YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRAHY

3 9002 07156 1816

THE BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM

ANNUAL ADDRESS

BEFOKE THE

STATE HISTORICAL-SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN, :. , .
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Thursday Evening, January 30, 18 f 3

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By Hon. CHARLES D. ROBINSON, of Green Bay.

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•'•V|'',J; PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE

{, MADISON, WIS.;
ATWOOD & CULVER, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.
1873.

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THE BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM

ANNUAL ADDRESS

BEFOBB THE

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OF WISCONSIN,
Thursday Evening, January 30,1 Syj .

By Hon. CHARLES D. ROBINSON, of Green Bay,

PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE

MADISON, WIS..-
ATWOOD & CULVER, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.
• 1873-

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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 your 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 Obton has probed the records of all nations
to show the Development of Paces. 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 have been occupied throughout
its length and breadth by the exhaustive pens of your Secre
tary, and of Mr. Baird, Mr. Strong, Mr. Martin and others.
One might well retreat from the task of even reaping where
*Ia consequBCe of ill health. Col. Robinson was anable to visit Madison and read his
Address in person : and, at his solicitation, Hon. Gno. B. Smith read it in his behalf.
L.C.D.

they have gathered — and indeed I shall not attempt it. I will
try another 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
earth — rapidly assimilating, it is true — but, as we- become
engrafted upon the common American stock, we cannot help
adding something of our original habits, manners, and modes
of thought. The Grerman has brought from Fatherland to
this his new home, his solid industry and his steadiness of
character. These were handed down from 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 with him, too, the songs and
the story of the mystic, ever-flowing Rhine. Father Rhine,
then, as the Germanic blood swells in volumes more and more
through our veins, becomes Father Rhine to all of us— a rela
tion by mamage — 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. Upon 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, we 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 our 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 true-hearted, independent, — and I can almost
say, love making, wine-drinking, sonsie people. And from
end to end of this ISTew World, who of us has not drawn inspi
ration from the grand, the marching, the chivalric verse and
story of the Wizard of the North ? Abbotsf ord is one of our
own Meccas. And all the ground which Scott has hallowed,
around those charmed Lakes, in the Canongate, the Heart of
Mid Lothian, at Stirling Castle, Colingstogle's Ford, along
those mystic valleys and among those rugged hills, is trans
planted to American soil, and becomes a part of American
institutions. If we go where the marble temples and forums of Ancient
Rome are being exhumed from the ashes of centuries, there is
a feeling with every American that it is one of the tombs of
his nation's forefathers — that though the bones and dust of a
Republic lie mouldering there, the spirit, by some metempsy
chosis, has entered into the body of the new country in the
living West. The glory of Rome is in what she has been.
Her glory is like a sun which has set, but whose light yet lin
gers on the hill-tops of America.
And Ireland, too. If we look into our national character,
there, among our sinews, our religious inheritances, our un
yielding courage, and our love for the soil where our home is,
there shall we find the moors and heaths on which they grew.
There are the linen-makers of Belfast — ^the sailors of Cork —
the farmers of Kerry. They are all grafted into the national
growth. And greater than all, there are the Groves of Blarney.
If the politicians, the traders, the newspaper folks, the love-
makers, owe any one thing more than another to the institu
tions of the Old World, it is to Blarney.
It seems as if Americanism is the talent for getting old
things together so as to produce new and admirable results.
Steam had turned wheels for generations, and vessels had
sailed the seas for ages ; but Fulton put them together,
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-croppings 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 insufiicient though it may have been,.
yet still a step forward, and the best according to their lights
then ; here the battles of the Revolution were fought ; here
have landed year after year, 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 Republic 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 aud discipline
of the German ; the gaiety and ingenuity of the Frenchman ;
the patience and endurance of the Norseman sailor ; the dar
ing, and possibly a strain of the lawlessness, of the Yikings.
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 fau.lts, 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 their 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, stands almost 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 Irish fiddler
strikes up " The Groves of Blarney," which is played within-
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
groves, 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, persuasive, 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 he's a pilgrim
From the Blarney Stone."
The Groves are beautiful, though much shorn of their
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 three of his^ descendants at a time — that before

one dies, he communicates it to another of the family. 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 history 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 River, 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 plaze 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 parlors, 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 poesy ? 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 tvrain have crossed with me."
The home of Burns is near Ayr, a village or city of 15,000

