The Progressive West Virginian. [volume] (Williamson, W. Va.) 1911-1913, 1912-12-12

most forceful personalities OF the
ablest races Of the earth.
And it is from this stock, from these
forebears, that are chiefly sprung the
population and the race that now in
habits the region of acknowledgements
America embraced within the confines
OF the State Of West Virginia 81
Settling at first along the borders
OF the sea, pushing UP the estuaries
and tnlets and then the rivers, NOV.
Ing on toward the great barrier OF the
Allegheny Mountains. the harder
spirits pressed westward In perpetual
warfare with opposing nature and i'm.
tanned and untamable savages; and,
necessarily, there was continual sift-
ing out Of the feebler In body and
weeker in soul among these undaunt-
ed pioneers, until those who held and
poss essed the then Western border be-
came and were recognized In fact as
the flower of the manhood and WON.
anhood Of the American Colonies and
81 the world In the nation today the
descendants Of this splendid ancestry.
dwelling here In West Virginia and In
The States marching with her borders,
inherit and have revealed during the
crisis Of the Civil War, and possess
today, the same high qualities in flesh
and bone and spirit.
To my notion In this present day
there Is no greater safeguard to the
continuing Of preservation OF her In
stitutions in this Republic OF the Unit
ed States than the existence Of popu-
lation like that Of West Virginia, with
Its Inheritance Of daring and OF devo-
ton to the Hottest ideals, with Its In
bred and trained ability to meet mad
overcome practical difficulties and
threatened dangers to their homes.
their State, their Nation.
Responsibility Of American Citizen.
This continent is fast filling with
many divers races gathered from all
quarters Of the globe. To many OF
these people our thousand years OF
training In the achievement OF liberty
and the self-restraint that is the hand
maid of enduring freedom are quite
unknown. What does Sicilian, q
Syrian or a Muscovite know OF true
liberty, or the spirit Of give-and-take
that makes for the continued preserva-
ton Of true liberty? Where Is the
German, or the Polander, or the Span
lard who can properly conceive OF
practical freedom in the first, nay,
even in the second generation? How
shall these overrunning peoples be
taught? How shall they be enabled to
acquire conceptions Of American
ideals OF free and equal civil govern
ment, Of spiritual and intellectual
growth? How otherwise than by and
through the teaching and examples
that shall be borne to them by the
sons and daughters of the founders
of that government based upon that
ideal Of liberty whereby 1t might be-
come possible that Government of the
people, by the people and for the PEG
pie shall not perish from the earth"
And thus | take 1t 1t now behooves
you and It behooves me, 1t becomes
our bounden duty and must be our
chfefest endeavor to make 1t our sol. |
emn business to preserve and hand |
down to our children and to our chill. |
dren's children, even to the remotest |
generations yet unborn, these princi- |
pies Of free government, these inspira- |
lions for intellectual achievement,
which 1t Is our peculiar and high priv. |
ilege to have received from our Colo |
NAL and Revolutionary forebears.
more directly and more fully than
have the people now inhabiting any
other State within the Union.
This Is one message would bring
YOU today. I would bid you7go forth
from these College Walls full laden
With the sense Of the responsibilities,
heroic ancestors, brave fathers and de-
goted mothers transmitted to you in
rust
Privilege Of Free Speech.
You and ] have yet another heritage
which, take 1t, we ought to cherish
even as sacredly as the spiritual and
civil and political liberty already ours.
1t is equally the privilege of the PEG
Die OF West Virginia and Of you and
u myself that we, more than almos,
my other people, speak and preserve
n our daily intercourse, the simples'