Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-09-12

PROUD HISTORY
Of BUCKEYE
STATE
OHIO CELEBRATION AT
JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION
JudSon Harmon Declares In
Favor Of Each Common
wealth Wrestling With Its
Own Problem Of Regulating
Wealth.


Norfolk, Va, Sept. 11.--Ohio day
was celebrated at the jamestown ex-
position today with appropriate cere-
monies. Governor Andrew L. Harris
and host of distinguished visitors
from the Buckeye state took part in
the ceremonies. The principal address
of the day was delivered by the Hon.
Judson Harmon, of Cincinnati. Mr..
Harmon said:
There are no states at whose cele-
brations Ohio is not a fitting guest.
From those older than herself came
the men and women who opened her
soil to the sunshine and replaced the
shifting wigwams of the savages with
the fixed habitations of civilization
from which sprang the commonwealth
which senes US here.
80 the younger states Ohio has
given her sons and daughters to do
the like for them SO that, besides
the bonds of race and political fellow
ship, she is joined forever to the 9TH
er members of the American union by
the closer ties of kinship. Wherever
she goes 1t is either to the abodes of
her forbears or to those of her Off
spring, and in both she is equally at
home, because she has proved worthy
Of her descent and is proud of her
descendants.
'The various peoples of the earth,
as they now exist, had their origin in
migrations. These were sometimes in
masses, sometimes as individuals,
sometimes as conquerors expelling or
absorbing existing inhabitants, some
times as settler of untenanted regions;
IN nlo
ing. to others as a blight. But never
In the history of the world, not even In
that of our own country, was there
such migration, or one with such
result as that which in little more
than a century had founded and per-
fected the state which honors me to-
day as one Of her Representatives.
Secured as part of the new repub-
lie at the close of the revolution by
sagacity and craftsmanship of the
highest order. the region bounded by
the Ohio, the lakes and the Missis-
sippi lay a wilderness awaiting des-
tiny which Washington and Jay alone
foresaw. The then three greatest ma
tions of the earth had partly explored
II and had battled and treated about
it, but only as an incident to things
thev all thought more important
THE few settlements made here and
there along its chief waters were
merely posts for traffic with the In
dans. It was too distant for thought
of general occupation by civilized
men. King George had forbidden all
attempts to settle 1t and, revoking all
rights of the colonies under their
charters. had made it part of Canada.
After receiving control Of it con-
gress first, by the great ordinance
which was the forerunner of the con-
stitution. devoted this entire region
whoever might become its Inhabitants
to liberty. Justice and equal rights for
ever. and then, having nothing else to
give. granted rights in II to the SOL
diers OF the revolution and others who.
impoverished by the war had to be-
pin life anew. Some of these sold
their rights hut others risked ne
hardships and perils which beset ne
long Journey and awaited them at ne
end os Il.
The French had gone around ny
the lakes and the Spanish up the Mis-
sissippi, so that not settlement had
hey made in the eastery part of this
territory But the Americans, fol-
lowing the routes OF the great conti-
mental pathhnders, the buffalo. reach
ed that part first, and everybody who
ever saw Ohio knows why they went
no further
"There flowed the beautiful river
through the valley where the forces
of nature had for ages collected all
the elements of fertility, with the Mus
kinFum. the Hooking the Scioto and
the Miamis flowing in from the north,
each through its broad rich valley.
There was lake Erie smiling at the
CuyahOga, the Sanduslty and the Maui
.mee as they came to II from the south.
And between the heads of these rivers
stretched the great divide where the
trails of the Indians and trappers
carrying their canoes across from one
stream to another had traced the
routes for commerce
These men did not come as con-
nuerors to overthrow existing institu-
tions: there were none. They sought
no conflict with the savages who, bent
ALWAYS on killing each other. wan
dered through the forests. which had
overgrown the traces of two other
races which had preceded them to ex-
tinction. They did not come to inn
pose on others religious creed or civil
authority. They merely sought homes
they could call their own, where the
soil would reward their husbandry
and their children enjoy the broader
possibilities OF a new country.
Some Of them came from New
England to take UP lands reserved in
the grants to congress: some from the
middle states. where the war had
wrought the severest domestic iniur-
les but from nowhere came more or
better settlers than from Virginia. This
was patural and it. The pioneers
whose settlement here three hundred
years ago We now celebrate, and their
successors had better founded charted
rights to the western country than any
Of the other colonies Then Virginia
trnops under General Clarke had
taken Il from the British during the
revolution and Il had been formally
attached to the Old Dominion as the
county OF Illinois These facts had
enabled jaw. Franklin and Adams as
our peace commissioners to make and
maintain q claim TO Il.
"And Il was Virginia which closed
the long and often bitter disputes
among the states o"er their claims 70
these lands. She authorized her dele
gates IN congress to convey all her
rights 10 the United States. Thomas
IeffersIon carried this authority to the
delegation and was one OF the slgner'