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H5i 
 
 THE BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM 
 
 ANNUAL ADDRESS 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 OF WISCONSIN, 
 
 Thtirsday Evening, Jamiary jo, i Syj . 
 
 By Hon. CHARLES D. ROBINSON, of Green Bay. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE 
 
 MADISON, WIS.; 
 
 ATWOOD & CULVER, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 
 1873. 
 

BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM * 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Perhaps the hardest part of the task with which I involved 
 myself when I made the rash promise to youi* Secretary a few 
 weeks ago that I would furnish an address for this occasion, 
 has been the selection of a subject. The ground has been so 
 thoroughly gone over by my predecessors, that there seems no 
 new spot left untouched. Mr. Van Wyck has taken you 
 through a pleasing journey among the monuments of history, 
 as illustrating the progress of peoples. President CHADBOUEisrE 
 has explained the bearing of history upon individual and na- 
 tional action. Judge Ortox has probed the records of all nations 
 to show the Development of Races. Judge Walker has gone 
 over the earlier military history of these Northwestern States. 
 Governor Salomon has discoursed upon the vicissitudes of 
 new countries and new peoples, and the uses of a historical 
 depository for a young State like this ; and when I turn to a 
 field more especially familiar to myself — the earlier history of 
 my own State — I find that to hate been occupied throughout 
 its length and breadth by the exhaustive pens of your Secre- 
 tar}', and of Mr. Baird, Mr. Strong, Mr. Martin and others. 
 
 One might well retreat from the task of even reaping where 
 
 *Iu consequBce of ill health, Col. Robinson ^^•a8 unable to visit Madison and read hi3 
 Address in person: and, at his solicitation, Hon. Geo. B. Ssiitu read it in his behalf. 
 
 L. CD. 
 
tliey liave gathered — and indeed I sliall not attempt it. I will 
 try anotlier field, yet left untouched, which seems an appro- 
 priate one, and in which I hope to interest you for at least a 
 brief half hour. 
 
 We are here a mixed people, from the four quarters of the 
 eartli — rapidly assimilating, it is true — but, as we become 
 engrafted upon the common American stock, wc cannot help 
 adding something of our original habits, manners, and modes 
 of thought. The German has brought from Fatherland to 
 this his new home, his solid industry and his steadiness of 
 character. These were handed down fi'om the gray old cas- 
 tles, the smoking factories, and the thoroughly tilled fields of 
 the old country. It was their contribution for the New World 
 across the sea. And he brought w^ith him, too, the songs and 
 the story of the mystic, ever-flowing Ehine. Father Khine, 
 then, as the Germanic blood swells in volumes more and more 
 through our veins, becomes Father Ehine to all of us — a rela- 
 tion by marriage — and we can go back lovingly to his tradi- 
 tions, as those of our own family. 
 
 From France, there has come that graft most needed of all 
 by this old, staid, careful, Puritan stock. It is the gaiety, the 
 dash, the happy ways of Sunny France. UjDon our hill-sides 
 to-day we try to reproduce the wines of the Moselle. In our 
 factories we try to imitate her cunning in cloths and silks. 
 And our merchants and our shop-keepers are happiest the 
 nearer they can come to the gay bazaars of La Belle Paris. 
 
 From the old mother country, England, wc have drawn our 
 intense pursuit of business — perhaps I ought to say, of wealth. 
 She has given more than that — she and Scotland. We go 
 there, to the fountain head at Stratford-on-Avon, for the most 
 wonderful and delightful encyclopedia of human character 
 the world has ever known. The songs which came from that 
 little cottage at Ayr still ripple as pleasantly to oar ears as 
 the river beside which they were written ; and they are our 
 songs by as good a right as they are Scotland's — they are the 
 
property of all truc-licarted, independent, — and I can almost 
 say, love making, wine-drinking, sonsie people. And from 
 end to end of this New World, wlio of us lias not drawnlnspi- 
 ration from tlie grand, the marcking, tke cliivalric vei'se and 
 story of tke Wizard of tke Nortli ? Abbotsford is one of onr 
 own Meccas. And all tke ground wkick Scott has kallowed, 
 aronnd tkose ckarmed Lakes, in the Canongatc, tke Ilcart of 
 Mid Lotkiau, at Stirling Castle, Colingstogle's Ford, along 
 tkose mystic valleys and among tkose rugged kills, is trans- 
 planted to American soil, and becomes a part of American 
 institutions. 
 
 If we go wkere tke marble temples and forums of Ancient 
 BiOme are being exkumed from tke askes of centuries, tkere is 
 a feeling witk every American tkat it is one of tke tombs of 
 kis nation's forefatkers — tkat tkougk tke bones and dust of a 
 Hepublic lie mouldering tkere, tke spirit, by some metempsy- 
 cliosis, kas entered into tke body of tke new country in tke 
 living West. Tke glory of Eome is in wkat ske kas been. 
 Her glory is like a sun wkick kas set, but wkose ligkt yet lin- 
 gers on tke kill-tops of America. 
 
 And Ireland, too. If we look into our national ckaracter, 
 tkere, among our sinews, our religious inkeritances, our un- 
 yielding courage, and our love for tke soil wkere our kome is, 
 tkere skall we find tke moors and keatks on wkick tkey grew. 
 
 Tkere are tke linen-makers of Belfast— tke sailors of Cork — 
 tke farmers of Kerry. Tkey are all grafted into tke national 
 gi'owtk. And greater tkan all, tkere are tke Groves of Blarney. 
 
