3 XSV\oos>-- LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN i*fcS HISTORICAL SURVEY ' UNIVtKSIIY OF ILLINOIS URBANA TLLHSTOZS ADDRESS BE FORK II IF. AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION nil-: FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS, Woodstock:, September UU, 1S., Il;i7 K afreet. [887. rn- ADDRESS. FELLOW- CITIZENS : I desire to return my sincere thanks to the officers of your Association for their courteous invitation to share your generous hospitality, and address you upon this occasion. Notwithstanding the fact that for more than a third of a century I have been a resident of Illinois, this is the first time I have had the honor of meeting and " mingling with the people who, by a kind Providence, > have been permitted to find peaceable homes in this, the - fairest portion of our great State. I bear to you to-day the greetings and congratulations - of your fellow-citizens of that great county lying one Thundred and fifty miles to the southward the good "county of McLean. Its history, stretching over but little more than half a century, savors more of romance than of reality. The log cabin has given way to the " commodious farm-house and the elegant mansion. The J rude appliances of a pioneer civilization have been succeeded by comforts and conveniences to which the -^wealthy and noble of former generations were strangers. Its school-houses and churches, colleges and universi- ties, its institutions erected by the hand of charity ""and of patriotism, declare more eloquently than can am- poor words of mine that the county in which I v dwell has not lagged behind in the great march of Christian civilization. And yet, what is true of the one county I have named ,.'':<; is true of almost every portion of Illinois. It is in a marked degree true of that splendid tier of counties lying to the extreme northward of the great Prairie . . State. The counties represented in your Association constitute a Congressional district which, in fertility, wealth, and beauty, is second to none in this broad Re- public. All Europe is arming to-day for a great conflict, which the diplomacy of her ablest statesmen cannot longer postpone. The inevitable result to the people will be still heavier burdens, taxation to the limit of endurance, national bankruptcy, and ruin. In this favored land we have peace. No rumors of threatening conflict disturb our slumbers. Our great workshops are engaged in the manufacture of imple- ments of husbandry, and not of war. The century now drawing to its close will, as I humbly believe, wit- ness in its expiring hours the American people follow- ing the peaceful avocations which are the sure forerun- ners of prosperity and contentment. I know of no people who have greater cause for grati- tude to the Dispenser of all Good than those I now ad- dress. "Truly your lines have fallen unto you in pleasant places." Fellow-citizens, my address to-day is, in the main, to the tillers of the soil. Your occupation is as old as the human race. In all ages the cultivation of the earth has been the only condition upon which human life could be sustained. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread " is the great law which knows no change. In the early dawn of history we find our race en- gaged in rude husbandry, in the valleys of the Euphra- tes and the Nile. From Egypt, the cradle of human learning, the knowledge of husbandry extended to Greece and to Rome. A few of the maxims of the an- cients concerning the cultivation of the earth may not be wholly without value, even at this day. The poet Virgil says : " The fanner may praise large estates, but let him cultivate a small one." Cato, the philosopher, said : "Our ancestors regarded it as a grand point of husbandry not to have too much land, for they consid- ered that more profit came by holding little and tilling it well." Agricultural progress has kept pace with civilization. It is not strange that during the dark ages there was but little advance in this, the most needful of human pursuits. The sixteenth century closed upon onr race arousing itself from the death-like slumber of ages. With the human mind unshackled, the triumphal march began, which has continued unto this hour. The era I have mentioned, marks the earliest attempts of the people to arouse themselves from the torpor of centuries; and from this awakening of the humbler classes of Europe sprang the earliest attempts to improve the methods of tilling the earth. The first Board of Agriculture was organized in Eng- land in 1793, and by the comparison of methods and interchange of thought which it produced a new im- petus was given to agricultural pursuits. This was an humble beginning, but it was the earnest of better things. The publication of books and pamphlets on agriculture; the discussion as to the methods of fertilizing ; the ad- justment of certain crops to different soils ; the applica- tion of chemistry ; the improvement of implements of husbandry, are the inevitable results of the causes I have mentioned. The meeting of the first Board of Agriculture in Eng- land in 1793 was the forerunner of the grand result we witness in the great valley of the Mississippi to-day; of that still grander culmination witnessed in Philadel- phia a few days ago, when each