f541 >'^ (^ <-'■*:? Sit,;^ V^^ 1 ^>-., -'^Ei^4^^^^l^ . A^ i iiJlS , - W ^, 5-' } T ,1 t 1 ' J, , , ^> K. ^^ ^'^i. tWV li.^' ife tW^ " ^- . -V / "*^ •^'- ** ^^ • ■.••. \ J' '-. ,♦* . V.-i- Vv * "-^^^ "<"^ "-^^ .9^ -^^/ ^, ^X^j^ff.^ <,^' 0.0^ ^0 s x--:^ s • • /■ o O * - ^O. " , <« ' . • ' " ♦ ■Jy * A •' ' ' /^ vv o \t) -rt. \^ .^' 4 C)>. ° i. >?^ 4 ■> n. .,^' "■^X <* /^ .1 o " c ^ ^ V>>'f\^ A-' O •'■''* O A V , o « e , <5>^ o ■^^ 'O . I <\^ .^ -X. o 'c . I " .A. <'^ o -o^f .1-^ ^^ A^ ^^^%^^ 'V. .i^ .>,^-?^.> -^ '. ,>.* ^ % ^^iv^' '^ "^ .. .>^* . . s ■A Q^ 0' ^O. ^0 ^^ " = « "^^ ^ ^v 'V^ '•:^ 0^ ,,. .V- A^ O .^i O 'o - ■ * ,0 . .^ .» ^° -n^. V o V^ Vk;^ . ' • ' ■.^, c " " <= ^ *' and corporisty which are the soul and the body of the state. What then makes a state? Ladies and gentlemen, it is the state consciousness that makes the state, the state consciousness finding organic expression. It is the social consciousness, the corporate consciousness, the consciousness of a common need, a common life i6 and a common purpose. As soon as that arrives, the state is born. It does not matter much about the date. History, after all, has very little to do v^^ith dates. History has to do with sequences, with human relation- ships, with cause and effect, with actions and con- sequences. It is an inconsequential thing that the Magna Charta was written in 121 5. The thing of con- sequence was that it was written at all. It represented the birth of the corporate consciousness of liberty — a consciousness which found social and political ex- pression. (Applause.) That birth was centuries in being accomplished. A world groaned and travailed in pain for ages before that child was brought to the birth. But, once born it never dies. (Applause.) It is an inconsequential thing that the Declaration of Independence was made at a certain date. The thing that is of consequence is that in the fullness of time, when the right place and purpose came together, the incalculable and irresistible power of democracy which had been slowly struggling under the surface for cen- turies, burst through the crust, and found outward and organic expression in a new world, a new national type and a new life. So it is with the State of Illinois. Say, if you will, that it was born back in 1787, when it was an unim- portant part of the great Northwest Territory. Say, if you will, that it was born in 1809, when it was set apart as a separate territory. Say that it was born in 1 81 8, when it became an organized state. It became a state, in reality, no sooner and no later than the arrival of the corporate political conscience. That is what makes a state. When men become as conscious of the fact that they are citizens, as they are conscious of being individuals; when they are as conscious of the state as they are «7 of themselves, when they recognize the common good and the common need; when human wills and intelli- gences and resources are regarded as public forces for the accomplishment of the public good in which each one shares; when the community spirit and civic ideals and genuine patriotism arrive; when to the individual consciousness and the family consciousness there is added the state consciousness, — that instinct which is willingness to struggle for the common weal, suffer in the common woe and rejoice in the common prosperty, — then you have a state; then history is being written. (Applause.) Illinois inherited greatness. It added to its in- heritance and acquired new greatness. It was back in 1787 that the foundations of her greatness were laid. The Ordinance of 1787, for the government of the territory of which Illinois was a part, contained those great principles around which democracy revolves. They were religious liberty, freedom of the conscience, the right of trial by one's peers, the protection of private property, the inculcation of education, and morality and the inhibition of slavery. On this Centennial, it is well worth our while to go back to the rock from whence we are hewn and read some of those principles around which the history of Illinois has been growing for a hundred years. "No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or his religious sentiments." So read the Ordinance of 1787. "All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences." So read the Constitution of Illinois, as it was adopted, in 1818. Those enactments may sound commonplace to you, 18 and to me; but, ladies and gentlemen, when one recalls the story of New England and Old England, and France and Spain, and Germany and other countries; when one's mind goes back to "Blue Laws," and religious prohibitions in America, and to Test Acts and Inquisitions and persecutions, in Europe — one then gets a fresh realization of the progress that was registered in that somewhat crude Kaskaskia assembly, when religious liberty was enacted and proclaimed in the name of the people of Illinois. (Applause.) Again, "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall