The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1891-1893, 1892-05-21

that one could march on foot from Cuha
across Asia to Spain, but never landed
upon North America nor susnected the
existence of the Pacific ocean
lhese terrible historical critics 90 fur
ther still, and I will read you what the
last of them, Mr.. Justin Winsor, libra
ran OF Harvard university, says in this
very quadrl-centennial year which we
are about to celebrate by the Chicago
ia'r, upon the death of Christopher Co.
lumbus.
we have seen pitiable man meet a
Pltiaoie death. Hardly name in pro-
Zane history is more august than his.
hardly another character in the world s
record has made so little of it's opportu-
mites. His discovery was blunder. his
blunder was new world. the new world is
his monument. Its discoverer might
have been its father; he proved to be it's
despoiler. He might have given its
young days such a benignity as the
world likes to associate with maker
he left it legacy of devastation and
crime. He might have been an unselfish
promoter of geographical science; he
proved a rabid seeker for gold and vice
royalty. He might have won converts
to the fold of Christ by the kindness of
his spirit; he gained the execrations of
the good angels. He might. like Las
Casas, have rebuked the tiendishness of
his contemporaries; he set them an ex-
ample of perverted belief. The triumph
II Barcelona led down to the ignominy
OF Valladolid, with every step in the
degradation palpable and resultant"
Does anything survive in all this wreck
of famous reputations2
Yes. There is tomb at Mount Yer
non where one of the mighty dead lies in
peace, with honor.
The historians have now done their
best and their worst. Thank God. we
know at last that the Father of his Coun,
try has left to the children and the chill
dren's children of this great nation
through all generations the priceless leg
acy of pure, unsullied name. GEORGE
Washington, John Adams and his son.
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison. ito
name no more)-all these among the
great founders of mighty State, all
these, the first leaders of our still con
tending political parties, retain their
title to our reverence as to our pride, to
our esteem as to our admiration. The
whole record of their long, laborious
lives has been exposed, upturned, pub
ilshed, and not one syllable of shame.
! 1t is the SANDER of envous or ambi
tlous rivals which the record has ex
posed-to their shame. 1t is the hideous
revilings, the ceaseless calumnies of some
partisan newspapers, on both sides, which
have been shrveled up and burnt away
IN the glare OF modern investigation.
1t is the credulity of opposing parti
sans, sectarians, bigots, which the muse
of history now mocks with her wise
smile.
Fellow citizens of North Carolina, fel.
low citizens of Mecklenburg, l congrat-
Mate you especially that there is some
thing else which the tooth of time has
wholly spared.
| congratulate you that after all the
researches of their contemporaries then
historians and their critics, here, too, you
can hold fast and keep forever undis-
turbed your veneration for the ''grey
forefathers of the State" and all your
pride IN the authentic precursors of
American independence
Grant for a moment the very utter
most that anybody ever tried to prove to
unsettle the verdict of the North Caro-
lima historian
Has it ever occurred to you to inquire
what it amounts to Nothing at all, or
nothing but this-that your forefathers
were less than fortnight later in being
still by more than a year in advance of
all as the forerunners, the precursors OF
American independence.
Which one of the original thir-
teen States, finding such a rec.rd
as that among its archives, never
questioned, indisputable, authentic
and contemporaneous, would not re-
gard the Mecklenburg Resolves of the
31st of May as a perfect title to all that
was ever claimed for North Carolina's s
sons as the forerunners of American in
dlspeneence2 Let every other page of your
annals perish, and then would not the
old Bay State9 would not the Empire
State? would not the Keystone State
would not old Virginia. if that remain
ing record belonged to eithar one of
them, instead of belonging, as it does, by
an unchallenged title, to the old North
State, proclaim it the very Koh-i-noor
among all the jewels of American liberty
Turn it in every light and it blazes
with an incomparabl lustre
[ lately turned over some few of the
leaves of controversy.
glanced at the famous correspond.
ence of John Adams and Thomas Jeffer-
son over the Raleigh Register, in theil
old age, in their renewed confidence and
mutual regard. just one short lustrum OF
seven years before ''the Colossus of the
Revolution" and the Author of the Dec
laration Of Independence united to cele-
hrate together on the 4th of July, 1926,
by their joint exit from the life of this
world and their joint entrance upon the
life TO come, the semi centennial ami
versary of American Independence.
looked over Peter Forces American
Archives, and turned a page or two OF
your own State records.
And found time to read the paper
OF the all accomplished President Well
ing, of Columbian University at Wash
ington, upholding as your highest pride
tne resolves of May 31st.
| was looking to see what emerged
from all that dust