The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1913-07-08
Faded Print

eThl OF OulOs y. n. CIRCUMSTANCES, al ciix
tect of the memorial; A. H. Sisson.
treasurer general OIL the Interstate
Centennial Board, and Webster p.
Huntington. secretary general of the
Interstate Centennial Board.
1t was during the symposium Of adj
dresses following this ceremony that
Henry Watterson, Kentucky's grand
old man, delivered his valedictory as
public speech. Senator John M. White
head, of Wisconsin, also spoke.
Vigorous of tongue and even fiery in
rhetoric, the famous editor and doc
trinaire, engaged the rapt interest of
his audience by boldly attacking con-
ditions which, he asserted, menaced
the future of the republic.
Government Is Discussed.
Mr.. Watterson said, in part:
I'VE are told, and most of US be-
lieve, that those are best governed who
are least governed Yet we have one
big Congress in the nations capital,
and 4S little congresses in the several
state capitals, constantly in session, to
make and unmake laws to vex the peo-
pie and confuse the courts. Inevitably,
respect for law is lowered, and here,
as elsewhere, familiarity breed CEN
tempt.
THE danger is admitted Clearly
seeing the evils of too much legisla-
ton, we call for more. Through chance
majorities, stable in nothing, we would
regulate the tastes, morals and habits
of the people by act of Assembly.
'Perennially reproaching Congress,
we would nevertheless augment the
powers of Congress. We are creating
system of centralized bureaucracy
and supplementing the Civil Service
with multifarious commissions. We
have q standing army of officials. Col
lectivism, robbing man of his individ-
uality, trusts nothing to the force of
nature. the genius of our institutions
and the providence of God.
Experience Is Disdained.
yet we disdain alike experience
and forecast. We are threatened with
government by nysteria, displaying its
excess on the one hand by the vain
glorious assertion of our grandeur and
pursuance, on the other hand, express
ing its humanity through the exploita-
ton of visionary schemes of impossi-
Bile relief.
DO l overpaint the picture? 1t is
but hooking effigy of an old mans pes
simism? Let us not be too sure of our
selves. If we preserve that which
Washington and Franklin and Jeffer-
son contemplated; that which Jones
and Perry, Harrison and Shelby fought
for; that which each side in the War
of Sections claims it aimed at-intelli.
gent freedom-we shall have done
we'll
Paul Jones Sets Example.
Turn we seward, John Paul Jones
| set an example of sea fighting to Oil
yer Hazard Perry, and, taking up the
wondrous tale where Jones left off,
Oliver Hazard Perry wrote with his
sword the end of the chapter Dying,
he left no copy. The twain stand upon
single pedestal, matchless in naval
| annals. The battel off Scarborough
Head, in the Northern Ocean, was a
prelude to the battle of Lake Erie, off
| Put-in-Bay. The Bon Homme Richard
| and the Niagara, sister ships, sailed
into Valhalla harbors side OF side. I
have not yet begun to fight makes i'm.
mortal couplet with We have met the
| enemy, and he is ours
And thus we come, and here we
| are this blessed Fourth of July, 1913
With such a past and so great a patri-
mony, it is not discreditable that the
heirs of the noble men who fought
and Shelby, could ever have fallen
apart and come to blows? l think So
truly, and it seems to me the more dis
creditable when we reflect that broth.
ers then, we are brothers still, ina
most homogeneous people upon the face
of the globe, the sections merged in
their cradles, tho states but geographic
expressions.
"At length we are reunited Let us
| thank God for that. But from our mis-
adventures and mistakes shall we take
no lesson to ourselves?"
| The daring words of Col. Watterson
were literally applauded, the fullest
appreciation being had OF the meaning
they conveyed.
/ The memorial, when completed, will
consists of Doric column of granite
$50 feet high and 40 feet in diameter,
surmounted by a spectators gallery
reached by elevators, above which will
| tower an immense tripod holding a
beacon light, flashing its rays heay.
onward and visible for miles