The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-07-05
Lewis Gives the Grafton.

OF every age and race and clima
Behold. the promised days are near.
AurorRl on the hills of timer
Lewis Gives the Grafton.
After a selection by the band the gov
ernor introduced James Hamilton Lewis.
who was greeted with round after round
of applause as he started TO speak. He
commenced:
81 come to you as one who, foregoing
the vanity so naturally chargeable against
him, assumes to fill the place of the emf
nent gentlemen whose names attracted
you. 1 refer to Hon. A. X. Delaney and
my personal friend. that prince of orators,
Hon. S. II. Piles. Suffering in common
with you the loss of these gentlemen, and
conscious as I must be of the disadvantage
the subject of the day suffers placed in my
keeping. I can but say in the words of
Henry the Fifth:
Pardon. gentles all.
The fat upraised spirit. that hath dared
Bring forth so great an object
Upon so unworthy a scaffold.'
Il congratulate you and welcome you,
citizens of the country, upon being with
rs on this suspicious but inclement day.
TO you who, l observe. have come from
your native English soil. say welcome.
While you shall hear references 10 the
once despotism of your early nation you
will also be reminded that In hallowfng
this day we glorify you for the hour when
your fathers forced John Lakeland to yield
UP on the field of Runnymede that charta
of liberties, which as the Magma Charta
has ever been the palladium of liberty to
every English-speaking people meath the
sun.
1--WE all recall those lines of Fletcher of
Saltoun's famous saying. Let me write
the songs of a nation, and care not who
writes her laws
To-day 1t is given me to join in the eter-
nal chorus of my country. her endless
song of liberty. freedom and greatness.
Desiring in no wise to depart from the
ancient and honored custom of arraying
the grandeur of my people. I nevertheless
fancy that the occasion shah be an apology
itself for my divergence in this respect,
while I ask the citizens OF my republic,
what Of your country Forsaking the con-
slderation OF her eminence in her institu-
tons, I call you TO witness rather her ma
terial achievements and the contrast OF
her situations with all the countries of the
earth.
I'm an age of the wonders which encircle
us in invention. art and improvement. we
pause to contemplate our land, and be ap-
palled with it's magnitude and overcome
with the history of its results. We say
with the philosopher today:
"'We are living. we are dwelling,
In a grand and awful time:
In an age on ages telling.
To be living is sublime
'sOr as Emerson has well spoken: we
live In a new and exceptional age. Amer
lea is another name for opportunity. Our
whole history appears like last effort OF
the Divine Providence in behalf OF the hu-
man race
Grandeur of the Republic.
I'VE entered the first union OF states
with the odd number thirteen. OF an area
OF goOo square miles. We have now forty
eight states and territories, stretching
over 2 600 square miles. An area which
the immortal Gladstone was pleased TO an
nounce was the natural base for the great
est continuous empire ever established by
man. More square miles by hundreds OF
thousands than in the whole Chinese en-
pire: and 100000 OF people can be sus-
tanned on our farm land without increas-
ing one foot In size a single farm or adding
numerically TO their number. From this
IS plain the deduction that we are prepared
IA feed A population OF 1000 ooo0o0 souls
The dimensions of some single states ana
territories bewiider our thoughts. DIR
strong I refer 10 as my guide 10 this
thought:
washington. II laid on the map Of Eu-
-a~A would extend from London across
France and over Spain. tapping Italy. New
Mexico is larger than the United Kingdom
OF Great Britain and Ireland. and " old
Texas could fall on her face and hatten
her form over Europe. with her head rest
ing on tn. mountains OF Norway cast OF
the orkney Islands with ore palm OF her
hand covering London and the other War
gnv~ she would be the stretched across
Denmark. Germany. Austria, covering
Northern italy, ard laying her feet in the
tides OF the Mediterranean
Nothing less than fancy ran compre-
bend how the country has been threaded
BY the telegraph. scanned wsth railroads.
while az every mans door il his mail
thrown. as though IL were whisper from
a fried 20 another.
.sEn 10 We had only seventy-fiys post
Offices and $50 miles OF post roads; we
Carried It's p.a.l O. bQ.sslas1s AID tie