The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-09-15
sword of Charles XII, across the page of

sword of Charles XII, across the page Of
II med och mot gang lila,
Sin lyekas ''Ofverman,
Han kunde icke vlka,
Blot falla kunde ham,"
When we read of the mighty deeds Of the
Swedes, 1t Is difficult TO believe that they
nave been performed by a nation nu-
numerically so small. Sweden to-day
contains less than 100000 inhabitants.
At the height of its grandeur, under
Gustayus Adolphus and his generals,
when It was one Of the great powers Of the
world, Sweden with all its conquered prov
inees, Finland included, only numbered two
mililons and half With truth can 1t be
SAID, tnat, IN comparison to their numbers,
the Swedes have made grander campaigns,
fought more battles and gained more victor
les, than any other nation on tho globe.
But Sweden has other great names besides
her kings and her warriors. Berzelius, ,"WhO
elevated chemistry from a black art, to an
exact science" Linnaeus, king Of botan-
lists, the greatest naturalist of his age. whose
fame is bounded but by the civilized world.
times, to whose mystic teachings, we today
in America build temples. In prose lltera-
ture Fredrika Bremen and Victor Rydberg
In poetry Tegner, Runeberg and Bellman.
In both Topelius. And need speak Of where
Sweden stands in music and song, when
tured with the singing Of Christine Nilsson,
or perhaps listened to the Swedish nlghtin-
gale herself-Jenny Lind.
But we wonder not at the grand achieve
ments of the Swedes when we remember
from what stock they are sprung. Through
out all ages, Scandinavia has been the home
of a race Of heroes. A thousand years ago
there sailed out of the creeks and fjords Of
Scandinavia fleet Of Viking ships, manned
with the brayest sailors the world had ever
seen. How suddenly and terribly those
Northmen-Swedes, Norwegians and Danes
burst upon civilized Europe in the Middle
Ages. They conquered every foe they met,
they subdued every province they SEE foot
withstand the wild fury of their attack.
They conquered Normandy, they oyerran
England, Ireland and Scotland they fought
and routed the Moors in Spain; they sailed
past the the ''Pillars Of Hercules, !, they har-
ried the whole coast Of the Mediterranean,
and their victorious forays stopped only at
gates of the holy city Jerusalem. They
fought, in very truth, for victory or death"
and they cared little which, for victory
brought them the joys Of conquest, death,
The civilized world stood aghast at the
wild attacks of these sea kings Of the North,
and the churches throughout Christendom
incorporated into their liturgies, the plous
prayer:
"A furore Nomanorum
LIBERIA nos, Domino"
But these gallant sailors Of the far North
land, did more than conquer and destroy.
They sailed boldly out upon the broad At
lantic. With no compass, with not even a
tradition TO direct them, but guided by the
stars In their courses they crossed the vast
ocean; their storm-tOssed ships first sailed
our western seas their feet, first OF white
men, trod the shores Of America. And all
this 500 years before Columbus discovered
the islands on our southern coast.
And there are greater obligations Of a later
date which place America under debt Of
gratitude to the Northland. When our fore
fathers rose in arms TO throw off the yoke Of
Great Britain; In that long struggle Of the
let not America forget that nextafter our ally,
France, 1t was the gallant little kingdom Of
Sweden, that, first among the nations OF the
world, recognized our newborn Republic,
made with us a treaty Of friendship, and
welcomed us into the great sisterhOod Of
nations.
We, Of this generation, can never
forget the incidents Of the great American
rebellion, that titanic contest that for. four
years ragged over this continent.
We can never forget our bright
days Of victory. We can never forget
our dark and gloomy days of defeat and dis
aster, when everything that was dear and
sacred to us as nation, seemed trembling
memorable morning, when the rebel ram,
Merrimac, steamed out OF Norfolk harbOr,
and, with her PROV OF iron, came down up
on our wooden walls" Of defence, lying al
anchor at Hampton Roads. How cruelty
that monster iron clad gored one after the
other Of our brave ships to the death, while
the shot from our cannon. ratified OF hel
| coat Of mail, harmless as hail-st0nes. How
| bravely went down the good uhip Cumber.
land with the stars and stripes still floating
| fr0m her mast head and with three hundred
| immOrtals on board, who fred the last
broadside as the waters Of the ocean poured
into the muZzles Of their guns. Then
| all was terror and CONSERVATION. Tel
to New York, Boston and Portland,to al
| our maritime cities, THE Merrimac has
escaped. She has broken the blockade She
has sunk the bravest ships Of our navy. We
| have nothing that can cope with her. Take
care OF yourselves, we cannot protect you. =
recollect well how the news was rec eived
| In Portland. How our citizens 0nsulted
| together. How 1t was proposed to construct
| RATS OF long lumber, and chain them across
| the entrance Of our harbor, to save, II posi-
BILE our beautiful city by the sea from the
shot and shell Of this rebel monster. For a
few short hours, that rebel ram was" Mistress
Of the Seas"
Then what! A little nondescript craft
comes steaming in from the ocean, "a Yankee
cheese-box on raft 1t was called in derlsion
But she steams straight for the Merrimae,
the big turret, the cheese box begins to re-
volye, the big guns are run out. and the big
cannOD-DallS are hurried, one after the other,
with crushing effect against the mailed ar
NOR of the confederate cruiser. The contest
was long; the fight was hard; but at its
close this rebel ruler Of the waves, crippled,
disabled and defeated, was glad to crawl out
OF the fight to roam the seas no more.
Now, myi friends, all this is as familiar
to you as. household words; but let us
not forget that the inventive genius, who
planned and built and gave us the Monitor
| that apparently insignificant means Of de.
| fence, which in that hour, under God, was
| the salvation of our navy, our blockade, and
| our prestige on the seas, let US not forget,
| say, that he, the inventor Of the Monitor wa:
| no American born, but the Swede, JohI
| Ericsson, the son Of a Swedish miner. bOrr
and bred in miners hut in the backwood:
| of Old Sweden.
We Americans welcome all Christian
people to the magnificent battle Of life on
| this vast new continent, where, with equal
rights for all, honest labor meets with its
surest and best rewards. We welcome all TO
share in our goodly heritage where, as a
Maine poet has said, they may have:
equal voice in making laws,
Equal peers to try each cause,
Peasants homestead mean and small
Sacred as the Monarch's hail."
Yet, let us never forget that there Is nc
people to whom we owe a warmer welcome
than to that gallant race Of the far North.
land, whose first permanent settlement on
our shores, a quarter Of a thousand years
ago, is to-day commemorated and honored.