Evening journal., 1899-10-25

people May your visit be one Of pleas
ure and profit"
In reply TO Mayor Ashbridge Mr.
Vandegrift said
Gentlemen of the National Export
Exposition: As Delawareans we have
listened with great pleasure to the well
come you have, through the mayor Of
this great city. extended to us. It is not
for me to undertake to respond to his
generous words. We have with us
others far better fitted for that duty
both by their position and abilities.
His excellency, the governor OF Del
aware, is here with us to-day, and
through him our beloved state speaks.
He will, in his expressions OF good
will, be not less generous towards the
people Of this great commonwealth
than has your honored mayor been to-
wards us. / have the pleasure to intro
duce Hon. Ebe w. Tunnel, governor of
Delaware"
The governor was cheered on every
hand as he arose to address the assem-
blage. He said:
Permit me, Mr.. Mayor, on behalf OF
the citizens OF Delaware, to express our
sincere thanks for and appreciation of
/ this kind welcome and to assure you
that we will always have pleasant
recollection of our visit to the exposi-
| ton, and OF the kind and generous
manner in which you have been
pleased to receive us.
Mr.. Vandegrift, after the applause for
the governor had died away, announced
Hon. Anthony Higgins as the next
speaker, saying: Gentlemen, in order
that you may form some just concep-
tion of our appreciation Of the well
come your mayor has extended us,
take pleasure in asking another distin-
guished son of Delaware to second the
governors remarks Let me introduce
to you Hon. Anthony Higgins"
The former senator was given a reg
ular ovation when he arose.
Mr.. Higgins said: The people OF
Delaware have always had a kind feel
/ ing for their neighbors Of Pennsylvania
and Philadelphia. When Penn came
over and Pennsylvania was born the
three counties in Delaware, an organ
lied government nearly twenty years
old, promptly annexed her. For nearly
quarter of a century thereafter We
were in a common government with
her. Laws that bound Pennsylvania
i we're enacted at New Castle and laws
that bound Delaware were enacted al
! Upland. At length, manifesting an in
l dependence which she has never dis
carded, Delaware seeded and set VI
for herself.
But the close relations between the
two communities still fingered. WhilC
each had a separate Legislature, they
were under a common proprietary gov
ernment. When Pennsylvania ejectet
John Dickinson from the Continenta
4 Congress in the midst of the revolu.
ton. he returned at once to Delaware
and we sent him back to Congress, L
adorn its halls and animate its coun
ellis.
Thomas Mexican, who signed th'
Declaration from Delaware, and wrote
e our first Constitution, became presi
dent Of Pennsylvania and then her frs
chief Justice. Delaware has always
been quick to aid Philadelphia in he
patriotic endeavors. Here independence
was declared and when the casting votl
: | for that momentOus act was needed
we gave her the vote of Rodney and o
4 Delaware. Here the Constitution o
the United States was framed, ant
Delaware was the first state to ratifl
it.
philadelphia has always been broad
1 " national in her spirit and in he
D achievements. The Centennial Exposi
ton, in 1876, was greatly conceive
: and greatly executed. It was worthy Q
I the nations birth, which 1t commemo
T. rated Her celebration of the Centen
s NAL of the framing of the Constitutio
e Of the United States in 1887, wa
+ equally worthy of that second grea
It event in the nations history
J, To-day she is again at the forefron
n In another epoch in the national pros
ress hardly less grand and importan
l, | Applying the scientific spirit an
l. method to commercial matters she ha
l. here established the Commercial MusI
e ums, and has now followed il up wit
II this commercial exposition, which W
II OF Delaware have come here to enJo
r and to honor to-day.
II while some grOpe and others phi
osophize, il is again left for Philade
J. phia to act And again as before, M
is for her alone, in no spirit of manner {
le exclusive selfshness, but in her eve
+: broad and patriotic spirit she has acte
II for the whole nation and continent.
20 'She realized what possibly has M
/: dawned upon all that American aeye
10 opment having attained its own bo
le ders, must If we are to maintain OF