The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-08-23

dS was SGea lO De the CdSS e 5oou Ai'oii
 years ago, a notable effort on behalf
 of another national name was made
 and this effort became rich in propor-
 tion being fostered by our fascinating
 prose writer, Washington Irving
 Among other things he said: "We
 want a national name. We want il
 poetical and we want it political. With
 the poetical necessity of the case shall not trouble. I leave it for our
 poets to tell for thesemlves how they manage to steer that collocation ot words, the United States of America
 down the swelling tide of song and to feat the whole raft upon the sea of
 heroic poesy. I am now speaking Of
 the mere purposes of common life. How
 is a citien of this republic to designate himself, especially when he goes
 abroad? I want my own peculiar
 name I want an appelation that shall
 tell at once and in a way not to be mls- taken that I belong to this very DOT
 ton of America. geographically and
 politically, to which it is my pride and
 happiness to belong: that l am or the
 Anglo-S Saxon race which founded this Anglo-Saxon empire in the wilderness.
 (You see they then called it an empire) Such an appellation would have magic
 in 1t; 1t would bind every part together
 as a Keystone; it would be a passport
 to citizen of the republic throughout
 the world
 This was fifty or sixty years ago, be-
 fore there was much of the trans-Mis-
 sissippi country populated. We have
 much In our power" said he, "to furn- 1 ish ourselves with such national ap~ l pellation from one of the grand and
 eternal features of our country, from that noble chain of mountains which
 formed it's backbone and ran through
 the Confederation when we first form i ed our inderendence. l allude to the Allegheny mountains and l propose | that we henceforth describe ourselves as the United States of Allegheny" | This sugge stion of Washington Irv- | ing had some rather notable conse-
 quences. One was that 1t attracted the attention of a powerful organization devoted to the interests of our nation- al history, named the New York His toeical society. It was in the year lS45 in the midst of the excitement connect- ed with the annexation of Texas, that some of the younger and more aggres- sive members of that society took up this subject along Irvine's suggestion
 and for time they devoted themselves with no little energy to the task of try ! ing to persuade the United States of America to turn itself over into the United States of Allegheny.
 For example, they got the society and the whole country for a time, not being very busy with other matters just at that moment, to discuss a series of resolutions which they had brought forth, the first of which was as fol- lows: That 1t is expedient that ef- forts should now be made to unite upon specific geographical name for the country; that the name of Ale gheny be recommended as the best, considering that 1t is derived from the grandest and most useful feature com mon to the whole country, an eternal type of strength and union, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes; that 1t is associated with the most interesting portion of history, and that in adopting it We would restore to the land one Of the primordial titles of the aborigines. Now these people urged to the schools that they should use on their maps the words "the Unit ed States ot America" and that they should with them use the Republic of Aleghenia."
 You will be interested to know that these resolutions were submitted to the society by David Dudley Field, by Hen " R. Schoocraft, the famous writer on Indian topics, and Charles Fenno Hoffman, and in accord with these reeo- lutions a regular campaign was started a boom of Alleghenia, working up of public opinion in favor of that name An address was sent out by the New York society and the various other state societies suggesting the change of name and calling for expressions of public opinion on the subject Of all the an- swers returned, while many admitted objections urged against the phrase "the United States Of America" as our national name, perhaps only one ex- pressed a decided willingness to accept the proposed substitute for 1t, and even this one did so In language of apparent consent which could have been fairly called irony. "I am neither poet nor orator, but I have heart to pity the dilemma of those who are, and for their relief I wish to see some specific, brief, significant and musical name se- lected by you The phrase the United States of America is good enough for acts of congress, is good enough for the collector of customs and the crier of the district courts, but for the re- lief of poets and orators I vote for Al leghenia.'
 An answer from the southern novel; ist, William Gilmore Simms, sounded rote of warning with respect to the rid2ule which the proposal would be likely to excite. Ridicule did not fail 10 ap..ear, as may be shown by the New Jersey Historical society, which passed some resolutions, written by pr. NIholas Murray, who writes for '"The New York Evangelist" and other re- li5lous papers. The first one read: Your committee can see no urgent req son for any change in the name Of our comon country. While the name Unit | ed States of America is not as distinc- tive as ii might be, yet we have to learn that any of our citizens on for eign travel has ever found any very real difficulty in defining this country | When he states in France, England, | Germany TtnIv that he is an Ameri- |