State of the Republic presented a moiety of its treasures, that the world might know what wonders the tillers of the soil had wrought upon this continent in a single century. It must not be forgotten that one-half of the people of the United States are either engaged in, or directly dependent upon, agricultural pursuits for support. All other avocations depend upon this. The success of the farmer is the sure measure of success in all other fields of human endeavor. L,et the timely rains and genial sunshine but bring abundant harvests, and the coun- tenances of all the people are lighted with joy ; the hearts of all are overflowing with gratitude. It is estimated that the wheat crop of Dakota will, the present year, reach the enormous yield of sixty million bushels. From the South, data of the most gratifying character has been obtained, indicating a measure of prosperity to the farmers of that section unknown since the war. While the yield of cotton will be large, that of corn, to which more attention is being given by the Southern farmer than ever before, will exceed the crop produced three years ago by more than one hundred million bushels. You need not be told that the pros- perity which has fallen to the West and Northwest has in some degree been the good fortune of the farmer and planter of the Southwest and of the South. In a recent address before the Inter-State Convention of Farmers, Mr. Grady, the eloquent champion of the New South, said : "There are two hundred and thirty thousand artisans at work in the South to-day that were not here in 1880, and this does not include the thousands that are build- ing new enterprises. We manufactured last year two hundred and thirteen million dollars worth of articles that six years ago we bought from the North or West. In the six years following the Cotton Exposition, one hundred and seventy-three new cotton mills have been built in the South, starting one million new spindles. The South is witnessing to-day an industrial revolution for which history has no precedent. Figures do not measure it, and amazement is simply limited by com- prehension." 5 With but few exceptions the States have established boards of agriculture, so that every possible facility may be afforded for the dissemination of useful information, beneficial to the farmer. A quarter of a century ago the Congress of the United States created the Depart- ment of Agriculture. Its chief officer, as I have no doubt, will in the near future take rank as a member of the Cabinet. Splendid results have followed the estab- lishment of this great Department. It is, however, as yet on the very threshold of its usefulness. What may it not accomplish in the future? With the wonderful improvement in agricultural im- plements, the life of the farmer is no longer that of a drudge. Much of the hard labor once performed by human hands is now supplied by machinery. The home of the farmer has, moreover, to a large extent, lost its character of isolation. The accessibility of mar- kets, with the methods and appliances I have mentioned, render his position in life, as compared with that of a former generation, one of comparative ease. Let the farmer magnify his calling. Let him not forget that his responsibilities keep even pace with his great opportunities. At your firesides let your sons be taught that there are higher aims in life than mere money-getting. From the country home, from the country school-house, a power will spring that will, I believe, place our free institutions upon a firmer basis than ever before, that will, as we enter upon a new century, give a loftier impulse to the aspirations of this great people. From the farm-house to the great cities moves an unending procession of brave, energetic, young men, physically and morally equipped for the battle of life. From their ranks will be taken those whose voices will be potent in every department of human affairs. Fellow-citi/ens, I address you to-day at a point within 6 a few miles of the great sister State which forms our northern boundary. Following a southerly course, you reach the waters of the Ohio, having for four hundred miles traversed farm lands, groves, and meadows but little inferior in fertility to your own. Let me speak, then, of ILLINOIS. Standing, as it does, in the very van of agricultural States, I know of no theme better suited to such an occasion. It may not be amiss if I recur briefly to its early history, and attempt to trace its wonderful prog- ress. The first white settlements were made but little more than two centuries ago. The daring French explorers and missionaries, Marquette, LaSalle, Hennepin and their comrades, planted colonies of their nationality and faith at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Peoria. The Valley of the Mississippi, including the present State of Illinois, remained under French domination until 1759, when the inevitable conflict between France and England for supremacy upon the North American Con- tinent was settled by the arbitrament of war. The de- feat of the French by British arms, led by the gallant Wolfe, at Quebec, closed the struggle between Saxon and Celt for supremacy over the vast territory east of the Mississippi. British domination over this realm was doomed, how- ever, to sudden overthrow. Even at