The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-11-17


city. was OF a high order from both q
historical and oraior-cai point OF view,
IL was q paper that Will he read Win
Wide interest, and is here given almost
in its entirety:
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Permit me first to thank the Ladies of
the Association for the Preservation Of
Virginia Antiquities for tic invitation eX-
tended. enabling me TO be present on this
into csung occasion, and by poor words
TO feebly supplement what they have so
nohly dcne by effective !abors.
Man follows his heroes in life woman
deserts them not IN death; man warns
himself by their living power woman
chilis not by the tomb of cold obstruction.
SO noble woman has held in tender mem
CRY the great man, long neglected, whose
iife-worli she has gently led us here to-
day TO contemplate.
History begins its dismal Journey on
tie banks of the Tigris and Euphrates-
liberty takes its glorious flight from the
banks OF the James and the York. This
is inspiring ground On the banks of
these rivers and on this peninsular the
1irst American Assembly convened. the
first American jury sat the first church
was built, the first free school was estab-
Gshed here was registered the first oath
against oppression; here was born the
trees jefferson pruned tie principles of
the worlds great charter of hope; in,
these fields and wild grasses the cio-
quencc of Berry was born; here freedom
WIS achieved. When IN the years to
come, the sovereignty Of man. waich5Je-
gun here, shall haze eRcircled the earth
aid left men where il found subjects, the
avidity with which nations are to-day
digging on the banks of the Tigris and
Euphratcs for the first traces OF mans
naked existence will be as nothing to
their search here for the first glimpses of
his libeTty-adorned life.
MAN a MIGHTY FORCE.
The world will then he illumined. and
pilgrims will journey from its ends to
vicwStlle little peninsula where the light
first .hone. If YOU doubt this, reflect on
Americas position in the world to-day,
pleading, as she does, in-lnodern thought
inventive skill and industrial achieve
ment, while the powers of the old world.
dazed and Iparalyzed before her mighty
conquest, take council To resist the on
slaught What is the talisman OF this
good fortune? IS il because the air is
lourcr, the skies are bluer, tho sun bright
er here than in Europe? No. t is be-
cause man here is an integral III Gods
rclleiiie OF life. constitutional libcrt% has
made him Il sovereign. Hope and the
ambition aroused by the possibilities OF
his surroundings have made Inn 4
mighty force -...
Lord Rosebery, in a speech delivered
ut Birmingham, England, three weeks
ago said: at seems that an American
in achievement can accomplish three or
four times what q European can The
striking thing is the restless enterprise Of
The Americans, their devouring anxiety
TO improve existing machinery and meth
DDS. A disdain of finality and an anxiety
for improving on the best seems almost a
disease in America Marquis Ito. OF
Japan, the ablest oriental statesman.
says: 1T was Americans who first
aroused us from the deep slumber of CEN
turtles. Ave were crystallizins in the fos-
sils OF ancient civilization when they
warned us in time that we must either
rise to new ideals or left behind in the
race forward
The asnglshman sees it. and the man
OF the East gratefully testities to it The
individual here, through some process. is
greater than the individual there il IS
because Of what was done on this PENN
sula, the battle-ground Of liberty.
GREAT AND ORIGINAL.
The man TO whose memory yonGer
beautiful window has been dedicated was
distinctively q great and original char
acter 4 man who can in three summer
months of action achieve 4 fame, seen
of men with increasing admiration
Two hundred and twenty-five years after
wards, is no ordinary man. Nathaniel
Bacon, young planter, twenty-elSht
years Old living quietly with his wife at
Curles, on James river, in May, 1916, and
buried in an unknown grave on the York
in October is the man whom we honor
to-day. Before May he was unknown; af-
Ter October his grave was even unknown.
The vital life OF the man: so far Us his
tory is interested, is bounded by these
@stes. Before this We know tlat he came
g. ,it,,- -i.,rf Tt,.,t
he belonged to the English gentry, Was =
cousin OF Lord Culpepera and had married
81 daughter of Sir John Duke; that nc vas
COZ sidcred a man Of ability as he Was u
men Der OF The Coupcil, and that is all.
Let us glance at the causes that sum-
moned him to action the scene of his
movements. and then follow him through
these summer months
We stand at Jamestown in the last
May days over q Solcuilo. Discomfort is
IN The balmy air Oppression has Wrought
despair. Eirsiniars. could only trade
with England in English ships. Tobacco,
their currency. as all other products,
mist be exchanged in the one market for
what it would bring. and then not until
ii had borne. u castle tax cNacted befcra
1T could leave here, and another duty inl-
posed before it could land there Many
ofrthem had no say in the local govern
lnent, as the right of. suffrage had been
fbntiIitu 10 WING IllPlt' iIplt-
Tier and families. through the refusal of
The Kings governor 10 protect them, Were
at the mercy of the indians. To climax
ii ali the King had practically granted
Virginia to Two OF his most assembling
peers. The King in London did not know.
nor care to learn the needs of this colony
In. the wilderness He looked to the ir7,-
mediate wealth that it might produce-ilot
to the strength and happiness that might
Dc. fnstered there.
BERKELEY AND HIS DEVOTION.
This mlsgovernmcnt was reflected in me
personality of the Kings governor, Sir
William Berkeley, cavalier in lace and
velvet, suaSe and polite, and Within the
circle OF his own environment an elegant
gentleman. gracious and sympathetic; be-
You'd that environment, hideous bisot--
cold and cruel. Devoted TO King ana,
Church. his belief IN the divine right of
the one was only equalled by his devotion
TO the single ecclesiastical right of the |
other. He was now grown old ana he
had lived through the sfluGderinr events
which sent one king to the block and am
other heipleasiy wandering throuc4, 1s,i-