Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-07-12
PROF. AI.DERMAN'S ADDRESS.


is no higher duty devolving on
faithful States than to preserve
| freshly the memory of their great
events and their noble men. And
it is not simply a duty. 1t is a
condition of national greatness
and the sumblimest evidence of
moral energy latent in demo
cratic communities. The most
splendid manifestation Of the
awakening of historical self re-
spect in North Carolina, and of
born pride in her heroic
past, is this scene before our
eyes-these earnest, upturned
faces, with the unspol1en music
of liberty on their lips; this
lovely landscape filed with the
glory of mid summer; these vo-
tive stones croWning hilltop and
valley, marking the rescue of a
great American battlefield from
the silent forest; this transfor-
nation, by patriotic energy, of
all unl1empt wilderness into a
grand Pantheon for our honored
dead, more impressive than the
marble memorials of Rome or
France, because it's roof is the
arch OF the sky and its pillars
these stately oaks sweeping the
upper air.
1T is no slight thing to have
such a spot as this IN the borders
of State.
Here our fathers dared to die
that we, their children, might be
free.
The majestic charm which in
vests the Marathons and Water
loos and Yorktowns- all spots
where human freedom has made
a stands beginning to settle
over this lovely plain where our
embattlcd farmers stood. Here
| tOfore the theme of this great
day has been some brave North
Carolinian who illustrated her
valor in arms. To-day, for the
first time, we meet to tell the
story Of a civic hero, to witness
tie Inauguration of a monument
to him and his colleagues, and to
account faithfully the life and
character of one whose clear.
bold signature to the Declaration
of Independence writes the name
of VIM. Hooper where all nations
may behold it and all time cannot
etface it.
THE HOOPER FAMILY.
The Hooper family is an an-
cient and honorable one in Eng
| liSh and Scotch annals. The
founder Of the American branch
of the family was the Rev. VIM.
| Hooper, of Boston, for twenty
lyears pastor Of Trinity church.
| .'Wm. Hooper, whose life is
Jour theme. was the eldest son
and child of this brave old Scotch
minister, and was born in Boston,
June II, 1742.
I'm the fall Of 1867 when liber-
ty was flaming like a beacon over
;. the land, Hooper came to North
Carolina to make his permanent
home. He was in his 25th year,
a graduate Of Harvard, thrilling
with the eloquence of Otis and
Samuel Adams, happy in the
choice of his new home, blessed
with youth and vigor in the
brilliant dawn of a revolutionary
era.
NORTH CAROLINA AS WILLIAM
HOOPER FOUND IT.
''North Carolina had known
one hundred years of stormy
political existence at this time
Two hundred and fifty thousand
people occupied the territory be
: tween the Cape Fear, the Chowar
and the Catawba and Yadkin. L
was a composite population EN-
bracing the strongest strains o1
many stocks and uniting every
type of race character in North
ern and Western Europe-Teu
ton, Celt, Saxon. =
; MANY scholarly men like
John Fiske, James Gilmore ane
Henry Cabot Lodge have sneerec
at and belittled the first century
of North Carolina history. They
!. will have to bear in days to come
: the reproach of having missed
the thread of political develop
, ment in the freest Commonwealth
in North America. The key tx
! North Carolina character in thi:
: inchoate period is the subordi
nation of everything -materia
prosperity, personal ease, finan
. cial development--to the remorse
, less assertion of the sacrednes'
!. of chartered rights against th'
? insolent encroachment of tn
: carbet- bag -consuls of tn
: royal and proprietary govern
? lments.
I s'Something of the frenziet
berseker rage and wild, dauntles
! individuality of their barbarian
= forefathers shouting along tn
: frontiers of imperil Rome mani
T tested itself in the ruthless cas-
with which the early Carolinian
! larose and set aside a tyrannica
. ruler, laughed in his baf1ed fac
and accounted the threat and tn
q tmutterings of his master acros
q the seas as of no more .impor
;. than the plants of ballad
: singer. If in their remotnes
f and isolation our ancestors eve
y stayed into lawlessness, it wa
i the light struck from isolate,
q law by the mailed hand of op
tpression that led them astray.