 If tke politicians, tke traders, tke newspaper folks, tke love- 
 makers, owe any one tking more tkan anotker to tke institu- 
 tions of tke Old World, it is to Blarney. 
 
 It seems as if Americanism is tke talent for getting old 
 things togetker so as to produce new and admirable results. 
 Steam kad turned wkeels for generations, and vessels kad 
 sailed tke seas for ages ; but Fulton put tkem togetker, 
 and produced an Americanism. 
 
Electricity had long been in use before Morse made it run 
 of errands over wires, bringing forth an Americanism. 
 
 In all ages the out-cro])pings of civil and religious liberty, 
 and of national independence, form the most frequent and in- 
 teresting epochs of history — alas ! most of them failures, 
 
 But here the Pilgrims set up the standard of religious free- 
 dom — all narrow and insufficient though it may have been, 
 yet still a step forward, and the best according to their lights 
 then ; here the battles of the Eevolution were fought ; here 
 h'lve landed year after 3^ear, the Argonauts, seeking the golden 
 fleece of liberty ; and the ingredients, often so opposite, are 
 harmonizing into the grand whole of Americanism. 
 
 Long before this Eepublic was founded, the elements of the 
 new nationality were in full being across the water. 
 
 There was the culture and the solidity of the Englishman ; 
 the vim of the Irishman ; the staid industry and discipline 
 of the German ; the gaiety and ingenuity of the Frenchman ; 
 the jmtience and endurance of the Norseman sailor ; the dar- 
 ing, and possibly a strain of the lawlessness, of the Vikings. 
 But all these, and more, were held apart by governments and 
 boundaries. It was not until they met on common ground, 
 free and welcome to all, that they cast their several graces, 
 possibly not sifted well from their several faults, into the com- 
 mon lot, and behold, the result was Americanism. 
 
 And so, without making this a laborious argument, weary- 
 ing you merely to elaborately connect the origin of things 
 in the Old "World with tlieir adaptation in the New, I will 
 rapidly and familiarly run over some of them, as they exist 
 there, trusting to you to recognize their naturalized progeny 
 here. And in starting over the field of incipient Americanism, 
 where can we more appropriately begin than with Castle Blar- 
 ney? 
 
 The Blarney estate is about ten miles north fi'om Cork. It 
 was once the residence of the royal race of the McCarthys, 
 Barons of Blarney and Earls of Clancarty ; and the Castle, 
 
though upwards of five hundred years old, stauds ahnost un- 
 impaired by time; with its turrets, towers, and fine proportions, 
 solid and undecayed. It is not inhabited, but kept as a fam- 
 ily memento, and shown by the retainers of the owner, to whom 
 unlimited fees must be paid at every turn. 
 
 On alighting at the entrance of the grounds, an Irisli fiddler 
 strikes up " The Groves of Blarney," which is played with in- 
 decent haste lest the visitor should get past, and not pay him 
 his customary shilling. A guide leads along the avenue of 
 approach to the Castle, and another shows the way to the 
 gi'oves, all holding out their hands for a fee. 
 
 Of course, you will kiss the Blarney Stone. The tradition 
 is, that whoever kisses it becomes possessed with a peculiar 
 " soft, i^ersuasive, wheedling eloquence" that is irresistible; 
 hence the song — 
 
 "There is a stone there 
 That whoever kisses, 
 Oh, he never misses 
 To grow eloquent. 
 'T is he may clamber 
 To a lady's chamber, 
 Or become a member 
 Of Parliament. 
 
 "A clever spouter 
 He '11 soon turn out, or 
 An out and outer. 
 
 To be let alone! 
 Don't hope to hinder him. 
 Sure lie's a pilgrim 
 
 From tlie Blarney Stone." 
 
 The Groves are beautiful, though much shorn of tiieir 
 original extent. A short distance from the Castle lies the 
 lovely lake of Blarney, into which it is said that the old 
 McCarthy, whose possessions were once confiscated, threw 
 all his family plate — at what particular spot is a secret only 
 known but to tliree of his descendants at a time — that before 
 
8 
 
 one (lies, lie communicates it to anotlier of the famil}-. There 
 also comes up from the bottom of the lake, now and then, 
 herds of beautiful white cows to graze upon the rich pastures 
 adjoining. Among the groves are the witches' kitchen, the 
 witches' stairway, and many other places connected with the 
 veritable histor3' of the Castle. In its basement is a dungeon. 
 
 The family pride of these kingly McCarthys is happily not 
 abated by time nor vicissitudes in life. One of them who, 
 many years ago, lived near Green Bay, was an attache of 
 General Cass, during some of his trips in Wisconsin ; and at 
 an Indian conference held at the Cedars, on Fox Eiver, the 
 General had occasion to call him. " Come here, McCarthy," 
 said he. "General," said the descendant of Irish kings, "it 
 makes a sight of difference whether you say ' Come here, 
 McCarthy; or Captain McCarthy, will you jDlaze come 
 here.' " 
 
 The song, the fable and the music which have come to us 
 from over the water — have they not become nationalized here ? 
 Throughout our concert rooms, our jDarlors, our cabins ; in our 
 fields, and streets and workshops, you may hear the songs of 
 Burns, the creations of Shakespeare, of Goethe, and the 
 music of Germany, Italy, and indeed of all the Old "World. 
 Who shall say that they are not as American as they are Eng- 
 lish, or Scotch, or Teutonic ? And who shall say, when there 
 lands at New York an emigrant ship, with its cargo of plain 
 people, that there comes not with them, and indeed more a 
 part of them than the very garments they wear upon their 
 backs — because they are destructible — the companionship of 
 that i^oesy ? This new land could have no charms for them if 
 they landed only with their spades and mattocks. They sing 
 cheerily as they come ashore — 
 
 " Boatman, take thrice thy fee, 
 For spirits twain have crossed with me." 
 
