The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-29
The Great Celebration at
Roanoke Island.
Continued from Page Al

conveniences it will offer TO facilitate
your labo9s and alleviate their difficult
ties.
A nation of ancestral pride. bound to
the mother country by cherished senti-
ments of flial devotion, chained to her
by commercial intercourse that conquers
distance and defies the ocean wave; built
upon the foundation stones quarried by
her statesmen and her lawyers, will turn
h~itherward to mark the spot that gave
birth to the first of her children Of Eng
lish parentage. A people Of religious i'm
pulse and characteristic strongest human
impulse that stirs the soul and moves the
arm of man-will turn toward you as
does the devoted Mussulman to Mecca
to pay religious homage to the spot
where the first rites of religion were per-
formed upon the soil Of their country,
under the auspices of the Christian
church. The gives of martyrdom had
been burst asunder, freedom of conscience
secured and religious liberty established,
and here in the primeval forest under the
boughs Of Gods first temples the
somber pine trees, the consecrated water
of baptism symbolized the spiritual birth
of Virginia Dare.
l. d d IdlIOu Vi I6IlSIOuS, Vii lStidIl
people, should not see in such a scene
something to merit ~perpetuation cannot
be anticipated.
This, Mr.. President, is no local meas
ure, and it's ends and aims are not local
in their tendencies. They are national.
They are broad as the nations history
and deep as the nations gratitude and
lofty as the nations destiny. The Con-
gress cannot and will not fail to see
this. It cannot fail TO see the health
full tendency of communion, which it pre-
sentS to a people once unhappily divided
in sentiments and convictions, and it
never fails to give it's helping hand to the
schemes and efforts that tend to bring
from every quarter of its
broad domain to a single shrine, to bury
and forget their differences of sentiments
and disposition to weep together over
one common bier of sorrow or swell
their happy voices in a common strain
of exultation.
Too much is to be gained along this
important line, where all our nations
efforts are enlisted always, too much
effective work may be accomplished by it
in this respect, to say nothing OF the
spirit of patriotism and traditional edu-
cation it will inculcate, to render it
reasonable for US to fear the failure of
the Congress to see it's splendid oppor-
tunity and embrace it with it's merited
liberality and patriotism. Along the
frozen coasts of Maine. where the virtue
of the Puritan fathers still survive and
their history is cherished with f1lial de-
~votion, the public mind and heart will
turn toward us and Join in every i'm
pulse and effort for our success. The
of the peaceful Friends that
coloniZed the sylvan hills that now up
hold the second city of the Union; the
offspring Of the sturdy Dutch in ancient
Amsterdam, the generations that have
arisen from the hardy handed chivairous
Frenchmen and Englishmen along the
St. Lawrence. and the Northern Lakes,
and the millions of souls that ommer-
cial conquests have turned toward
Hesperian hills of gold; will turn in COM
mon pride to share the interest in your
celebration. The descendants of the
sterling Huguenots Of South Carolina will
meet us here with the sons of the
pioneers of the pine forests of Maine, if
the Congress shall give us help and
recognition, and America from her ma
tional halls. can raise the strain of pa
triotic poesy that one of her native poets
has made a national anthem.
Together, shouts of Niagara, her thunder
tone degree,
Together c back the waves upon the
Mexic Sea.
Together sing the Silvan hills, where old
Atlantic roars,
Together across the breakers on the
wild Pacific shores,
Together shout the people, and together
it shall be.
An everlasting chartcr-bon1 forever for
the free.
IF liberty the signet ring, the one eter-
nal sign
Be these united emblems, the Palmetto
and the Pine.
| only ask to speak further, Mr.. Presi-
dent, of the fitting time and place of this
contemplated celebration as to its in
fuences on the State of North Carolina
and it's institutions. | congratulate the
State and it's citizenship upon this asso-
citation and its labors.
Nothing can more potently give impetus
to the tidal wave of popular education
that lately started from near these
classic shores that swept up against the
Blue Ridge and broke and fell back to
fertilize, enlighten and ~fructify the
thousands of humble but virtuouS homes
where the coming men and women OF
North Carolina are being reared. They
will emulate your virtues, initiate your
patriotism, follow in your literary prog
ress and as the keepers Of North caro-
lina's interest-the custodians of her
honor, will fulfill her mighty destiny.
A fitting climax to last evenings eX-
ercises was the speech of Senator f. NJ.
Simmons. The reception given him, when
he arose must have made his heart leap
with joy. 1t was the Senator's first VISIT
here. They had heard Of him though, put
he promised it would not be his last.
He spoke as fellows:
Senator F. N. Simmons on
Nations Pc TT in Celebration