The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-05-03
TEDDY'S TALK
AT JAMESTOWN
Dealt With Concrete History Of
Americas Ascendancy.
MIGHTY ACHIEVEMENT
Tolls and Troubles Of First Settlers are
Graphically Observation-Disclosures Plea
for Universal Peace.

dress at the jamestown exposition by
extending cordial greetings to the
representatives OF foreign countries
present, showing Americas intimate
connection with practically every ma
ton and race on the globe, and also
making plea for universal peace.
Along this line he said:
I'VE have met today to celebrate
the opening Of the exposition, which
itself commentaries the first perma.
nent settlement of men Of our stock
IN Virginia, the first beginning of
what has since become this mighty
republic.
Three hundred years ago a handful
of English adyenturers, who had
crossed the ocean in what we should
now call cockleboats, as clumsy as
they We're frail, landed in the great
wooded wilderness. the Indian-haunted
waste, which then stretched down to
the waters edge along the entire At
Iantic coast.
They were not the first men Of
European race to settle in what Is
now the United States, for there were
already Spanish settlements In Flor.
ida and on the headwaters of the
Rio Grande; and the French, who at
almost tho same time were strug-
Cling up the st. Lawrence. were like
wise destined to form permanent set.
Elements on the great lakes and in
the valley of the mighty Mississippi
before the people of English stock
went westward Of the Alleghenies.
Moreover, both the Dutch and the
Swedes were shortly to found colonies
those that grew up around the Poto.
mac, and those that grew up on what
is now the New England coast Never
theless this landing at jamestown
possesses for us Of the United States
an altogether peculiar significance and
this without regard to our several orr.
gins.
The men who landed at jamestown
and those who, thirteen years later
landed at Plymouth, all of English
stock, and their fellow-settlers who
during the next few decades streamed
IN after them, were those who tool,
the lead in shaping the life history
OF this people in the colonial and
revolutionary days. 1t was they who
Dent into definite shape our nation
while 1t was still young enough most
easily most readily, to take on the
characteristics which were to become
part OF its permanent life habit.
Yet let us remember that while
this early English colonial stock has
lett deeper than all others upon our
national life the mark of its strong
twin Municipalities, the mark Of the
Cavalier and Of the Puritan-never.
theless this stock, not only from its
environment, but also from the pres.
ence with it of other stocks. almost
from the beginning, began to be diff
ferentiated strongly from an Europe.
an people. AS l have already said.
about the time the first English set
tiers landed here, the Frenchman and
the Spaniard, the Swede and the the
Ducthman, also came hither as per.
manent jewellers, who left their seed
to inherit our national life. The Ger
man, the Irishman, and the Scotch.
man came later, but stin in colonial
times.
All through the colonial days new
waves of immigration from time to
time swept hither across the ocean.
now from one country now from an
other. The same thing has gone on
ever since our birth as a nation. and
for the last sixty years the tide OF
immigration has been at the fun. The
newcomers are soon absorbed hNo
our eager national life, and are rad.
ically and profoundly changed there.
by, the rapidity of their assimilation
being marvellous But each group of
newcomers, as it adds its blood to the
life, also changes it somewhat, and
this change and growth and develop
ment have gone on steadily. genera
ton by generation, throughout three
centuries"
He dwelt at length on the enormous
nature Of the task which the first set.
tiers Of America faced when they set
foot on our shores. Especially said
he, was this the case with the pio-
ner settlers at jamestown who were
from the start menaced by famine.
pestilence and war He went on to
show that other portions of America
----.--- - $500 ..-.aal -. An. : -