the period of which I speak, events were hastening, which, resulting in a series of victories as brilliant as that at Quebec, were to wrest from England her colonial possessions. While the Revolutionary struggle was yet undetermined, General George Rogers Clark, by authority of Patrick Henry, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, with a few hundred brave men crossed the Ohio, and penetrating the wilderness to the Mississippi, captured the British forts at Cahokia and Kaskaskia. Would time permit, it could but interest an Illinois audience to dwell upon the history of the privations and daring of the men who wrested from the British Crown this fair domain, and replaced the symbol of British authority with that of the great Commonwealth which projected the expedition. All honor to the mem- ory of the daring George Rogers Clark and his brave comrades, who on the 4th day of July, 1778, wrested this great territory from foreign domination, in the name of the Commonwealth which, six years later, by an act of generosity that has become historic, ceded it to the young Republic then struggling for existence among the nations. The act of cession by the Virginia Legislature to the General Government of the Northwest Territory out of which Illinois and other States have since been carved was in 1784, the first year after the acknowledgment of our Independence by Great Britain, and while we were yet under the Articles of Confederation. Three years later, by act of Congress, the entire domain north of the Ohio river was erected into the Northwest Territory. One important feature of the organization, as appears by the report of the Committee of Congress to whom was referred the subject of the cession by Virginia to the General Government, was that the States to be carved out of its boundaries should forever remain parts of the United States. The bravery of her sons in the late struggle for the maintenance of the Union attests the fidelity with which Illinois has observed the sacred compact. In 1809 Illinois, with its present limits, was organ- ized by act of Congress into a separate territory. Its entire area was then embraced within the limits of the counties of Randolph and St. Clair. Ninian Edwards 8 was, by President Madison, appointed Governor of the new Territory, and ably discharged the duties of his im- portant office. Our history as a State dates from December 3d, 1818. Shadrick Bond was the first Governor elected by the people, and under his authority and that of the Legisla- ture which soon after assembled Illinois took its place amongst the States of the American Union. The village of Kaskaskia was the ancient seat of Gov- ernment. It was the capital from the territorial organ- ization in 1809 un til 1820, two years after the admis- sion of the State into the Union. . It witnessed events fraught with deep import to the Commonwealth. Here assembled the convention which formulated our first Constitution, a Constitution which remained for thirty years the organic law of the State, and will to future generations bear testimony to the wisdom of its framers. Here convened the first General Assembly under whose auspices the machinery of the new State Government was put in motion. The streets of Kaskaskia are now deserted. Its glory has departed ; but it was the home of the men who, in a large measure, established lawful authority and moulded the destiny of the State. It was of this village, his early home, that the late Judge Breese, with deep pathos, said: "It was there I passed some of the happiest moments of my life ; and in her withered for- tunes and waning glory she wove a spell about ray heart which, it is no shame to say, separation has not broken and coming age has but added to the potency of the enchantment ! " The rapid immigration which immediately followed its admission soon rendered the selection of a capital nearer the center of population a necessity. The com- missioners designated by the Legislature for this purpose, having in view the possible flow of emigration northward, chose a spot for the new location one hundred and forty miles north of the Ohio river, to which was given the name of Vandalia, then a wilderness, but now a beauti- ful and prosperous city and the home of a people who in public spirit and enterprise take high rank in the Commonwealth. Here transpired events which left a lasting impression upon the State. From this place, after a bitter and pro- tracted struggle, went forth the popular fiat that Illi- nois should remain forever free. Here was projected the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, an enterprise which was the file-leader of the many which have in later years so signally aided in the development and in the commercial prosperity of the State. Here, at the bar and in the halls of legislation, met the intel- lectual giants of the infant Commonwealth Breese, Caton, Trumbull, Stuart, Browning, Logan, McDougal, McClernand, Shields, Baker, Hardin, Douglas, Lin- coln men whose memories are cherished not by Illi- noisans alone, but whose names and fame have become a part of our Nation's heritage. During the two decades which followed the location of the capital at Vandalia the population of the State increased to four hundred and seventy-six thousand. The drift of emigration