for- ever be encouraged." So read the Ordinance of 1787. And in 1825, after a considerable contest, a public school system was established in the State of Illinois. The younger men and women who are here tonight per- haps take an educational system as a matter of course; but, if you will recall the fact that in this Twentieth Century, in several of the so-called civilized nations of the world, the majority of the people can neither read nor write; if you will recall the many evils and in- justices and social wrongs that follow in the train of ignorance and illiteracy, — you will appreciate the magnitude of the contributions which Illinois made to human progress, where, in 1825, it inaugurated a public school system. (Applause.) Again, "There shall be neither slavery nor involun- tary servitude in said territory." So read the Ordi- nance of 1787. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servi- tude shall hereafter be introduced into this State," read the Illinois Constitution of 1818. That clause in the Constitution did not grow up there. It was not brought about by spontaneous genera- tion. It was not readily accomplished nor easily >9 sustained. For six years the State was in turmoil and agitation while strenuous efforts were made to repeal this law. Controversies were long and bitter. Human passions broke loose. But at length the determination to legalize slavery in Illinois was defeated and the battle for human freedom was won for all time. Once more, the young men and women who are here tonight take existing conditions of freedom as a matter of course. But let your minds go back into an older world. Let your minds go back to Egypt, where men sweated and toiled in bonds and fetters; to ancient Greece and Rome, when moralists and philosophers calmly catalogued men with oxen; to Prussia in the Fourteenth Century, where men were given the choice of slavery, or conformity to the powers that be; to Eng- land, whose outlying possessions were so recently redeemed from slavery at such a great cost. Let your minds go back but a short time in American history, when white men shed their blood to make black men free. Let your minds, I say, sweep the horizon of the struggles of the human family onward and upward through the centuries towards freedom and brother- hood; and that one sentence in the Kaskasia State Con- stitution will shine as an inextinguishable light illumi- nating the path of progress: "Neither slavery or involuntary servitude shall here- after be introduced into the State." (Applause.) You will not, of course, get the impression that Illi- nois was the only state in the Union that had these lofty passions or these spiritual experiences. She was one of many states, one of a brotherhood. Elsewhere the same battles were being fought. Elsewhere they were being won. But the point to be noted is that they were fought and they were won here in Illinois. 20 "Not without thy wondrous story can be writ the Nation's glory, Illinois." But, ladies and gentlemen, great principles are merely academic things, unless they are embodied in living persons. It was Carlyle who said that the history of the world is simply the story of what good men and women do in the world. The greatest facts in the world are great personalities. Illinois has not been wanting in personalities and in leaders and teachers of men. On the occasion of this Centennial, it seems to me, ladies and gentlemen, that there are two professions, in particular, to whom we should pay our tribute of affection, to whom our debt of gratitude should be acknowledged, two professions which have rendered a maximum service for a minimum reward. They are the preachers and the teachers. (Applause.) In the category of preachers we include all those representatives and spokesmen of religion, by whatso- ever ecclesiastical or denominational titles they may have been designated. Amongst teachers we include all those representatives and practitioners of educa- tion, from the obscurest school mistress to the most re- nowned college president. These, more than others have been the pioneers in morality and culture, in high- mindedness and idealism, — without which no people can be truly great. Consider for a moment the conditions under which they operated, and the environment in which they lived. There were no great cities in Illinois, in those days. The population was scattered or gathered in rural groups. The people lived in log houses, mostly with- out windows. The furniture was very scant. The family sat around rude wooden tables, on wooden benches. Their eating implements were made of wood or iron and pewter. Their food was the never failing 21 pork and johnny-cake, with occasional supplies of venison and wild game. Their social life revolved largely around the wedding and the funeral. Those events were surrounded then, as they are now, to a great extent, with pagan customs and habits. (Laughter.) Apart from the wedding