St. Paul daily globe., 1886-10-29


the conversion of the rebel to patriotic citi-
zenship. The rays from this torch illuminate
century or unbroken friendship between
France and the United States. Peace and it's
opportunities for material progress and the
expansion OF popular liberties sends from
here fruitful and noble lesson to all the
world. 1t will teach the people of all coun-
tries that in curbing the ambitions and dynas-
Cc purposes or princes and privileged classes,
ana IN cultlvating the brotherhood of man,
lie tne true road to their enfranchsment.
THE FRIENDSHIP OF INDIVIDUALS,
their unselfish devotion to each other their
Willingness TO die in each others stead, are
the most tender and touching of human rec
ords. They are the inspiration of youth and
tne solace or age. But nothing human is so
Deauuful and sublime as two great peoples of
alien race and language transmitting down
the ages love begotten in gratitude and
strengthening as they increase in power and
assimiate in their institutions and liberties.
The French alliance which enabled
US TO win our independence is the romance
OF history. 1t overcame improbabilites, i'm
possible in fiction, and it's results surpaSs the
dreams of imagination. The most despotic
OF kings, surrounded by the most exclusive
of feudal aristOcracies sending fleets and
armies officered by the scions of the proudest
OF nobility to fight for subjects in revolt and
the liberties or the common people is para
dox beyond the power of mere human
energy to have wrought or solved. TIE
march of the medieval chivalry across our
states, res pecting persons and property as
soldiers never had before never taking an
apple or touching fence rail, without per-
mission and payment, treating the ragged
CoEtinentals as if they were knights in armor
and of noble ancestry, captivating our
grandmothers by their gallantry and our
grandfatherS by their courage, remains un-
equalled III the poetry of war. AS the GEN.
turIes roll by and in the fullness of time the
rays of lberty's torch are
BEACON LIGHTS OF THE WORLD,
the central inches in the earth's pantheon of
freedom will be filed by the figures Of Wash
ngton and Lafa cite. The story of this
young French mobiles life is the history of
the time, which made possible this statue
and his spirit is the very soul of this celebra-
tion."
Here the speaker gave brief biography
or sketch of Lafayette, of his cnivalric re-
solve to aid the colonies in their struggles
against Great Britain and of the obstacles
which he overcame in order to make tender
OF his services to Washington. and added:
It's idle now to speculate whether our faith
ers could have succeeded without the French
lance. The struggle would undoubtedly
have been infinitely prolonged and probably
compromised. But the alliance
ASSURED OUR TRIUMPH
and Larayette secured the alliance. The
tabled Argosies OF the Orient and Arnadas,
and fleets of modern times, were common
place voyages, compared with the mission
enshrlned in this inspired boy.
MIR. DepeW next gave brilliant and elo-
quent resume of the events of the Revolu-
tiOnary war. subsequent to the arrival of
Lafayette, the friendship which sprang up
between him and Washington the surrender
OF Burgoyne, Lafayette's return on leave of
9helUP1 tn Franco hriD hoe no ufyT
Of Rochambeau and the fleet of DeGrasse,
and continued:
The flower of the young arstocracy of
France in their brilliant uniforms and the
farmers and f7ontersmen of America in
their faded contiuentals, bound by a common
baptism of blood, became brothers in the
knighthood of liberty, with emulous eager
ness to be first in at the death while they
shared the glory. They stormed the redoubts
at Yorktown and compelled the surrender of
CORVALLIS and his army. While this practi-
csl'v ended The war, it strengthened the bond
md cemented the friendship between the two
great people. When an officer from Gen.
Carlton, the British commander-in-chef,c came
to headquarters with an offer of peace and in
dependence, if the Americans would renouuce
the French alliance, Washington refused to
receive him. Congress Spurned Cartons Sec
retary bearing a like message, and the states,
led by Maryland, denounced all VINO enter
tanned propositions of peace, which were not
approved by France as public enemies. And
PEACE WITH INDEPENDENCE
meant prosperity and happiness to people in
the very depths of poverty and despair.
France, on the other hand, though sorely
pressed for money, said in the romantic spirit
which permeated this wonderful union: ''Of
the n, 100000 livreS we have loaned you. we
forgive you g. 90, 900 as gift of friendship
and when with yea rs there comes a prosper
itv- vnU1 nAn nov hn hal yUifh inf >
The fight for liberty in America was over
Its future here was threatened with
but one danger, the slavery of the negro.
The soul of Lafay ette purified by battle and
suffering. saw the inconsistency and the point,
and he returned to this country to plead with
state legislatures and with congress for the
liberation of what he termed my brethren,
the blacks. But now the hundred years for
liberty in France was to begin. America was
its inspiration. Lafayette its apostle and the
returning French army its eniissaries
Beneath the trees by day and in
the halls at night, at Mount Vernon, Lafay-
cite gathered from Washington the gospel
Of freedom. Itwas to sustain and guide him
in after years against the temptations of
power and the despair OF the dungeon. He
carried the lessons and the grand example
through all the trials and tribulations of his
desperate struggle and partial victory for the
enfranchisement of his country. To-day in the
gift by one, and the acceptance by the other,
of this colossal statue, the people of the two
countries celebrate their unity i'll repu bIcan
institutions, in governments founded upon
THE AMERICAN IDEA,
and, in their devotion to liberty. Together
they rejoice that its spirit has pervaded all
lands anu is the hopeful future of all people,
The descendants of Lafayette. Rochambeau,
DeGrasse, who fought for years in our first
struggle, and Laboulaye, Henri Martin, De-
Lesseps and the other grand and brilliant men,
whose eloquent voices and powerful SYM
pathies were with us IN our last, conceived the
idea and it has received majestic form and
expression through the genius of Bartholdi.
The orator touched upon the monuments
and symbols of other nations and times and
added:
'sBut they were all dwarfs in size and pig
mics in spirit beside this mighty structure
and it's inspiring thought. Higher than the
monument in Trafalgar Square, which COM
memorates the victory of Nelson on the seas,
higher than the column Vendome, which per-
petuates the triumphs of Napoleon on the
land higher than the tower of the Brooklyn
bridge, which exhibits the latest and grandest
results Of science, invention and industry,
this statue of liberty rises toward the heavens
to
ILLUSTRATE AN IDEA,
which nerved the 800 at Thermopyler and
armed the 10000 at Manhattan. which drove
Taruuiu from Rome and aimed the arrow of
Tell which charged with Cromwell and his
Ironsides and accompanied Sidney to the
block, which fired the farmers gun at Lex
ington and razed the bastile in Paris, which
inspired the charter in the cabin of the May
flower and the declaration of independence
from the continental congress" He con-
cluded as follows:
II devoutly believe that from the unseen
and the unknown two great souls have come
to participate in this celebration. The faith
in which they died fulfilled, the cause for
which they battled triumphant the people
they loved in the full enjoyment of the rights
for which they labored and fought and suf-
fered, the spirit voices of Washington and
Lafayette join in the glad acclaim Of France
and the United States to Liberty enlightening
the world
The audience sang "Old Hundred" and
the benediction was pronounced by Right
Rev. Henry c. Potter d. ID. A national
salute from the guns of all the forts and
all the men, -of-war in the harbor, closed
the exercises. Three batteries took part i'll
the salute of 100 guns fired from the bat
terv at the moment of the unVeiling OF the