 The home of Burns is near Ayr, a village or city of 15,000 
 
inhabitauts, near the inoutli of the river Ayr, on the west 
 coast of soutliern Scothmcl. Among its noted features arc the 
 " Twa Brigs " — the two famous bridges which might to-day 
 never have been known away from Ayr but for the dash of 
 BuKNs' jien. There they are in full use, especially morning 
 and night, when flocks of people cross them in going to and 
 from their work. His cottage birth-place is one of the very 
 simple kind known there as a clay biggin, and is thatched with 
 straw. It has been bought, and is carefully preserved, by an 
 association of his admirers, and is the Mecca, as 3'ou know, to 
 which large numbers make a pilgrimage. 
 
 The scenes of Ta:m O'SnANTEii's exploits have rare attrac- 
 tions for every visitor, and you will not, if you go there, fail 
 to follow over the ground from the Old Kirk of Alloway to 
 the Brig 0' Down, between which Tam and his grey mare 
 " Meg " made a race to escape their weird pursuers. Although 
 these are celebrated in nothing but a poetic fancy, their attrac- 
 tions are as solid as if Tam had really taken that ride, and the 
 Deil and his imps had really given him such a scare. 
 
 The old kirk is roofless, and is itself not a very interesting 
 relic, except for the interest BuRXS has thrown around it. 
 It is no wonder that the roof and rafters are all gone, if we 
 believe that half the snuff boxes, and other trinkets, which are 
 being sold as portions of the roof, are genuine. 
 
 The Tam O'Shanter Inn, at Ayr, is an antique public 
 house with a quaint sign above the door, marking it as the 
 tavern where Tam O'Shaxter and Soutter Johnny used to 
 
 meet 
 
 " Ae market night, 
 
 Tam had got planted, imco right, 
 Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely. 
 With reaming swats, that drank divinely, 
 And at his elbow, Soutter Johnky, 
 His ancient, trusty, drouthie crony." 
 
10 
 
 The Brig O'Doon spans with one areli the river Doon, wliicli 
 to-day rijiples by as sweetly as when Bukxs sung to it — 
 
 " Ye banks and braes o' Bonnie Doon." 
 
 And the Ayr, too, beside which he and his Highland Mary 
 had their last meeting and final separation, 
 
 " Where by the winding Ayr we met, 
 To live one day of parting love." 
 
 Indeed, fill the country round about Ayr, though lovel}^ 
 enough of itself, has been given another beauty by the gar- 
 nishings of song which Bukns has lovingly lavished upon it; 
 and the visitor cannot go there without, at every step, feeling 
 himself in the presence of Scotland's favorite poet. 
 
 The home, and house, and grave of Shakespeare are the 
 only attractions of Stratford-on-Avon, unless we include the 
 Red Horse Inn, made famous as the place where our own 
 Washington Irving wrote a portion of his Sketch Book, 
 w^hile in England. In it is the little parlor called Wash- 
 ington Irving's room, and which is generally assigned to 
 American guests. Here are the arm-chair, the poker, on 
 which is engraved " Geoffrey Crayon's Scepter," and are now 
 celebrated by him in several passages of his writings. The 
 " Red Horse " is a A'cry model of an English country inn — 
 situated directly on the street, and white-washed to the last 
 degree ; it has no street door, but is reached hy a passage-w^ay 
 to the court or inner yard. A central stairway, as you enter, 
 leads to the upper floor. On one side of the entrance is the 
 bar-room — but yet a room without a bar — and the office where 
 the bustling and rather handsome landlady holds sway. A 
 landlord in that country is a myth ; the landlady is the only 
 \asible authority, and is supreme. 
 
 The public room, which answers to our American bar-room 
 in .a country tavern, had two tables neatly set, with pipes, 
 tobacco, glasses, etc., ready for use, arm-chairs ranged around 
 the walls, the floor sanded, and a bright coal lire in the grate. 
 
11 
 
 Tlic walls arc liuug round with prints. A ghuss of ale or 
 other drink is obtained by ringing the bell, when a bar-maid 
 appears and takes the order. 
 
 In my visit there I was puzzled to know the use of a brass 
 machine which stood on one of the tables, and while exam- 
 ining it, the bar-maid came in and explained that it contained 
 smoking tobacco, which could only be got at by placing a 
 ha'penny in a slit at the top, and touching a spring. Of course, 
 I tried it, and the effect was so magical, as well as comical, 
 that I tried it again and again. It was cither the fun of tlic 
 thing, so far as the box was concerned, or tlie ringing laugh 
 of the handsome bar-maid, at each trial, that induced the 
 several repetitions of it ; and if all my change, on hand, had 
 been in ha'pennies, I am not sure but they would have gone 
 into that enchanting, or enchantress's, box. 
 
 The house, where the great poet was born, is partly of tim- 
 ber and partly cement, and is in excellent preservation. There 
 is nothing but the house, with undoubted claims to association 
 with his name ; chairs and desks are shown, but they have no 
 sort of authenticity. 
 
 "We sat in the old fire-i)lace, which is said to have been a 
 favorite place of his ; we climbed the oaken stair-case, probably 
 trodden so often by his feet, and went about the grounds, 
 shaded by the same old trees, perhaps, where he sat. Still, I 
 am confident that no visitor feels that peculiar enthusiasm there 
 as at the home of Burns. 
 