and the funeral, there were three great social institutions. They were the harvest bee, the husking bee, and the horse races. A harvest bee without whiskey was like a dance without a fiddle. They drank it out of a bottle, which was passed from mouth to mouth. Any other method of drinking it would have been regarded as betokening the dilettanteism of the tenderfoot. The husking bee took the form of a contest as to which man could husk first his allotment of corn. The man that was so lucky as to come across a red ear had the privilege of kissing all the girls. Let us hope for the girls' sake that there were not too many red ears. After the husking was over, came the bountiful sup- per. And then "they danced all night, till broad day- light, and went home with the girls in the morning." It was an enviable occupation, but it was a bad prepara- tion for the work of the next day. The dull reaction came on early in the morning. There was the usual resort to artificial stimulant, and fresh corks were pulled for fresh exhilaration. To make things worse, the fever and ague were very prevalent. They were not more prevalent however than the remedy; and the same remedy which would cool the fever down would warm the ague up. The horse race was the great social event. Now, horse racing is capable of being a gentleman's sport, in which thoroughbred men and thoroughbred horses can participate, without harm. I say it is possible. (Laughter.) But in Illinois the by-products were 22 vicious. Gambling was popular, and the stakes were large. Whiskey flowed like water. Fist fights and "rough and tumble fights" were the order of the day. Schools and churches had not yet arrived, although these people had inherited some educational advantages and had retained a faint memory of Puritanism in the dim background of their consciences. "Book laming" was considered impracticable and unprofitable; and, as for the workings of Almighty God, it was the climax of awkwardness and unnaturalness. It was into that atmosphere that the preacher and the teacher came; and from the moment they came, morals, manners, ideals began to rise. No one can tell truly the story of Illinois, without putting church and school in the very foreground of the narrative. The gentle and courageous Marquette, the eloquent and ardent Father Allouez; the indefatig- able and courageous Peter Cartwright, amongst the Methodists; the Baptist John Mason Peck, who more than any other one man prevented slavery from getting official recognition on the statute books of Illinois; (Applause) ; the indomitable Philander Chase, who settled in Central Illinois, after having built a college down in Ohio, where the students still sing of him: "He climbed the hill, and said a prayer And founded Kenyon College there. He built the College, built the dam; He milked the cows, he smoked the ham; He taught the classes, rang the bell. And spanked the naughty freshmen well." These men, ladies and gentlemen, these men and others like them, in all the churches; these Apostolic missionaries, these itinerant preachers, these gospel circuit writers, these men of plain living and high thinking, these are the men that laid the foundation 23 of all that is best in the civilization of Illinois. They exalted God in a materialistic age. They held aloft the banner of the world's Redeemer, in log houses and in camp meetings. They taught the Ten Command- ments, and the moral law to a people who in a new land were resisting and resenting the restraint of religion and morality. They preached temperance, righteousness and the judgments of God. They gave men a new grip on the dignity of life, and the glory of man's destiny. They led men to the Highest through the Highest by the Highest, as they taught people how to be good citizens of this world and at the same time citizens of another world, whose builder and whose maker is God. Ladies and gentlemen, will you permit me, as a representative of religion, on this occasion, to pay my tribute of praise and gratitude to those pioneers of religion and morality, at whose feet I am unworthy to sit. (Applause.) And what should be said about the school teachers? Bear in mind we are thinking about the makers of history in Illinois. What should be said about the school teachers in this connection? There is no so- called secular profession which has exerted such a far reaching influence in the direction of high mindedness, good morals, good manners, good taste, and good citi- zenship, as the profession of the school teacher. Let us pay our tribute of praise and gratitude to that long line of skilful and conscientious teachers who have guided and informed and inspired the minds of the boys and girls of Illinois. Hats off to John Seeley, the first school master of Illinois, as in our minds' eye we picture him sitting on a wooden bench, in his log school house, with its slab floor, with a little group of children in their homespun, sitting before him on wooden 