Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-01
CENTENNIAL GRAFTON


first launched on her great experimental
voyage.
We gaze with patriotic pride upon the
grand rivers which flow from state to
state, as they bear upon their
bright broad bosoms the white-winged
| messengers of commerce, but how sell
dom do our thoughts dwell upon the
so urces from which these blessings
flow.
We see the fiery s.eeds of heaven fly
ing with electric hoofs, placing in close
communication state with state, but who
thinks of the inventor of telegraph?
Great parallel lines of steel make the
track for the iron horse that rushes heed
less of danger and fearless of opposition,
tains, bringing together the surging bill
lows of the Atlantic and the golden
sands of the Pacific, making possible the
statue of Christopher Columbus
should be placed upon the highest
peak of the Rocky mountains, with the
whole mountain as the pedestal, while
with face and arm turned toward the
west, it should seem to say to the flying
traveller
L i
But who thinks of the originator of the
steam engine? Great discoveries in ap-
piled sciences are almost daily being
utilized for the benefit of man-but
whose thoughts turn TO the discoverer!
Great problems of human government
have been worked out by the brain of
man-constitutional liberty has been
Decentralization has come to dwell
in our midst, and it seems now as If the
science of popular government would be
proved upon scale TO which the Ro-
man republic was but a mere prov
ince, for already the national ban
ner floats over more square leagues of
land, than did that of Rome after seven
centuries of growth. but who thinks
often enough of Washington. Adams,
Hamilton. Franklin, Madison, and their
distinguished colleagues, through whose
patient intellectual labors this great re-
public was founded:
Tonight it is our duty to look back
over the century's growth, and 10 reflect
upon the path the republic has been fol-
lowing for an hundred years-from the
period of President Washington. to the
times of President Harrison-from the
Inauguration of the ruler of thirteen
states, whose president was installed in
Office here SO many years ago by parade
of 800 soldiers. to this magnificent CEN
tennial celebration of the event by forty
two states, and a procession OF $4,000
troops.
Let us then, with grateful emotion.
greet the memories of the men whose
profound knowledge enabled them 10
construct a government of states, which
in turn, by their representatives, encir-
cled she states themselves by a national
constitutional girdle.
The rights of the states, and the
powers of the general government were
defined, SO that the security of the
states is the safety of the union, and the
safety of the union is the security of the
states.
Upon yon star spangled banner each
state is star, so similar in appearance
and right of presence there, that no man
in this splendid audience can go to their
beds of blue and point out the star that
represents Indiana, from that represent
ing the great Empire state of New York.
In the great dome above, the heavenly
orbits may differ in magnitude, motion
and periodic revolution, but the paths
are fixed and their laws immutable.
The states differ in size, In commercial
prosperity, and / may say IN their
periods of revolution, but the laws of
the United States are the same for each,
and their motions, though IN some Of
the states at times eccentric, must
always be equal, if we desire to preserve
intact our American constellation.
Should the central body, the light of
which constitutes day, and its absence,
night, around which the earth and the |
planets revolve, and by which they are |
held in their orbits, and from
which comes light and heat, |
do move" as Brother Jasper |
of Richmond, says, and, moving too
much, march into the orbits of the |
planets, eternal chaos would follow or |
should the planets depart from their |
routes, and break well known laws, |
eternal ruin would result.
The federal head in our system of gov
eminent is the sun: the states, the /
planets; the first is regulated by dele
gated powers-the second exercises all |
rights not given to the first, except |
those specifically prohibited If the
states break from their orbits and en-
croach upon the national government |
disaster and ruin follows; il the national
government invades the reserved rights
Of the states. calamity comes; so that
observance on the part of both, of this
article 10 of the amendments TO the con-
stitution, assures the liberties of the
people.
The republic of today should be the
republic of the fathers-the United
States of 1899, under our present dis
81 ~, 30 ~ he
.he United States of 1s41 and 1889, when
the scepter Of power was in the hands OF
. William Henry Harrison and George
Washington.
May it so continue, and may the con-
est hereafter, between the states, be,
ior the promotion of commerce and civil
ization, the progress Of agricultural and
manufacturing wealth. and the develop
uent of the arts and sciences, while each
i:ate is laboring at the same time 20 pro-
note the common glory of the United
states. Then may we hear the harmo-
Nous invocations from forty-two hearts,
scending to our fathers God, sweeping
nto the heavens and rising above the
tars. that state shall not lift up its sword
.gainst state, neither shall they know
var any more, and that the reign OF
,eace, union and fraternity shall be as
asting as the home Of the stars-as eter-
lal as the foundations Of the everlasting
lilIs-and in your harbor here, Liberty
the world. join the swell
ng anthem, and proclaim 10 her subjects
that the problem Of free,
,opular and constitutional government,
as been solved upon the American con-
inent
The dog tax law IS IN force today and all :
ozs not licensed by the 10th viii be liable
0 confscation.