Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-07-23

dltd' or perchanc", here fought and
fell in the effort to build home in the
wilderness by the shores of the sound
ing sea- in new land and in a free
land.
Others will tell you, l have no doubt,
m IRE explicitly than |, the history of
this spot and the purposes of this gath
ering here today, in its intimate rela-
tons to the life of Pemaquid and to the
development oc an early civilization
upon the New England coast. 1t is
not my province or my desire to enter
on the detailed story of Pemaquid that
is so large in the early history of the
exploration and the colonization of
America | shall but characterize it
broadly as Of correlative importance in
every respect, save that of permanence.
with any other colony ever planted in
this new world. Never since Moses
leo the children of Israel out of Egypt
into the Promised Land" said IIX-GoV-
ernor john ID. Long Of Massachusetts
a short tine ago in speaking of the
Pilgrims. has there been such an epic
as the Noyaga of the MayfoWer and
the landing at Plymouth. The Pilgrims
We're neither Puritans nor prosecutors;
they were, as is too rarely said, some
thing more, they We're poets and ideal
lists"
This is quite true, but even as we
idealize the men and women of Ply
mouth let us not forget the men and
women of PemaQuid. for believe me,
along these shores have been enacted
Tragedies as great and the substance
of epics as sweet and strong. / for one.
do not forget that along this glorious
sea, sweeping from Fundy to Cape
Small Point, breaSting the very wa
tiers that vast these shores, pressing
percnance With their feet this very
turf on which we stand, came first that
gallant Franchman, Samuel de Cham
plain. charting unknown lands and
seas; then came Weymouth and Pop
ham. those intrepid sons of a race of
sailors that sent Drake and Hawkins
and Gilbert sweeping in invincible ar
madas along the Spanish main gener-
alton or more before. Who knows
what keel clave these waters hitherto?
Who knows what unknown people
dwelt here in that loEg silence of the
10th century? Who knows what epics
here were sung in deeds; what lost peo-
pies this turf covers over with these
summer flowers? Who shall weigh one
against the other, the motives that
sent them here. or the Pilgrim there ?
Who shall declare what high emprise,
what appealed to a nCblcr and freer
life what stern decree of fate made
them wanderers on many seas to find
Il, place for their dust to mngle with
the dust today beneath our feet, ana
thus plant the first seed of freedom in
the soil of Maine? l put Popham along
side of Raleigh. l set ChamplaiIt
AGAINST the cavaliers. ! believe that In
the forgotten annals of Pemaqud may
be found incidents of the same heroic
devotion that makes Plymouth what II
is-an altar of worship OF the sacred
fire OF lii erty in a free land. | put UNI
known Alexander Shurt of Pemaquid
along SIDE the Aliens, the CarverS and
the Standishes. and in so doing l de-
tract nothing from the glory of the
Plymouth colony that received its first
| welcome to the new world from off the
shores of Pemaquid, through the lips
| of Samoset the Indian sycamore.
| have, therefore, only this message
| to bring you today-you are here to dc
| a service to the founding of a memorial
to an carly people. 1t is this: it be-
| comes the duty of the state, in my
| opinion, to encourage such work as
| this. There should never be any ques-
ton of its practical value. Every wor-
| thy memorial of our national, state, OF
| municipal life in Maine should bt
| marked. There should not be one ne
| elected grave of a hero or a statesman
| or a poet. The pathway of the early
| NoVageur, explorer or cOloniStS SHOULD
be traced clearly for our children t,
follow. There was no feature of my
experience in connection with the 74tf
Legislature of Maine that pleased IN,
more than tc note, for instance, its viii
lingness to restore the grave of the hal
| forgotten naval hero, Commodore
| Tucker. who sleeps but a little way
| from this spot in the lovely town o
| Bremen. Every memorial like this be
| comes an inspiration to the genera.
tons that follow. Every memorial
counts for the higher culture of the
State. Every memorial helps to conse
crate Maine into historic ground, as in.
deed it is, the land-fall of the rovers OF
those uncharted seas; the bloody bat
| tle-field of our early wars the birth
place of so many men who have done
honor to our national life. Out of these
memorials cones Il new devotion to
freedom Ont of them comes the dedi-
cation of state to the constitutional
basis of it's life as a commonwealth
founded on the right of the individual
in society or out of society. For, if
there is one thing that has come to me
since | have been standing here today
on this naiectic spot it is the thought
that to the men who hued cur State out
Of the wilderness, individual liberty
must have been rs the very breath OF
life. 70 their nnsrrilS The seq from