was to the Wabash, to the San- gamon, to the Vermilion, to the Military Tract, to the rich lands drained by the Kankakee and the Fox, and to the grand prairies stretching northward and west- ward to Wisconsin and the Mississippi. This was, indeed, the promised land, which the travel- stained immigrant might not only view, but enter. These blooming prairies, untouched by plow, untrod by human foot, were now to become the abiding places of men. From New England, from the banks of the Mohawk and the Hudson, from the Susquehanna and the Schuylkill, from the beautiful valley of the Shenan- 10 doah, and the States lying to its west and southward, from Ireland and the "Fatherland," came the men and the women whose hands and brains were to be such wonderful factors in moulding the destiny of the State. In 1840 Springfield became the seat of Government. Then a village of but a few hundred, it is now a splendid city, and an honor to the Commonwealth. Its influence, political and commercial, is not confined to State limits. Its nearness to the geographical center of the State; its accessibility, and the erection of a superb State House, render the present location, for our day at least, per- manent. % Fellow citizens, possibly I may weary you with de- tails, and yet I can hardly conceive of a subject fraught with deeper interest to Illinoisans than the history of the unparalleled development, of the matchless progress, of this great Commonwealth. Sixty-nine years ago, with a population of but forty thousand souls, it became a State of the American Re- public. At the time of its admission to the Union its sparse settlements were mainly in the Mississippi bot- tom. A single county, stretching three hundred miles to the northward, included what is now the city of Chicago, and in fact the entire central and northern portions of the State. The habits of the people were simple, their wants few. Barter, in a large measure, supplied the place of a medium of exchange. Commerce, in so far as it had an existence with the outer world, was by wagons across the Alleghanies, and by flat-boats down the Ohio and the Mississippi. The log cabin furnished protec- tion to the pioneer from the winter's storm. With rude implements of his own construction he cultivated his fields, and with his rifle defended his loved ones from the incursions of the savage. 11 At the time of its admission there were but twenty- three post offices within the limits of the entire State; and it is interesting to note that but eight of the original number are now in existence. There was not a post office within two hundred and fifty miles of the spot upon which we are assembled. At the period indicated, and for years afterwards, the frontiersman regarded him- self as especially favored if located within twenty-five miles of a post-office. The mails reached the settle- ments weekly or monthly upon horseback and by stage coach. Twenty-five cents was the postage upon a single letter. The log cabin, with its puncheon floor, supplied the double purpose of a temple of learning and a place for public worship. Articles of apparel for both sexes, with but few exceptions, were of home manufacture. Railroads, colleges, and universities were unknown. Less than ten thousand persons within the entire State were engaged in agricultural pursuits. Chicago had no place upon the map. As late even as 1822 it is referred to in Morsels Gazetteer as, "a village of Pike county, situated upon Lake Michigan, and containing a dozen houses." I have given but a feeble sketch of the Common- wealth, as it emerged from its territorial existence and took its place among the States. It must not be for- gotten that its career began under the guidance of men of no ordinary type. The framers of its organic lajv and establishes of its civil polity builded wiser than they knew. The foundations, both for the present and future, were laid broad and deep. To Edwards, Bond, Thomas, McLean, Cook, Coles, Kane, and their associ- ates is due a debt of lasting gratitude from millions who to-day are the beneficiaries of their patriotism and fore- sight. Fellow-citizens, less than three-score years and ten the period of a single life have passed since Illinois became a State. What has been accomplished ? 12 Eighty-seven additional counties have been created. From the southern line of Wisconsin to the Ohio river; from Indiana, stretching westward to the Mississippi, the prairies have been made to blossom as the rose. From forty thousand the population has increased to nearly four million souls. Within a fraction of fifteen million acres are in actual cultivation. The products of Illinois farms for the year 1886 were twenty-seven million five hundred and sixty thousand bushels of wheat. Bight and a half million acres produced for the year 1886 near two hundred and seventy million bushels of corn. The railroads that traverse our State and the vessels that whiten our waters carry our pro- duce to the markets of the world. The merchant princes of the nation dwell by the lake where, a single lifetime ago, stood the hamlet with but a handful of population now the wonderful city in population and wealth ranking third upon the continent. The business exchanges of our people with each other and with the world are effected by means of