9
inhabitants, near the mouth of the river Ayr, on the west
coast of southern Scotland. Among its noted features are the
" Twa Brigs " — the two famous bridges which might to-day
never have been known away from Ayr but for the dash of
Burns' pen. 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 you know, to
which large numbers make a pilgrimage.
The scenes of Tam O'Shanter'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 AUoway 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 Burns 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'Shanter and Soutter Johnny used to
meet  " Ae market night,
Tam had got planted, tmco right,
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely,
With reaming swats, that drank divinely,
And at his elbow, Sobtteb Johnny,
His ancient, trusty, drouthie crony."

10
The Brig O'Doon spans with one arch the river Boon, which
to-day ripples by as sweetly as when Burns 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, all the country round about Ayr, though lovely
enough of itself, has been given another beauty by the gar-
nishings of song which Burns 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,
while 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 very 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 by a passage-way
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
visible 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 fire in the grate.

11
The walls are hung round with prints. A glass 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 either the fun of the
thing, so far as the box was concerned, or the 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-place, 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 Shakes
peare's muse. He celebrated, not the smooth flowing Avon,
nor the quiet fields beside it — but forts and battle-fields, kings,
queens and palaces.
Burns lovingly sung of the Ayr, the Bonnie Doon, 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 church, where Shakespeare's ashes rest, is a large
and venerable structure, a portion of which was built 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 heare;
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 beau.tifully 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 emblems 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
lofty 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 us, from our cradle to our school days.

13
And we shall never lose our faith in London Bridge, where
you 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 lap, 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. That 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 Tom
and Young Tom, and Jacob Faithful, David Copperfield
and Steerforth, 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 cafe, in the Volksgarten. 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
kreutzers, 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 the form of a pagoda, the grounds laid out with walks and
flower beds, the crowds of well dressed people sitting around
the little tables, animated in conversation and gesture, and
the splendid 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 canying 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 bf it ; and the prima donna may be likened to the minis-

15
ter at one of our camp 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 parquette are
on their feet singing together, and the great theatre is filled
with an atmosphere of music.
Turn me abruptly from the etherial to the real — from music
to beer. They are indeed, not so far apart. 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 _par excellence, for beer. The
moment the frontier is crossed, this devotion to beer becomes
perceptible in the breweries in the great 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 also 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 Dreher, in
Vienna. 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 Munich 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 than a quart, was brought to
me by a pretty waiter girl in the height of the Bavarian cos
tume, who, 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 seidels 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 way 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 Rhine — that the first known printing office
was inaugurated. Guttenberg and Schoeffer, and perhaps
Faust, worked 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
Guttenberg, 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 what uses it has been put, he would likely wrap his
cerements about him, 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 country 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 Rhine, 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 western
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 ; whose beauty of hills, forests, and
plains is unexcelled ; whose whole course is storied with legend
and romance ; and whose history comes down from the far
past, through the Roman 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 httle 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. 3

18
'¦ A thousand battles have assailed thy banks.
But these and half their fame have passed away.
And slaughter heaped 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, from
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
oui- 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 Rome, where the ashes of centuries have never
quite buried the first republic — at Runnymede, 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
nationality of the wide world ?

CONDITION OF THE SOCIETY.

A synopsis of the 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
was 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. Holbrook, and N. H. Nichol
son, 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.

Volumes added.

Documents and Pam
phlets.

Both
together.

Total in
Library,

1854, January 1 .
1855, January 2.
1856, January 1.
1857, January 6
1858, January 1 .
1859, January 4.
1860, January 3 .
1861, January 2.
1862, January 2.
1863, January 2.
1864, January 2.
1865, January 3 :
1866, January 2.
1867, Januarys.
1868, Jantiary 4.
1869, January 1 .
1870, January 4.
1871, Januarys.
1872, January 2.
1873, January 2.