 The country around Stratford is not hallowed by Suakes- 
 peare's muse. He celebrated, not the smooth flowing Avon, 
 nor the quiet fields beside it — but forts and battlc-liclds, kings, 
 queens and palaces. 
 
 Burns lovingly sung of the Ayr, the Bonnie Boon, and 
 its banks and braes ; he forgot the ambitions and plottings of 
 royal life, and poured out his swan-like melodies of the lives 
 and loves of the lads and lassies around him. 
 
12 
 
 Stratford cburcli, where Shakespeake's aslies rest, is a large 
 and venerable structure, a portion of wliicli was budt in 1443. 
 Upon the rough freestone slab that covers his dust, the follow- 
 ing verse, said to have been composed by himself, is the only 
 inscription : 
 
 " Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare 
 To digg the dust enclosed lieare; 
 Blest be the man that spares these stones— 
 And curst be he that moves my bones." 
 
 The curse is said to have prevented the removal of his ashes 
 to Westminister Abbey, for no one dared to disturb the earth 
 around him. 
 
 The church is beautifully situated in an extensive ground, 
 with groves of fine old trees, on the banks of the Avon. 
 
 Westminister Abbey contains within its storied walls a 
 world of interest to Americans. It is a pantheon to which the 
 whole civilized globe may go with reverence. Here kings, 
 princes, poets, philosophers and warriors have silently moul- 
 dered into dust, and enduring marble en»lems their mem- 
 ory. Here, the rival statesmen are at peace, and the tongue 
 of the orator is mute ; here, side by side, rest the crowned head 
 and the chancellor — the archbishop and the actor — the divine 
 and the physician — the poet and the queen. Here the first 
 English Bible issued from the press. Here the magnificence 
 and pomp of the regal coronation have followed the solemn 
 and beautiful burial service for the dead ; and here the peal- 
 ing organ and the swelling choir, reverberating through the 
 loft}'' gray-grown aisles, attune the mind to solemn thoughts 
 and sobriety of demeanor. 
 
 And London Bridge. Of all London, the Thames and the 
 Bridge seem to me to have the most subtle charms for us 
 children of English stock. There is no one, whether he can 
 read or not, but knows of the Thames. Mother Goose 
 sang of it to all of ns, from our cradle to our school days. 
 
13 
 
 And we shall never lose our faitli in London Bridge, wlierc 
 yon and I, dear friends, have followed so often and so lovingly 
 its train of wonderful mysteries. Who is there who has not 
 sat upon his mother's la]), and listened to the wonderful ox 
 that wouldn't drink the water — the water that wouldn't 
 quench the fire — the fire that wouldn't burn the stick — the 
 stick that would'nt beat the kid — the kid that wouldn't go ? 
 And that perplexed driver saw by the moonlight that 'twas al- 
 most midnight, and 'twas time he and kid were home an hour 
 and a half ago. Tliat happened on London Bridge — and 
 who, among all who are sitting here, would'nt brave the wide 
 ocean to see that veritable spot ? The bridge, and the kid, 
 and all, are no longer English — they are American also. 
 Marry AT and Dickens have invested its waters with their 
 heroes, and one may now stand there again and see Old To:m 
 and Young Tom, and Jacob Faithful, David Copperfield 
 and Steerfortii, Little Nell and her grandfather, the 
 BooFER Lady and the Bird of Prey, all peopling it again to 
 the exclusion of the more real and solid men and women. 
 
 Perhaps the most popular of all the music resorts in mu- 
 sical Vienna, is Corti's ca/e, in the Yolksgarten. It is there 
 that Strauss' band plays — the veritable Strauss, whose mu- 
 sic, especially waltzes, will be recognized as household words 
 by my musical hearers. The concerts take place daily in the 
 afternoon, Sundays not excepted. The garden itself is one 
 of the great public resorts, and we found large numbers stroll- 
 ing through it. A part of it, containing the cafe, was fenced 
 off by a rope netting, and the price of admission was forty 
 la'eutzers, or about thirty cents. Within and around the 
 cafe there were two or three thousand people, men and women, 
 and many families with children, eating ices, drinking coffee, 
 tea and beer — mostly beer^to Strauss' bewitching music. 
 The band consisted of fifty performers, and I need not say was 
 one of the best ones, if not the very best, I ever heard. The 
 whole scene was very striking — with the handsome cafe built 
 
14 
 
 in tlic form of a pagoda, the grounds laid out witli walks and 
 flower beds, the crowds of well dressed people sitting around 
 the little tables, animated in conversation and gesture, and 
 the sj)lendid music, could only be found, I will not say in Vi- 
 enna, but in German Europe. 
 
 But of all places in the world, I think the musical sentiment 
 is most fully embodied at Naples. It is a place where every- 
 thing is cheap — but music cheapest of all. One would think 
 that there, at least, he had got rid of street music, that hand 
 organs in those Italian streets, would be like carrying coals 
 to Newcastle ; but there are more of them there, and they be- 
 gin earlier in the morning, and stay later at night, and give 
 more music for the same money, than any where else in the 
 known world. There they are mounted on wheels and accom- 
 panied by two men, one to haul the machine, and the other to 
 turn the crank. Of course, Naples being a head-quarter for 
 their manufacture, they are so common that none but the very 
 best can command any attention, and it can almost be said 
 that their music is of the highest order. The most exquisite 
 airs and selections from the operas, including the gems from 
 the recent ones of La Belle Helene and La Grand Duch- 
 ESSE, are as common and cheap on the streets as roasted chest- 
 nuts, and as well played as at the grand theatre San Carlo, 
 where it costs six francs for admittance. Everybody in Italy 
 understands music — and none better than the lazzaroni, who 
 hang around the public places and will criticise the National 
 Band or a passing organ, hissing or applauding them with 
 equal unction. At the San Carlo, the opera sits enthroned. 
 The orchestra has an hundred musicians; and the stage will 
 hold twice as many singers. The theatre has six tiers of 
 boxes, of which there are thirty^ in each tier, and their effect 
 rising one above the other to a height of sixty or seventy feet, 
 all profusely gilt and decorated in carving and tapestry, is 
 superb. At a favorite opera, the whole audience becomes a 
 part of it ; and the prima donna may be likened to the minis- 
 
