The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-05-11


and Ladies and Gentlemen:
The following is the full text of the
yesterday afternoon by Capt. Samuel y.
Ashe:
No other community in the United
States is so completely and thoroughly
the development of local influences as
We, the people of North Carolina, are.
Since the Revolution we have had no
considerable accessions of population
from abroad. Our people today are des-
cendants of the men and women who
came here when our woods were I'M
broken forests, who first cleared these
fields, established their homes in the
Wilderness and subdued these native
wilds to the uses of man. The past then
is our past. AS we constitute North
Carolina today, our forbears constituted
it in their time and generation; and we
are but the natural growth developed
under the influences that surrounded
them. This thought naturally arises in
connection with the distinguished North
Carolinan whose patriotic services the
Ladies Memorial Association wish to re-
cord today He, like all of us here, was
the product of North Carolina influences
-racy of the soil, fashioned during gen.
erations by our warm sun, our clear sky,
our extensive forests; by our gentle
breeZes, and our temperate climate
which, while they make North Carolina
the most desirable region in the world to
dwell in, tend to produce the highest per-
lection in the mental moral and physi-
cal attributes of man.
century and a half ago there was
remarkable social condition existing in
that section known as the Lower Cape
Fear. Except perhaps in the peninsula
of Virginia, there was in America no
community superior to it.
There were to be found soldiers, schol-
airs, statesmen; men of wealth and learn
ing, of refinement and high culture: men
of reflection and of action; OF courage,
enterprise and resolution.
Thither came from Ireland, in 1853,
Hugh Waddell, then but nineteen years
of age. Sprung from stock of strong
characteristics, long settled in the North
of Ireland, in early youth he had come
to America with his father, who, because
of q fatal duel had found it prudent to
travel abroad and to pass a few years
in the New World. And so when his
beard began to grow young Waddell,
enamOred of America, sought a perma-
nent home in North Carolina and devel-
oped into physical manhood amid the So
cial influences of the Cape Fear.
Among the leading men of that region
was James Inniss who had been an Of
iicer Of the British Army and had earned
a wide fame for superior military attain
ments and experience; and whose en-
lightened and liberal views, manifested
by his appropriating, at that early day,
a large part of his fortune to the found
ing of public school, eminently quail
fled him to exert a beneficial influence
over the young men of the community.
When Hugh Waddell cast his fortunes
with the people Cape Fear, he
found congenial spirits among young as
sociates who, inspired by the brave and
skillful Inniss, were ready and eager to
enter upon a military career. The op-
portupity swiftly came. The French who
claimed the territory west of the ALLIE
games, had seized the site of the pres
ent city of Pittsburgh and with their In
dian allies threatened not only Penn
sylvania and Virginia, but our western
frontier, even to the remote borders of
South Carolina. North Carolina at once
raised a regiment for Innss; and the
Governor of Virginia appointed him COM
mander in chief of all the forces collect
ed to resist the invasion.
In the spring of 1854 young Waddell en-
tered the army as lieutenant in Inniss
regiment and threw his whole soul into
the war,
Four years later. as major, he COM
manded three North Carolina companies
he had carried to Virginia; and it was
sergeant of his command-John Rogers
who succeeded in taking an Indian alive,
from whom was obtained the valuable
information that led to the capture of
Fort Duquesne.
In this campaign it is narrated that
the young major dressed as an Indian.
feathers and war paint galore; and
doubtless by his example and conduct in
spired his men to action that beitted the
contest they were engaged in with the
willy foe of the forest.
When peace was won, Col. Waddell
stood primus inter pares among the gal
liant North Carolinians who had been
trained during the war in a martial
career In rank in services, in reputa-
ton and experience, he was unrivalled.
Indeed he had proved himself worthy,
because of his successes and experience,
30 take rank with the most esteemed of
our Colonial officers.
In 1865 came the stamp act troubles
and Hugh Waddell, true to the liberties
OF America stood forth among the bold
est of the patriots. When Governor
Tryon, in February, 1866, undertook to /