Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-07-16
GOVERNOR STUART AT THE EN-.
POSITION


Governor Stuart, in his speech nj
the San Francisco exposition, won
much applause and great commenda-
ton from the multitude assembled to
do honor to the representatives from
the Old Dominion. The text of the
speech follows:
eve have crossed the continent, two
hundred strong, to bring you the con-
gratulations and good wishes of Old
Virginia, her assurances that the tics
of friendship and kinship are not
weakened by distance, that the i'm
pulse of patriotism is not divided or
lessened by mountain ranges. great
lakes, or broad rivers. In the name Of
Virginia l thank you for the cordial
California welcome that has met us
on every hand and for the Astounding
hospitality with which we have been
honored, for the generous and cor
dial words in which you have express
ed the feeling of your own people and
of your own heart. We come from the
oldest of the States, the State on
whose soil the first English speaking
settlement of the great New World
was established, from the home of the
first germ of our civilization and gov
eminent to land where the hopes and
dreams of three centuries ago have
found fair and glorious fruition.
when little company of English
speaking people at jamestown were
yet in the cradle of this great Re-
public, when three thousand miles of
water already traversed lay between
them and their native home, their
first yearning was for western ocean
and their first cry was for the possess
sion of the unknown land the far
spread trackless wilderness that would
stretch the boundary from ocean to
ocean.
"The charter of 1909 fixed the metes
and bounds of Virginia as 900 miles
northward from Old Point Comfort.
and 200 miles southwark from Old
Point Comfort, all along the sea coast
and up into the land throughout from
sea to sea, West and Northwest. and
all the islands lying in 100 miles of
the sea coast For more than $50
years Virginia rested on this paper
title, and only as the war of the Rev
olution was closing an expedition com
posed of Virginians, under command
OF George Rogers Clarke, was organ
lied and equipped by Patrick Henry.
then Governor of Virginia, and sent
on the perilous mission of taking no
session of the vast territory between
the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers.
n hnt
original domain under the terms of
Il treaty between the Mother Coun-
try and Spain. The Mississippi Val
ley, very empire in itself, was by
this expedition won and saved to the
nation, for it was held by Virginia
against England, subsequently coded
by Virginia to the Union, and consti
tutes the territory now occupied by
the Middle States. Not content with
this limitation of our territory.
Thomas Jefferson negotiated the
louisiana purchase, and thus drove
the stakes which extended our west
ern border still further toward the
Pacific, there to remain for nearly
half century. The Mexican war and
its results brought us this beautiful
land, and with it the complete fulfill
ment for the nation of the dream Of
the. little Virginia colony for itse.f.
Star of Empire Reaches Limit.
'The Star of Empire had at last
reached the limit of it's westward
course in the waters of the Pacific,
leaving us the huge possession, out
of which State after State has been
carved, until forty-efght stars EN-
blazon the national emblem as it floats
the insignia of honor and power from
sea to sea.
United as Virginia and California
now are by vast systems of trans
continental communication, drawn to-
gether by the ties that bind State to
Safe, there is the yet closer tie which
springs from Virginia's motherhood
of thousands of sons and daughters
who have become by your generous
adoption loyal Californians. For the
filial devotion of these, her children,
Virginia returns the fullest measure
of maternal love and pride, rejoicing
that it has been her privilege to give
of her flesh and blood to the upbuild-
ing of your great Commonwealth. In
spirit we feel peculiarly near to you,
and no expanse of rolling prairie, no
height of snowy peak, no far-hung
barrier of mountains, can separate you
from Virginia, whose people glory in
your youthful vigor and your match
less resources.
Imagination revealed in the pros
pect of all that we should behold in
your land of wonders, but the reality
has far exceeded our anticipations.
Truly on California has been lavished
the treasures of earth and sea and
sky. The elusive pot of gold is at
tached to your rainbow, and in the
alchemy of science the philosophers
stone has become not product of
the crucible, but the sparkling water,
which pours its healing balm upon
the plain, transmitting the arid waste
into golden fields OF grain or the
richer harvest of your orchards and
vineyards.
with reverence we bow in the pres
nnca 0f unpr roipbtu f,.aac oIJoo4 &c