15 
 
 ter at one of our ciiinp meetings, who only lines the hymn, for 
 the congregation to sing. In the more interesting passages at 
 the San Carlo, the thousands in the boxes and parquettc are 
 on their feet singing together, and the great theatre is filled 
 with an atmosphere of music. 
 
 Turn me abruptly from the ctherial to the real — from music 
 to beer. They are indeed, not so far a|)art. If we sit down 
 at night — as the descendants of the old German stock, and sing 
 together the old songs of the Rhine and of Fatherland, we 
 would be dry indeed without the chorus of clinking seidels. 
 Bavaria seems to be the land ^j«/' excellence, for beer. The 
 moment the frontier is crossed, this devotion to beer becomes 
 perceptible in the breweries in the gi-eat towns, where they are 
 almost invariably the largest and most imposing buildings, 
 and the number of cellars and shops in their environs, whither 
 the citizens resort to drink it. At the commencement of the 
 season a surprising anxiety is everywhere manifested to dis- 
 cover where the best beer may be had; and, when ascertained, 
 the favored establishments where it is retailed, become the con- 
 stant places of resort, till the supply is exhausted. The bus- 
 iness of brewing in Bavaria maintains more that five thousand 
 establishments, and nearly ninety-six million gallons are made 
 annually. It £tlso forms the largest source of revenue to the 
 Government, furnishing two-thirds of the whole amount. 
 
 Perhaps the most famous beer is that made by Dkeher, in 
 Yienna. His bier-keller, or place for retailing it, is a grand 
 saloon, capable of seating more than a thousand persons ; and 
 his brewery turns out twelve hundred and seventy barrels of 
 beer every day during the five winter months. During the 
 other months of the year no beer is brewed. 
 
 In my own experience in that country, I thought it to be a 
 bounden duty to get the best of everything. A ]\Iunich gen- 
 tleman advised me, in looking for samples of the best beer, 
 that I must not depend on the hotels, but go to a regular brew- 
 
16 
 
 ery or restaurant. So I followed his advice, and a foaming 
 tankard, holding something less tlian a quart, was brought to 
 me by a pretty waiter girl in the height of the Bavarian cos- 
 tume, wdio, custom being rather slack at the time, sat down at 
 the opposite side of the table, and asked me if I came from 
 America, and if I possibly might know her brother, who had 
 gone somewhere beyond Ni- York, and told me how she wished 
 some one would take her to that wonderful land. I did not- 
 know her brother, but did know many Bavarians, any one of 
 whom could make her heart glad by drinking such huge and 
 such often scidels of beer ; and I apologized for not being able 
 to do such a little act of politeness myself as to take her to 
 America, as my w^ay home was to be very circuitous, and I 
 had my hands full. with two female companions — but allevi- 
 ated her sadness by leaving a handful of kreutzers on the ta- 
 ble, and commending her to some less cumbered, future-com- 
 ing American. 
 
 It is in one of these beer cellars — in the old town of May- 
 ence, on the Ehine — that the first known printing office 
 was maugurated. Guttenberg and Schoeffer, and perhaps 
 Faust, w^ orked in it. They were suspected of being in league 
 with the devil, and of practising the black arts — which last, 
 indeed, was true — and they were forced to set up their press in 
 a damp and dismal cellar, to which the light of day, or the 
 sight of passers by, could not penetrate. It will be shown to 
 you now, if you inquire of a bar tender in an adjoining cellar, 
 who will take you through a series of under-ground rooms, 
 where malt is fermenting and where casks are cooling their 
 portly sides, finally into the room hallowed by the first print- 
 ing press. There was printed the first Bible — a copy of which 
 still exists in the museum at Mayence. What a progeny for 
 such a birth-place ! Could the stalwart, ungainly, spectacled 
 GuTTEXBERG, who consecrated the new art by applying it to 
 the production of the Bible, come forth from his grave to-day 
 
