The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-04-26
SPEECH


(Concluded from First Page.)
judged by our modern standards;
and here and there, as in the tide-wa-
ter regions of Virginia, a genuine
Iaristocracy grew and fourished. But
the men who first broke ground in
the virgin wilderness. whether on the
Atlantic coast or in the interior.
fought hard for mere life. In the ear
lily stages the frontiersman had to do
battle with the savage. and wnen
the savage was vanquished there re-
NAMED the harder strain Of war with
1.-THE hostile forces of soil and climate,
with food, fever, and famine. There
was sickness and bitter weather;
there were no roads; there was a
complete lack of all but the very
toughest and most absolute necessa-
Tries. Under sucn circumstances the
men and women who made ready
the continent for civilization were
liable themselves to spend but little
time in doing aught but the rough
work which was to make smooth the
ways of their successors. In conse-
quence observers whose insight was
spoiled by lack of sympathy always
found both the settlers and their
Lives unattractive and repellent. In
Martin Chuzzlewit the description of
America, eliminating in the descrip-
Ition of the frontier town of Eden,
was true and lifelike from the stand
point of one content to look merely
at the outer shell; and yet it was a
community like Eden that gave birth
to Abraham Lincoln; it was men
such as were therein described from
whose loins Andrew Jackson sprang.
Hitherto each generation among
us has had its allotted task. now
heavier now lighter In the Revolu-
tionary war the business was to
achieve independence. Immediately
afterwards there was an even more
Imomentous task; that to achieve the
national unity and the capacity for
orderly development, without which
our liberty, our independence, would
have been a curse and not a blessing.
In each of these two contests, while
there were many great leaders from
many different states. it is but fair
to say that the foremost place was
taken by the soldiers and the states
men of Virginia; and to Virginia
was reserved the honor of producing
the hero of both movements. the
hero of the war, and of the peace that
made good the results of the war =
George Washington: while the two
great political tendencies of the
time can be symbolized by the names
OF two other great Virginians-Jeffer
son and Marshall-from one of
whom we inherit the abiding trust
in the people which is the foundation
stone of democracy, and from the
other the power to develop on be-
half of the people a coherent and
powerful government, genuine and
Representative nationality.
1.-TWO generations passed before
the second great crisis of our history
had to be faced. Then came the Civil
war. terrible and bitter in itself and
in its aftermath, but a struggle from
which the nation finally emerged uni
ted in fact as we'll as in name, united
forever. Oh, my hearers, my fellow
countrymen, great indeed has been
our good fortune; for as time clears
away the mists that once shrouded
brother from brother and made each
look las through glass darkly" at
the other, we can alb feel the same
pride in the valor, the devotion and
the fealty toward the right as it was
given to each to see the right, shown
alike by the men who wore the blue
land by the men who wore the gray
Rich and prosperous though we are
as a people. the proudest heritage
that each of us has. no matter where
he may dwell, north or south, east or
west, is the immaterial heritage of
feeling. the right TO claim as his
own all the valor and all the stead
fast devotion to duty shown by the
men of both the great armies, of the
soldiers whose leader was Grant and
the. soldiers whose leader was Lee.
The men and the women of tne Civil