Year: 1874

/ tie Importance vi tiie CouiihS NS"'S"
NAL Celebrations In IFS influence upon
the future of our country: upon its NOR
al, intellectual, social, and political we'll
being; upon its science, Its literature,
and its art: upon its agricultural com
lnercial, mining, and manufacturing III
terets; upon all professions, all pursuits,
, in every department OF its diversified
industries, in ever field Of labor, ant in
every branch of trade.


Not only will it illustrate the won
derful growth of our great Republic
during the first hundred years OF It's
existence, and express, with infinitely
more significance than any language
can convey, the inexhaustible variety of
its vast resources and the unparalleled
progress of its people ''in all that bene
fits mankind" under the fostering intiu-
ences of its free institutions, but on that
august occasion every recognized nation
of the earth will also contribute the
trophies of its civilization i'll generous
competition with our own. So that the
lessons which it will unfold to the in
quiring minds of the millions of intelll-
gent Americaes who will throng from
every part of the Union to your Cen
tennial City. eager to note and to profit
by the mult:tudinous novelties OF the
exposition, will stimulate the ambition,
the enterprise, and inventive genius Of
our countrymen to far higher attain
ments and greater achievements than
the world has ever yet seen, or even
dared to dream OF as among the posi-
billies of the future. Nor is this an
unreasonable anticipation, when we call
to mind the wonderful inventions, dis
covcries, and improvements made by
American citizens within the memory
of men yet living-which have done so
much to amelioratc the condition of our
race and to reyolutionize the destinies
of the world. For what would the
world be without American inventions?
What would it be without the steam
boat, the telegraph, the cotton-gin, the
rotary printing press, the sewing ma
chine, the grain reaper, and all the rest
of the thousand and one mechanical aids
10 our diversified industries which have
so lesSened the labor of human hands
and lightened the load on human hearts
for all of which we are indebted to
our own countrymen, who surely de
serve to be ranked amongst the very
best benefactors Of mankind


1t is an interesting task, and no less
instructive than interesting, to trace the
rise and progress of many of the more
important American inventions, and to
mark their influence upon the growth
of our young Republic. Not to tax
your patience by multiplying examples.
allow me to cite single illustration Of
this fact;


When our Revolutionary Fathers had
at last secured the recognition of their
independence, their work was by no
means done; for most difficult duty
had yet to be performed i'll establishing
the Republic upon firm and lasting
foundation Besides the various com
plications-foreign, financial, and politi-
cal, there were physical difficulties to
overcome consequent upon the extent
of territory comprised within the limits
of the confederation.


At that period there was prevalent
belief in the correctness Of the idea put
forth by Montesquieu towards the mid
Gle of the century, that no Republic
could exist except in limited area, for
the reason that, as that form of govern
ment rests upon the will of the people,
it is essential that the inter-communica-
tion should be safe and certain, with
celebrity and ease, so rs to insure the
transmission of intelligence without dan
ger, difficulty, or delay between the
government and the governed, III all
parts 0f the country.


The enemies of free institutions abroad
did not fail to apply to Montesquleus
dogma to the then existing condition OF
affairs here. and the current criticisms
of those transatlantic quid nuncs were
to the effect that it was the greatest
possible folly in our fathers to attempt
to incorporate SO inaccessible and eX-
tensiye a region as belonged to the
thirteen states under Republican rule;
and we can imagine them to have said,
"Why, only see what an enormous
waste OF territory those headstrong
Americans have included within the
boundaries of their government, stretch
ing along the Atlantic coast for more
than thousand miles, and away out
across the Alleghanies even unto the
far distant banks of the Ohio, which
overlook that dark and bloody ground
beyond, where doubtless there are


"Antres vast and deserts idle,


Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads


touch heaven;


Cannbas that each other eat


The Anihropophag, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders -


And yet in such country they actu-
ally expect to have their great Repub-
lie y


Well, there certainly seemed some
foundation for all these real or assumed
doubts and prophecies of evil on the
part of the sapient Sir Oracles of Eu-
rope; for, as you know, at that time it
took two whole days to transmit mail
from Philadelphia TO Baltimore, about
the same number of hours to New York
full week to the back settlements of
Pennsyh ania, and an entire month TO
the lower part of Georgia.


But, mark, how soon American inge-
nuify demonstrated the means of ohvi-