more than six hundred banks, with an aggregate capital of more than sixty millions of dollars. Within the limits of the State are ten thousand miles of railroads, an excess of two thousand miles over the great State of New York. The weekly mails by horseback and stagecoach are things of the past. There are now two thousand and eighty post offices within the borders of our State, and five hundred postal clerks traverse it with railroad speed to meet the requirements of the commercial and social life of its people; The fiscal year just closed shows an excess of more than three hundred thousand dollars of receipts over expenditures of the postal business of this State. The contribution of Illinois under our internal revenue system for a single year is twenty-three millions eight hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars to the Treasury of the General Government. 13 From the data I have given, a faint idea can be ob- tained of the wonderful material progress of Illinois since its organization. But this is not all. Let it be viewed now from a higher standpoint. What has seventy years contrib- uted to the intellectual and moral development of our people ? In the struggle for wealth, have the claims of education, of charity, and of religion been forgotten ? In 1884 there were in the State one million forty-six thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven children of school age; seven hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-five in actual attendance at school, being seventy per cent, of the whole number. There were eleven thousand nine hundred and eighty public schools and seven hundred and thirty-one private schools in operation, in which were employed nineteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-one teachers, of whom twelve thousand eight hundred and seventy-six were women. In addition to this vast number of schools, the State maintains three high-grade institu- tions, the two Normal schools, the Industrial Univer- sity, and the Illinois Soldiers' college. Add to these the twenty-five colleges which derive no aid from the State, and what Commonwealth offers better opportuni- ties to its children for education than Illinois? It is the glory of our State that the erection of school houses, academies, and universities has kept pace with the wants and aspirations of our people. The consumma- tion our eyes have beheld is the result of the generous policy of the early legislators in providing a fund for the support of common schools. But little less than four thousand unfortunates are daily provided for and ministered unto in the different charitable institutions of our State. The munificent appropriations annually made by the Legislature for the maintenance of our educational and charitable insti- 14 tutions are sure indications that the loftier impulses of our people have not been blunted by material pros- perity. Nor have the claims of patriotism been for- gotten. To her imperishable honor be it said, that Illinois has with a generous hand provided homes for the sons and daughters of her fallen heroes. Time will not permit me to speak of the wonderful influence Illinois has exerted upon the affairs of the nation. The heroism of her sons, the tender devotion and the gentle ministrations of her daughters, during the struggle for the Union have become a part of the nation's history. To the Supreme Court of the United States Illinois has given the able and spotless jurist, David Davis; to the Senate, the matchless debater, Douglas; to the cap- taincy of her armies, in the greatest struggle known to history, the incomparable soldier, Grant; to the presi- dency of the United States, the liberator and martyr, Lincoln. Fellow-citizens, I have spoken of Illinois, of its won- derful progress, of its matchless achievements, and have endeavored dimly to foreshadow its splendid fu- ture. But the occasion is auspicious for some allusion to the great Republic of which Illinois is but a compo- nent part. But five days have elapsed since the commemoration of the first centennial of the Government of the United States. But a single century has passed since the con- vention of the Colonies, at Philadelphia, promulgated the Constitution, which, after ratification, became the bond of Union of the States and of the American people. In 1787 our fathers established the Government of the United States, and gave it a place amongst the nations of the earth. To-day our eyes behold what a single century has accomplished. What a commentary upon the work of the sages who 15 founded this Government is the fact that fourteen Cen- tral and South American Republics have modeled their Constitutions after that of the United States. The rep- resentatives of these foreign Governments, a few days ago, at our Centennial Commemoration at Philadelphia, bore earnest testimony to the value of our Federal Con- stitution, and to the prosperity and happiness it had brought to millions of freemen beyond our domain. The population of Illinois to-day exceeds that of the United States at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Twenty-five States have been added to the American Union. Eighty-four years ago President Jefferson, for fifteen millions of dollars, purchased from France the Louisiana Territory now the great Valley of the Mis- sissippi, dotted over with beautiful cities, and teeming with a busy population itself a mighty empire. