Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1911-09-28

you mink put IN Ilat tlmes i redlll
had no time to do anything, but ther,
was one thing l wanted to see in you
beautiful city; it was too dark to Sc,
the city. but l had upbraided some o
my Tennessee friends because Will,
| had been in other parts of Tennes
see, | had never seen anything in the
way of a monument or memorial Il
that grand man, John Sewer. Gap
plausa). And finally one of them tolC
me tha+ there was one in the court
house yard in Knoxville, and l tool
time, running the risk of missing my
train, to go and take my hat off before
that monument TO that grand old pic
neer
Now, We had pioneers up in the
great northwest; they were brave anC
hardy men but their careers all diff
fered from that of John Sewer, which
have always thought was one of the
most remarkable careers recorded in
history.
Our pioneers came after the revolu
ton, and had no share in that great
struggle with John Sewer and Rich
ardson and Shelby and his associates
They all came after there was an au
thority under which to come, but
have known of men from other lands
who are familiar with that story ex,
press their deep interest in that first
effort after the great revolution at
commonwealth building in this coun.
Wy. They not only made homes in
Inc wilderness, they not only fought
the ~av"ge and the wild beast, they
noe only helped to win the battle for
independence, but they went to work
themselves and established a system
of government on the great principles
for which our ancestors had been con-
tending for thousand years, and they
put them into practical operation.
They did not do it to establish an in
dependent empire, but they went to
seek and establish sister states, and
when North Carolina would pay no
attention to them and had coded the
land to the government (Which it had
not yet accepted, they got up that
wonderful creation in the midst of the
American continent, that state of
Franklin. (Applause). And having
been all my life, while child by COM
pulsion of my good father, student
OF history, | have always regarded that
as one of the greatest, one of the most
significant incidents illustrative of the
character of the American people.
But they, down in the middle of the
wilderness, first established homes;
then as homes gathered round the
spirit of patriotism was aroused.
What is patriotism? The love of home.
Why does a man love his native land?
Because somewhere in it was the
house where he was born; the soil on
which his foot trod; his school house
and church, and all the associations
of his childhood; and around that
home there were other homes, and
thus they form the great common
wealth and they can defy all attempts
at destruction and become the Father
land for which everyone is willing to
live and to die.
Now, after having established their
homes in the wilderness they proceed
ed, just as naturally as the birds build
their nests, or as water flows down
hill, to create a government, for we
are the only race left in the world
that is capable of creating work in
that direction; and it was very APP
propriate, having in mind ever since
! was invited here the story of that
first and only governor of that unique
state Of Franklin, and the first gov
ernor of your great commonwealth,
that | should come here from the most
unique assembly | think that the world
ever knew-the gathering of all the
governors of the commonwealth of
the United States.
| find a great many people that do
not understand what that is-its pur-
pose or it's character. Now, the pres
ident invited the governors in 1908 to
come to Washington for a conference
on the subject of conservation of nat
ural and national resources, and some
body while they We're there fell on the
happy thought that it would be a good
idea for the governors OF all Of the
states in the union to meet and con-
fer on their own account, and it was
proposed that they should do it the
next year, and invitations were sent
out, and the next year in Washington
a large number of the governors gath
cred, and the next year it was repeat
ed and this year it was repeated
again; the last year in Kentucky and
this year in New Jersey, and it has
become undoubtedly permanent in
stitution.
Why do | say it is unique? Because,
in the first place, there is no country
in the world that has such officers as
our chief executives, national or state.
Here are 93,000,000 people, all
of them citizens of the states. Now
we talk about being a citizen of the
United States-no one is citizen OF
the United States unless he lives in
the District of Columbia without being
a citizen of one of these states. Each
one of them is settled by all the
strains of blood which made our peo-
Pile what they are-the Puritan, the
Cavalier, the Irish, the German, the
Welsh. Having settled in the wilder
ness thew hogan tn find homes and