; Of its greatvariety of climate,
and yet neither frigid nor torrid; of its
mountains and rivers and lakes; of its
| cities and harbors; of its telegraphs and
I IoJo - IS
| way on which 10000 locomotives, at
| twenty miles an hour, running night.
and day, would make a distance equal
to the circuit of the globe eight times
every hour. Above all, think of its
people, wherein mingle the blood, the
best and strongest blood, of all ma
tions.
| De Toqueville, that great Frenchman,
fifty years ago, when our population
was only 100000, said the time
would surely come when it would be
more than 150,000,000. That was
startling prediction at that day, but the
census tables shows that we shall reach
that point at the middle of the next CEN
fury.
From a table before me it appears
that at the beginning of this century
our population was little over 5, $780,
900. At the middle of it it was nearly
81, 100000 Our present population is
over 80, 100000. The decade from 1850
to 1860 added $4,000, the decade
1860 to 1870, embracing the war per-
iod, added only 100000, while the one
from 1870 to 1870 added about II, 000,-
| 900.
1t seems, therefore, certain, if we are
spared from war, pestilence, and fam
inc, that by the end of this century our
population Will be about rs, 100000.
By the middle of the next century, in
the year 1850 it will reach $4,000, 900,
and realize the prediction of De Toque-
Vile So that children born in 1884,
live to the age of sc years, will behold
| the United States of America q nation
of 150,000,000, and such people as
| the world has never seen.
Scotchmen, the land of your adop-
ton is the great republic of the world.
The prophets of old foresaw it was to
come. For it the good men Of all
lands and all times have longed and
| prayed. All that had preceded it pre-
! pared the way for its coming. It is the
| outgrowth and heir of all the ages.
That republic welcomes you with
open arms and a warm heart. She is
proud of you, for you bring with you
the heaviest of human brains, the stur-
diest manhood, great practical good
sense incorruptible integrity, and that
courage and patriotism that will do or
! die.
And not least are you welcome be-
because you bring with you the TO-
mances and ballads of Scotland-the
songs of Robert Burns:
| And his the music to whose tone
! The common pulse Of man keeps time,
| In cot or CASTLE mirth moan,
In cold or sunny cline.