24 benches and learning the three R's and taking as his compensation a few deer skins, some fence rails, and some beeswax. Hats off to Stephen Forbes, the first school teacher in Chicago, as he taught in a little log school house not very far from the corner of Michigan avenue and Randolph street. Hats off to Eliza Chappell, who had a school of twenty boys and girls over on South Water Street. To these, and all their clan, we offer, at the end of a hundred years, our grati- tude and our praise, (applause) from Stephen Forbes and Eliza Chappell, all the way down to William Rainey Harper and Ella Flagg Young. (Applause.) To select two professions for honorable mention is not to minimize the contributions that have been made to the tone and character of Illinois by representatives of other professions, — by lawyers, who have brought fame and distinction within our borders, such as, to mention only one, our Melville Fuller, whom we gave as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States (applause) ; by doctors, who have not only adorned their profession, but enriched human life, such as (to mention but one) Dr. Henry B. Favill, who was recently taken from us; by railroad builders, who fur- nished arteries to the body politic, such as Timothy Blackstone (applause) ; by our song writers who inspired more generations than one, such as George Root, the author of the Battle Cry of Freedom, and Henry Clay Work, the author of Marching Through Georgia; by business men, who enriched our cultural life by their generosity to the arts; such men for example as Bryan Lathrop. Time does not permit one to record the names and the deeds that decorate the pages of a hundred years of history. They are not forgotten. In the words of the 25 Son of Sirach we say — "Let us praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us." One ought not to content oneself by mentioning simply individuals professions or vocations. The people of Illinois, in their corporate capacity, have made their own permanent contribution, to a higher civilization. All up and down this State there are the benevolences, the charities, and the philanthropies — the homes, the hospitals, and the shelters, which stand as an outward and visible sign of their devotion to humanity and to justice. Illinois gave more than its quota of men to the Mexican War, and did it voluntarily. Illinois offered more than its quota for the Spanish War. Illinois gave more men to the War of the Union, relative to its population, than any state in the Union except Kansas. (Applause.) Illinoisans were always to be found where the fighting was fiercest. They were in the front ranks in the heavy attacks and they were the last to retire or surrender. (Applause.) Illinois gave to history a General John A. Logan, and other great generals. (Applause.) Illinois gave to America a great- General and a great President, all in one, — Ulysses S. Grant. (Applause.) Illinois produced that brilliant orator — Stephen A. Douglas. Illinois gave to America, and to the whole world, a greater than a Logan or a Grant or a Douglas, a greater than a George Wash- ington, the Father of his Country, — one whose name always comes to one's lips as the world's immortals are being enumerated, — Abraham Lincoln. (Applause.) The world has produced many great men, great phi- losophers, great scholars, great poets, great warriors. Lincoln does not come in that category, because he resists classification and cataloguing. The world has produced many great men. Now and 26 then, with extreme rarity, it produces something greater than a great man, — it produces a great nature. Abraham Lincoln was a great nature. He had the greatness of simple goodness, and the goodness of sim- ple greatness. Illinois' greatest contribution to America and to the world was Abraham Lincoln. (Applause.) And now we come to the year 191 8. Our State, in Union with other States, is undergoing a great crisis and has entered into a great struggle. All those prin- ciples which we have been considering tonight are challenged. The principle of liberty, for which our forefathers fought, is being challenged. The principle of freedom, for which many of our forefathers died, is being imperiled, as a ruthless power deports civilian populations into slavery, — indicative of what might happen to us if it were to win this War. Our ideals of humanity are being outraged as mil- lions of innocent people, Armenians and others, have been butchered, murdered, slaughtered. Our ideals of gallantry -and chivalry toward women, ideals which the pioneer population had back there in the days of the husking bee and the country dance, when domestic morality was of a high standard, — I say our ideals of gallantry and chivalry toward women are being out- raged, as Belgium and French women are being rav- ished to death today. Our ideals of civilization, our ideals touching the exaltation of the individual con- science and its freedom from state