17 
 
 and see to wliat uses it has been put, lie would likely wrapliis 
 cerements about liim, and go back to mother earth with but 
 one request — that she would receive him into eternal oblivion ! 
 The traveler, by the ordinary routes, will usually get at Co- 
 logne his first view of the Rhine valley — the river beautiful — 
 the valley majestic — the countr}^ of history and legend. I have 
 many times hesitated, while preparing this paper, and half re- 
 solved to leave all else, and devote it wholly to that storied 
 river. No wonder that the Germans from the Ehine, who sit 
 down for a smoke and a drink together in the far-off Western 
 World in remembrance of the Fatherland, first think and talk 
 about this grand river. It brought me back to my w^estern 
 home, where many and many times I have sat spell-bound by 
 the enthusiastic description which those men gave of the dis- 
 tant river, shining afar to them in memory, and so much far- 
 ther to me in imagination, never dreaming to see it and to fol- 
 low its classic shores along. No wonder that it is regarded 
 almost with veneration by the people who have been reared 
 by its borders, and who have regarded it as a sort of protector, 
 or father, who has through all ages fostered agriculture and 
 commerce, and brought to their fields its wealth of rejuvenat- 
 ing waters ; which has carried their products to market, and 
 returned the luxuries of the world ; upon whose shores the 
 finest wines are raised ; wdiose beauty of hills, forests, and 
 plains is unexcelled ; whose whole course is storied wdth legend 
 and romance ; and wdiose history comes down from the far 
 j)ast, through the Eoman civilization, the good and bad times 
 of the feudal system, the chivalry of the crusades, the dawn- 
 ing of a civilized and enlightened age ; and finally the time 
 when all those little dukedoms and principalities, the remnants 
 of the feudal ages, are grouped into a harmonious whole, and 
 united Germany rears herself into a power not second to any 
 on earth. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 "A thousand battles have assailed thy banks, 
 
 But these and half their fame have passed away, 
 
 And slaughter lieaped on high his weltering ranks — 
 Their very graves are gone, and where are they ? 
 
 Thy tide washed down the blood of yesterday, 
 And all was stainless, and on thy clear stream 
 
 Glanced with its dancing light the sunny ray." 
 
 "With these brief glances at the homes in the Old "World, fi'om 
 which emigrated some of our national traits, we will close. 
 The field is so broad, and presents so much that is familiar as 
 we enter upon it, that it is difficult to tell from which to select. 
 The religion, the music, the literature, architecture, laws, man- 
 ners and customs, liberty of conscience and of speech, — even 
 our nursery stories with which we start from our cradles, and 
 the traditions which we recount in later life — all — which we 
 have come into the habit of calling American, have the roots 
 and tendrils of their genealogies in the old land across the sea. 
 They live at Eome, where the ashes of centuries have never 
 quite buried the first republic — at Eunnj^mede, where Magna 
 Charta sprung into deathless life — among the ruins of Jerusa- 
 lem and on the plains of Palestine, which have given us our 
 national religion — and everywhere along the mountains, the 
 plains and the river valleys of Europe, from whence we have 
 gathered, here a little and there a little, the separate attributes 
 which are grouped into our national character. Who shall 
 tell how near we have reached the completed whole — ^whether 
 we are now at the uppermost round of destiny, with only the 
 task of ultimate consolidation nigh at hand, or whether the 
 tribes of outer Asia and the farthest Ind, and the isles of the 
 sea, have still to cast in their lots, and make Americanism the 
 nationalitv of the wide vrorld ? 
 
CONDITION OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 A synopsis of tlic Annual Report of the Society, January 
 2, 1873, shows : That the receipts into the General Fund for 
 the past year were $3,598.29 ; disbursements, $3,614.67, show- 
 ing an over-payment of $16.38. The Binding Fund, which 
 w^as last year reported at $656.38, has been increased by a do- 
 nation of $20 from Rev. R. M. Hodges, and one dollar each 
 from F. J. Haseltine, J. B. IIolbrook, and K H. Nichol- 
 SOIS", the sale of duplicate books, the annual dues and accrued 
 interest, to $829.81. The Society earnestly renews its plea 
 for contributions to this important fund. 
 
 The past and present condition of the Library are shown 
 in the following table : 
 
 Date. 
 
 1854 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 1860 
 1861 
 1862 
 1863 
 1864 
 1865 
 1866 
 1867 
 1868 
 1869 
 1870 
 1871 
 1872 
 1873 
 
 January 1 . 
 January 2. 
 Jamtary 1. 
 January 6 
 January 1. 
 January 4. 
 January 3 . 
 January 2. 
 January 2. 
 January 2. 
 January 2. 
 January 3 : 
 January 2. 
 January 3. 
 .January 4. 
 January 1. 
 January 4. 
 January 3. 
 January 2. 
 .January 2. 
 
 Volumes 
 added. 
 
 50 
 ,000 
 ,065 
 ,005 
 ,024 
 ,107 
 ,800 
 837 
 610 
 544 
 248 
 520 
 368 
 923 
 ,462 
 ,838 
 923 
 ,970 
 ,211 
 ,166 
 
 25, 671 
 
 Documents 
 and Pam- 
 phlets. 
 
 1,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 300 
 
 959 
 
 500 
 
 723 
 
 1,134 
 
 711 
 
 2,373 
 
 356 
 
 226 
 
 80G 
 
 2,811 
 
 1,043 
 
 682 
 
 6,240 
 
 1,372 
 
 3,789 
 
 1,528 
 
 Both 
 together. 
 
 50 
 2,000 
 3,065 
 1,305 
 1,983 
 1,607 
 2,523 
 1,971 
 1,321 
 2,917 
 604 
 746 
 1,174 
 3,7.34 
 6,505 
 3,520 
 7,163 
 3,342 
 5,000 
 3,694 
 
 28,553 54,224 
 
 Total in 
 Library . 
 
 50 
 
 2,050 
 
 5,115 
 
 6,420 
 
 9,403 
 
 10,010 
 
 12,535 
 
 14,. 504 
 
 15, 825 
 
 18,745 
 
 19,346 
 
 20,092 
 
 21,266 
 
 25,000 
 
 31,505 
 
 35.025 
 
 42,188 
 
 45,530 
 
 50,530 
 
 54, 224 
 
20 
 
 The book additions of tlie year lifive been 2,166, of wliicb. 
 1,591 were by i:)urcliase, and 575 by donation, a larger number 
 than in any proceeding year ; 1,528 pamphlets, only 71 of 
 ^Yhich were obtained by purchase ; making the total book and 
 pamphlet additions 3,694. Of the book additions, 109 were 
 folios and 366 quartos — thus increasing the total number of 
 folios now in the library to 1,826, and the quartos to 2,550 and 
 both to-gether -1,376. 
 
