The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-07-27
Hon. Il. S. Ward on the Tolls
And Struggles of the Colonists.

The undertaking of it's people to rescue
from the depths of fate and from the
oblivion of time the testing incidents
and episodes of nations birth and
early life, can never fail to awaken a
grateful recognition and most liberal re-
Spouse from the government of a nation
whose mission is to foster patriotism,
cherish public virtue and build its last
ing monuments in the education and
character of its citizenship. When, there
fore, the labors of the North Carolina
Historical Association were turned to-
ward the resurrection and perpetuation
of the scenes of buried history that 400
years of national progress and develop
inent have left to the half forgotten
sands of Roanoke Island, and to sleep
beneath the crest of her eternal waters
the hopes and aspirations of Sir Walter
Raleigh, the daring spirit of Sir Hum
phrey Gilbert and the tolls and trials
of Amadas and Barlowe-what doubt
could ever linger in the mind of one
who had witnessed the pride and magma
nimity of this government, that that
association had commenced a labor in
whose fulfllment this nation had a part
and having it would most graciously and
and most literally maintain it? Who
that has seen. as all of us have SEEN
a nations pride swell with the memory
of the trials and struggles of Plymouth
Rock, the failures and successes of
jamestown and the never failing zeal of
all her colonies. could ever fail to hope
that this nation, whose destiny is writ
ten in the heart and character of her
people, would ever withhold the voice of
encouragement and the hand of help,
when the exalted character, the ndomi-
table courage, the unselfish devotion and
the lofty patriotism of Sir Walter Raj
cigh and the hardshps, the trials and
struggles of his men were the objects of
your preserving care? No other Eng
lish settlement, nor any effort at one,
through all the days of her primeval
growth, more richly merits our. nations
grateful recognition for the qualities of
noble self-sacrificing manhood and char
acter enlisted in the dangerous enter
prise and for the impress it has left on
the hearts and character of her people;
for whether we be descendants of the
cavaliers that rode with Rupert or the
offspring of the humbleSt emigrant that
sought our shores to escape the tyranny
of his native land, there is hardly an
American citizen who is proud of our in
situations, devoted to our flag and loyal
to our policies, who would not trace
with pride his genealogy to these men
and times, and seek to reflect in himself
the qualities of manhood and character
that In them were made immortal. No
ration which, like ours, has no higher
mission than the inculcation and inspira-
ton of honorable pride and patriotism
and devotion to it's honorable traditions
DI,.,
be expected to sit silent as an organized
entity and fail to throw it's hand and
heart with all the fullness of it's power
into the completion and perfection of
this enterprise.
Ours, thank God, is not of the nations
whose only glory is in her trumphs OF
brutal force, her martial exploits, her
battles, her cOnquests. Hers is not the
part to spend its Civilizations in poems
sung to the triumph of her armies with
banners" A higher and a nobler mis-
sion was assigned her by the God of
nations-the education, the elevation and
the lasting betterment of her people. The
commemoration of those incidents and
episodes that are born in the highest
conceptions of life and duty and are in
tended to make man greater. better and
happier and stimulate better motives
loftier character and higher intellect, is
among the highest ends and aims of a
cultured and enlightened representative
government like our own.
Whcn therefore. Mr.. President, in the
progress of your labors, the hour Of
need shall come your nation in its or
sanic entity will take its part and a
most potential part, in your celebration;
not in glittering generalities of senti-
ment and words of glowing compliment
only, but in practical reality, manifested