stultification, our ideals of democracy and self-government for which Lincoln stood, — every one of them is challenged. What is Illinois' answer to be to the high call of duty? How many soldiers will Illinois give to our Country? How many sailors and aviators and engi- neers? How many patriots in different fields of service? How many millions of dollars is Illinois going to give 27 for welfare work and for works of mercy? How many ' Liberty Bonds is Illinois going to take? How much moral bulk and spiritual energy and ability to suffer hardship is Illinois going to contribute to the morale of the men at the front, and to the morale of the men and women at home? These questions cannot be answered now; but, if Illinois is true to her traditions, I doubt not that when the time comes to sum up the records, it will be found that Illinois now, as in the past, has done more than her share. May I conclude by paying a personal tribute to a man who is still living? Heretofore we have been praising the dead. May I pay my tribute and yours to a man who stands at the center of things in this State, — a man who in 191 8 is the successor of Shadrach Bond in 18 18; my I pay my tribute and yours to the Gover- nor of Illinois, who has honored us by his presence here tonight? (Applause.) Ladies and gentlemen, when about a year ago, this country was making the great and solemn decision, and when there were representative men in high places who were speaking and acting somewhat uncertainly and not rising to the height of the loyal citizenship of Illi- nois; when there were men in exalted office who were not making their position quite clear at a time when every man ought to stand up and be counted; in days such as these through which we have been passing, when we cannot be half loyal and half disloyal, it has been the pride and joy of the loyal citizenship of Illi- nois to have at the center of affairs a man who has looked face forward, without keeping his ear to the ground, without thinking what it was going to cost in direction of true blue Americanism, undiluted patriot- ism, and a just victory. (Applause.) 28 Let us today register a new oath of allegiance. Let us march with the loyal Governor of this State, keep- ing step to but one tune. And let that tune be : — ''Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, And this be our motto, 'In God we will trust' ; For the Star Spangled Banner forever shall wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." (Applause.) THE CHAIRMAN: Ladies and gentlemen: We shall be very glad to see you all in the foyer, after the exercises. The Centennial Exhibition is there and is well worth seeing. The hour is not too late, perhaps, for you to see it tonight. It will remain there until Sunday night. The meeting is adjourned. 29 The Old Songs The Early Records The Old Flags The Early Families Led by the members of the Civic Music Association, speakers and auditors joined in singing patriotic airs at intervals in the program and Miss Mina Hager, Soprano, in costume of the period, sang ballads popular at the outbreak of the Civil War: Rosalie the Prairie Flower, Hazel Dell, Just Before the Battle Mother, The Vacant Chair, and others. A program of early dance music was given by members of Hand's Orchestra in the foyer. The decorations of the stage and the boxes were the Historic Flags that have waved over Illinois: The Castles and Lions of Spain, the Lilies of France, The Crosses of Britain, The Stars and Stripes, The Battle Flags of Illinois and The Illinois Centennial Flag. The Reception in the Foyer that closed the evening brought many pleasant reunions of old friends, and the strains of the old war time music seemed to link the present with the past as tidings were exchanged of one and another son serving his country as his father and grandfather had done before him. Not without thy wondrous story Can be writ the Nation's glory Illinois. 30 i f u/f7 7f^^^ % v^' ^^^ -• -"^^^ c^"" /.r <^ ,0' '^^ >, "^ ^v" %"-•''> aO v. * " ■ ^ • . ^^ o " c o^ * o - ^ <^ *- o ->- ^ Vk -^ .\ "•» <■- V,..-. .-, ^^ i -I*."'. A/ ' »-. ° I. o u "^ * • / '^ ^^^"V'. .<£- ^ <* '. ^ V ^ o 'o . » * .A- 'ti'o ' ,0 ;j o. * o ; --1' r\. "-I/O" n_». o O ^^ . s • • , . o * 3 » O ' t .r. * /', *o ^^^ y "^o, ^>^^.^' ^^% ^^^^^i^*^ ^^ "^. V > £. - 7 '' j-v C- "■ - • \ ■ •^. ^^- » O * B , O ' . ' 0^ •*bs^ C ,1 ^^ ^' .. s- 0^ "X^ " ^ <« " 9 -f ,1 in o - » , o ^ v^ :y •>*„ l."^ -/»^ - ''> Q'f ° C^ ^^^"i o V '^' <^ "'."^'^^ ■^^ % V / "^^ _> <. 'o . . ' • t ,'''v - ^ "^^ ^^--^ <•. '-°\\* > .^"^ / ' ' > -^^^ .c,'^"^ T.' \..^ •>«: ■^.^ «<7 1- 1 , r> S A .V-^ ^"'^ vepv ^^^ K. A^ ^" .0 .^^ C ,-4^>v<. ^ ^ " => - / \--^y-V^ %-^:ft:-'./ %-^V^ %-•■ " -= -r '^O •^. <-J^ , .... .0^ ' - ^ ^ >> • o - o ' <0^ ^-^ °*> ^0 <^. • » « " ^■^ -^ ', ^ .-i -' -^"^ *0 s * * ' '* > ^vP -b -' O A ^"^ />^\ "^ ,^ /i^>>^-. [^■^ N. MANCHESTER, ftia£ INDIANA '^'^ "V > ^<. z-^. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 752 426 2