 Though our total additions have been considerably less than 
 last year, owing to a large j)urchase in 1871, of over 2,000 
 pamphlets, yet the book additions alone exceed those of last 
 year by 955 volumes. 
 
 To the newspaper department the additions have been larger 
 than in any preceeding year, 40'± volumes ; making the total 
 number of bound newspaper files 2,04-l. Among the addi- 
 tions are a set, in quarto size, of the Holland Mercury from 
 1651 to 1790, and also from 1801 to 1815. Leijden Gazette, 
 quarto, from 1765 to 1782, and the Paris Gazette 1696-97— 
 making 210 volumes, all but the two volumes of the Paris 
 Gazette in the Holland language, forming a most fitting addi- 
 tion to the Tank portion of our library — containing, doubtless, 
 many quaint items of early Holland migrations to our country, 
 and much curious and valuble matter pertaining to the pecun- 
 iary aid furnished our struggling country during the Revolu- 
 tionary war by patriotic bankers and capitalists of Holland. 
 
 Of the remaining 194 newspaper volumes, 76 are English 
 files — ±6 of them a set of Notes and Queries, devoted to gene- 
 alogy and antiquities ; and 118 American files. Among the 
 latter are a set of the Detroit Ga?:ette, for nearly ten consecu- 
 tive years, 1819-28, at a period when it was the only newspa- 
 per representative of Michigan Territory, then embracing what 
 is now Wisconsin within its limits — an invaluable acquisition, 
 from Thos. II. Sheldon and sisters, whose father, the late 
 Hon. Jonx P. Sheldon, was one of its founders. 
 
 Our total newspaper files arc now distributed in the three 
 
21 
 
 centuries, as follows : 5-i in tlio seventeentli ; 359 in the eight- 
 eenth, and 1,685 in the nineteenth. 
 
 "We have now a total of 546 maps and atlases. 
 
 During the year we have received the following additions to 
 the Picture Gallery: Portrait of Col. Hercules L. Dous- 
 :irAX, painted by C. W. Heyd, of Milwaukee, in gilt frame, 
 fi'om his family ; Hon. T. 0. Howe, in gilt frame, painted by 
 F. M. Pebbles, from Senator Howe ; Col. Charles H. Lar- 
 RABEE, in gilt frame, painted by Saml. M. Brookes, of San 
 Francisco, from Col. Larrabee ; Gen. Hexry Harndex, 
 Col. S, Y. Shipman, and Gex. J as. K. Proudfit, all painted 
 by James E. Stuart, St. Louis, and in gilt frames, from 
 those persons respectively ; late Hon. John P. Sheldon, cab- 
 inet size, from his family ; late Roswell Brown, a Dane 
 County pioneer, cabinet size, from James Bell, administra- 
 tor ; a fancy picture of a young girl, marked on the back 
 " Wild Rose," in gilt frame, from the artist who painted it, 
 Charles P. Dorward. The present number of oil paintings 
 in the Gallery is 86 ; and other portraits of our pioneer set 
 tiers, prominent public men, and war heroes, will, we trust, be 
 early added to our collection. 
 
 The cabinet of curiosities and Natural History has received 
 many important additions. 
 
 OBJECTS OF COLLECTION. 
 
 The Society earnestly solicits of every editor and publisher 
 of a newspaper or periodical in the State the regular transmiss- 
 ion of such publication; and from all, books and pam23hlets, on 
 all subjects of interest or reference ; magazines, newspaper 
 files, maps, and engravings ; portraits of Wisconsin pioneers 
 and other prominent personages ; war and Indian relics and 
 other curiosities ; narratives of early settlement, hardships, 
 border wars, and of the part borne by Wisconsin men in our 
 late civil war. 
 
HISTORICAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The society has resolved to commemorate the two hundreth 
 anniversary of the descent of the Wisconsin and the discovery 
 of tlie Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette, on Tuesday, 
 the 17th of June next, at the confluence of the Wisconsin and 
 the Great Father of Waters. An event which gave suchi un- 
 speakable joy to those adventurous explorers and discoverers, 
 and which has been followed by consequ.ences so important, is 
 well worthy of a suitable commemoration ; and from no body 
 of our people could it be more appropriately initiated than by 
 our Historical Society. It is also proposed, in connection with 
 the celebration of the discovery of the Mississippi, to devote 
 the following day as a Pioneer Jubilee for our early settlers. 
 
 John G. Shea, LL D., of New York, the distinguished 
 historian of New France, has been selected to deliver the com- 
 memorative address, and the Hon. Mr. Joliet, of Canada, a 
 lineal descendant of the great discoverer, invited to honor the 
 occasion with his presence, and make such remarks as he may 
 deem proper ; and the second day to be devoted to historical 
 addresses and reminiscences on the early settlement of the 
 country;the pioneers, editors and citizens of the State generall}^, 
 the Governors of the adjacent States, and the Historical Socie- 
 ties of the country invited to participate on the occasion. 
 
 Messrs. Governor Washburx, Draper, Ortok, Mills, 
 Hastings, Proudfit, Eoss, Durrie and Chapman were ap- 
 pointed a committee of arrangements, with full power to 
 appoint sub committees, and act in all matters pertaining to 
 the celebration. 
 