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory will remain forever the imperishable monument to the far-seeing statesman- ship of Livingston, Monroe and Jefferson. The century just closed has witnessed the population of three millions swollen into sixty millions of souls. Noting as we do this marvelous increase, we are con- fronted with the serious inquiry, How are the teeming millions of the coming centuries to be sustained ? Exclusive of Alaska, the area of the United States is two million nine hundred and seventy thousand square miles. Of this area it is estimated that there are one million seven hundred and fifty thousand square miles of arable land. Eight years ago, after feeding over fifty millions of population, two hundred and eighty million bushels of grain were exported. The food crops of that year were produced on less than one-ninth of our arable lands. Edward Atkinson, than whom there is no better au- thority, says: "Where we now support fifty million peo- 16 pie one hundred million could be sustained, without increasing the area of a single farm or adding one to their number, by merely bringing our product up to our average standard of reasonably good agriculture; and there might remain for export twice the quantity we now send abroad to feed the hungry in foreign lands." Both Mr. Atkinson and Rev. Dr. Strong, to whom I am indebted for these estimates, concur in the conclusion that the mighty generations of the future can, to almost an unlimited extent, be maintained upon this generous soil. During the decade immediately preceding our last national census seven hundred and thirty-two million dollars of the precious metals were produced in the United States. In mineral products ours take the lead of all the nations of the earth. Thousands of square miles of mineral wealth are yet wholly untouched. Dr. Strong has beautifully said: "When storing away the fuel for the ages God knew the place and the work to which He had appointed us, and gave us twenty times as much of this concrete power as to all of the nations of Europe. Among the nations ours is the youngest, the Benjamin, and, Benjamin-like, we have received a five-fold portion. Surely He hath not 'dealt so with any people." In 1807 the first steamboat ascended the Hudson River; and now, at the end of a single lifetime from this first experiment, our rivers and lakes whiten with our commerce. But fifty-five years have passed since the construction of the first mile of railroad upon this continent and the close of the first century since the promulgation of our Federal compact witnesses in the United States over one hundred and thirty-one thou- sand miles of railroad. And thus by this, the grandest achievement of the century, not only are the energies of our people aroused and quickened, large additions 17 made to the aggregate of our individual and national wealth, but this mighty brotherhood of States, stretch- ing from ocean to ocean, from the lakes to the gulf, are bound together, as I trust in God, by indissoluble bands of iron. In 1804, by direction of President Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, with a small detachment of soldiers and guides, started overland for the Pacific Ocean. So far as is known they were the first white men who crossed the plains. The greater portion of the journey was made upon mules; and when returning, by descending a tributary of the Missouri and the latter river to the border. Some idea may be formed of the hardships and perils of this expedition when it is remembered that almost three years elapsed from its beginning to its close. No tidings came from the little band, and they had long been given up for dead, when they re- turned with stirring accounts of hairbreadth escapes and of the wonderful countries they had discovered. Now, when eighty-three years have passed, the trav- eler from the same starting point, with but little danger or fatigue, can, by means of the great trans-continental railways, reach the Pacific coast and return home in safety, having traveled as far and beheld greater won- ders in a single month than did Lewis and Clark in the famous expedition which has made their names im- mortal. At the first inauguration of President Washington there were but seventy-five post offices in the United States. Now there are more than fifty-five thousand. The revenues of this Department alone for the last fiscal year were forty-eight and a half million dollars; and I am gratified to be able to state to you that, notwithstand- ing the recent acts of Congress deducting one-third from the rate of postage, the postal branch of the Govern- ment will by the close of the fiscal year be again self- sustaining. 