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. 
 1873. 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 
 Hon. ALEXANDER MITCHELL, Milwaukee. 
 
 VICE PRESIDENTS: 
 
 ECK. HE NRY S. BAIRD, Gkeen Bay. 
 I. A. LAP HAM, LL B., Milwaukee. 
 Hox. J. R. DOOLITTLE, Racine. 
 Ho.v. J. T. LEWIS, CoLUMUDS. 
 Ho.N-. U. S. ORTON, LL D., Madison. 
 
 Hon. JAS. SUTHERLAND, Janesville. 
 Hon. H. D.BARRON, St. Ciwix Falls. 
 Hon. M. L. MARTIN, Green Bat. 
 Hon. a. G. MILLER, Milwaukee. 
 Hon. J. n. ROUNTREE, Platteville. 
 
 HONORARY VICE PRESIDENTS: 
 
 1. Hon. CYRUS WOODMAN, Mass. 4. Hon. JOHN CATLIN, New Jersey. 
 
 2. Hon. PERRY H. SMITH, Illinois. 5. Hon. STEPHEN TAYLOR, Penn. 
 
 3. Hon. H. S. RANDALL, New York. 6. Hon. A. C. DODGE, Iowa. 
 
 .7. Hon. L. J. FARWELL, Missouri. 
 
 CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, 
 
 LYMAN C. DRAPER. 
 
 recording secretary, 
 Col. frank H. FJRMIN. 
 
 treasurer, 
 
 A. H. :m:ain. 
 
 LIBRARIAN, 
 
 DANIEL S. DURRIE. 
 CURATORS: 
 
 Hon. C. C. WASHBURN, 
 Governor. 
 
 FOR ONE YEAR. 
 
 Gen. Simeon'Mills,' 
 Hon. Geo. B. Smith, 
 Gen. G. P. Delaplaine, 
 Dr. Joseph Hobbins, 
 Hon. Andrew Proudfit, 
 
 S. U. PiNNET. 
 
 Hon. E. W. Ketes, 
 Hon. James L. Hill, 
 Hon. S. D. Hastings. 
 
 EX-OFFICIO. 
 
 Hon. Ll. BREESE, 
 
 Secretary of Stale. 
 
 FOR TWO YEARS. 
 
 Gov. L. Faiuciiild, 
 Hon. E. B. Dean, 
 CoL S. V. Shipman, 
 Hon. L. B. Vilas, 
 Gen. D. Atwood, 
 
 O. M. CONOVER, 
 
 Hon. John Y. Smith, 
 B. J. Stevens, 
 Prof. Wm. F. Allen. 
 
 Hon. HENRY BiETZ, 
 
 State Treasurer. 
 
 FOR THREE YEARS. 
 Hon. D. Worthington, 
 
 C. P. C'HAPyAN, 
 
 Prof. J. D. BiTLER, LL D., 
 
 PrOf.S.H.CARPENTER.LL D., 
 
 Hon. James Ross, 
 N. B. Van Syke, 
 Hon. J. D. Guunee, 
 Maj. J. O. Culver, 
 Isaac Lyon. 
 
24 
 
 STANDING COMMITTEES:— 1873 
 
 Publications — 
 
 Draper, G. B. Smith, Butler, CARPE>-TEn aud Culver. 
 
 Auditing Accounts — 
 
 Hastings, Firmin, Ross and Chapman. 
 
 Finance — 
 
 Mills, B^tz, Hastings, Van Slyke and Gutinee. 
 
 Endoicment — 
 
 Mills, Pairchild, Van Slyke, Delaplaine, "VVorthington, At- 
 wooD, PiNNEY, Orton, Hill, Proudpit and Draper. 
 
 Literary Ezclianges — 
 
 DuRRiE, Firmin, Hobbins and Breese. 
 
 Cabinet — 
 
 Lyon, Shipman, Allen, Stevens, Keyes and Durrie. 
 
 Natural Hi story — 
 
 Lapham, J. Y. Smith, Hobbins, Delaplaine and Stevens. 
 
 Printing — 
 
 Ross, Carpenter, Culver, Keyes and John Y. Smith. 
 
 Art Gallery — 
 
 Carpenter, Delaplaine, Mills, Fairchild, Breese, Vilas aud 
 Shipman. 
 
 Historical Narratitcs — 
 
 Pinney, Fairchild, Orton, Shipman and Draper. 
 
 Indian Ilistory and Nomenclature — 
 
 Chapman, John Y. Smith, Butler, Allen, Hill and Stevens. 
 
 Lectures and Essays — 
 
 Ross, Butler, Worthington, Conover and Durrie. 
 
 Soliciting Committee — 
 
 Chapman, Hobbins, Shipman, B.etz and Dean. 
 
 Annual Addresses — 
 
 G. B. Smith, Ross, Gurnee, Fairchild and Pinney. 
 
 Membership Nominatians — 
 
 Mills, Breese, Vilas, Gup.nee and Proudfit. 
 
 Library Purchases and Fixtures — 
 Draper, Conover and Durrie. 
 
 Obituaries — 
 
 Atwood, Delaplaine, Ross, Dean and Hastings. 
 
THE BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM 
 
 ANNUAL ADDRESS 
 
 BEFOllE THE 
 
 STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 OF WISCONSIN, 
 
 Thursday Evening, January jo, 18 J;^. 
 Hv Hon. CHARLES D. ROBINSON, of Green Bay. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE 
 
 MADISON, WIS.; 
 
 ATVVOOD A- CULVER. PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 
 
 1873- 
 
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H' 107 89 11 
 
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