18 Within the twenty-two years immediately preceding the close of the last fiscal year the enormous sum of fifteen hundred millions of dollars of our public debt has been paid. The receipts from all sources into the Federal Treasury for the last fiscal year were three hundred and seventy-one million four hundred thou- sand dollars. The population of Dakota is twelve times as great as was that of Illinois when admitted into the Union. From the Patent Office at Washington thirty-nine thousand patents were issued during the past year. The data I have hurriedly given, furnishes but a faint idea of the marvelous progress and development of our country during the first century of its existence. The first line of telegraph was constructed in 1844, but even now what a revolution has it wrought in the social and commercial relations of the nations of the earth. Fellow citizens, what has been accomplished in the century now closed, is before us. But our Republic, as compared with the nations of Europe, is as yet in its infancy. What may not be its future ? As the genera- tions of men come and go, as new light dawns upon the human intellect, as new discoveries are made in science, new inventions in mechanics, our resources fully devel- oped, our mineral treasures brought from their hiding- places and added to the aggregate wealth of the world ; as the vast plains and forests and prairies of the West are utilized by man, what visions of beauty will meet the eyes of those who witness the close of the second century of the life of this Republic ! As it was permitted the great leader of Israel to view, but not enter, the promised land, so may we, with the eye of faith and in the light of past history, see this favored land, as it shall appear when another century shall have added to its population, its treasures and its beauty. State after State will have sprung into being ; cities yet unborn 19 will be the marts of busy trade ; vessels laden with the commerce of the world will cover our majestic waters ; plains and forests will have been made to bloom as the rose ; the railroads and the telegraph will have wrought wonders in the development of wealth, and in the social elevation of this great people. From ocean toocean, from lake to gulf, from field and city, everywhere, will be heard the busy hum of industry, everywhere be seen the highest evidences of civilized life. This favored land will, in- deed, be a garden of beauty. The realization will have been more glorious than prophet could have predicted or the wildest fancy portrayed. Fellow citizens, the traveler from the Old World, en- tering New York harbor, finds a city of a million and a half of population the metropolis of the New World. Passing westward, along the beautiful valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk, over the Alleghanies, within hailing distance of the great Northern chain of lakes, through the forests of Michigan, and across the prairies of Illinois and Iowa, he reaches the great Father of Waters within a short lifetime the boundary of civiliza- tion. Following still the pathway of empire, he crosses the Missouri river, passes along the fertile valley of the Platte, and old buffalo ranges of Wyoming, jascend- ing by easy gradations the Rocky Mountains, to an ele- vation of nine thousand feet above sea level, then descending its western slope, he traverses the great Laramie Plains to the Wahsatch Mountains, thence through the wonderful canons of Utah, within view of the great Salt L/ake, through the Palisades of the Hum- boldt river, over the Sierra Nevada mountains, and then across the garden-like valley of the Sacramento he reaches at length the great ocean whose waves kiss the farther shore of the Continent. From the Atlantic sea- board to the Pacific Ocean, -over river, plain and moun- tain, along a pathway marked by the loftiest evidence 20 of civilization and the lowest depths of barbarism, amidst gardens of unsurpassed beauty and deserts as desolate as Sahara, now above the clouds and again hid deep in the mountain, for four thousand miles he has held on his way towards the setting sun, and yet never for a moment passing from the domain of that nationality of which the stars and stripes are the symbol. For such a country, what possibilities lie in the future! A nation yet in its infancy, with one hundred and thirty- one thousand miles of railroads ; with sixty millions of people, and an area far greater than that of Rome when- she was mistress of the world ! From the early morning of history, the pathway of civilization has been Westward. ' ' Westward the star of empire takes its way The first four acts already passed ; The fifth shall close the drama of the day Time's noblest and the last ! " One thought more. I believe that the settlement of our controversies with England, by arbitration at Geneva, is the beginning of a new era in the world. Long before another century shall have elapsed, international courts will have been established for the adjustment of con- troversies amongst the nations ; and war will be known only as a relic of the barbarism of the ages gone by. The laws that govern nations, as well as those that gov- ern men, will be founded upon the principles of eternal justice. Intellect and conscience will rule, and the reign of brute force shall forever have ceased. Then, indeed, will the prediction be fulfilled, that the sword should be turned into the plowshare, the spear into the pruning-hook, and the nations of the earth learn war no more forever. Then, indeed, will the grand consummation have been reached, and the motto of all nations will be, "Peace on- earth, goodwill to men !" c f N 3 S r S 48l AODRE S S BEFORE THE AGRICULTUR UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA C001 01 12 025382398