50
,000,065,005,024
,107,800 837610544248
520 368923
462 838
923
,970 211 166

25, 671

1,000
2,000 300959
500723
1,134 711
2,373 356226 806
2,811 1,043 682
6,2401,3723,789 1,528
28,553

50
2,0003,0651,305
1,9831,6072,5231,9711,321
2,917 604
746
1,174
3,734 6,505
3,5207,1633,3425,0003,694
54,224

50
2,050
5,1156,4209,403
10,01012,53514,50415, 825
18,74519,346
20,092
21,26625,00031,50535, 025
42,18845,5.30 50,53054, 224

20
The book additions of the year have been 2,166, of which
1,591 were by purchase, and 575 by donation, a larger number
than in any preceeding year ; 1,528 pamphlets, only 71 of
which 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 4,376.
Though our total additions have been considerably less than
last year, owing to a large purchase 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, 404 volumes ; making the total
number of bound newspaper files 2,044. Among the addi
tions are a set, in quarto size, of the Holland Mercury from
1 651 to 1790, and also from 1801 to 1815. Leyden 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 — 46 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 Gazette, 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. H. Sheldon and sisters, whose father, the late
Hon. John P. Sheldon, was one of its founders.
Our total newspaper files are now distributed in the three

21
centuries, as follows : 54 in the seventeenth ; 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-
MAN, painted by C. W. Heyd, of Milwaukee, in gilt frame,
from 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. Henry Harnden,
Col. S. V. Shipman, and Gen. Jas. K. Proudfit, all painted
by James R. 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 aud publisher
of a newspaper or periodical in the State the regular transmiss
ion of such publication; and from all, books and pamphlets, on
all subjects of interest or reference; magazines, newspaper
fiiles, 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 the Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette, on Tuesday,
the 17th of June next, at the confluence of the Wiscoasin and
the Great Father of Waters. An event which gave such un
speakable joy to those adventurous explorers and discoverers,
and which has been followed by consequences 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 generally,
the Governors of the adjacent States, and the Historical Socie
ties of the country invited to participate on the occasion.
Messrs. Governor Washburn, Draper, Orton, Mills,
Hastings, Proudfit, Ross, 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:

HcN. HENHY S. BAIED, Green Bat.
I. A. LAP HAM, LL D., Mii-waukbe.
Hon. j. B. DOOLITTLE, Eacine.
Hon. j. T. LEWIS, Columbus.
Hon. H. S. ORTON, LL D., Madison.

Hon. jas. SUTHEELAND, Jakestille.
Hon. H. D. BAEKON, St. Ceols Falls.
Hon. M. L. MARTIN, Geeen Bat.
Hon. a. G. MILLER, Mil-waukeb.
Hon. j. H. ROUNTREE, Plattevtlle.

HONORARY VICE PRESIDENTS:
1. Hon. CTRUS WOODMAN, Mass. 4. Hon. JOHN CATLIN, Ne-w Jeesey.
2. Hon. perry H. SMITH, Illinois. 5. Hon. STEPHEN TAYLOR, Penn.
3. Hon. H. S. RANDALL, New Yoek. 6. Hon. A. C. DODGE, Iowa.
1. Hon. L. j. FARWELL, Missouki.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY,
LYMAN C. DRAPER.
recording secretary,
Col. frank H. EJRMIN.
treasurer,
A. H. MAIN.
LIBRARIAN,
DANIEL 8. DURRIE.
CURATORS:

Hon. C. C. WASHBURN, Governor.
FOB ONE YEAR.
Gen. SiMEON'MiLLS,'
Hon. Geo. B. Smith,
Gen. G. P. Delaplaine,
Dr. Joseph Bobbins,
Hon. Andebw PEOuuriT,
S. V. PlNNET.
Hon. E. W. Ketks,
Hon. James L. Hill,
Hon. S. D. Hastings.

BX-OEFICIO.
Hon. Li. BEEESE,
Secretary of State.
FOR TWO YEARS.
Gov. L. Faikohild,
Hon. E. B. Dean,
OoL S. V. Shipman,
Hon. L. B. Vilas,
Gen. D. Atwood,
O. M. CONOVEK,'
Hon. John T. Smith,
B. J. Stetens,
Prof. Wm. p. Allen.

Hon. henry B^TZ,
State Treasurer.
FOR THREE YEARS.
Hon. D. Woethinbton,
C. P. CHAPlfAN,
Prof. J. D. BUTLEE, LL D.,
Prof.S .H.Caepentee.LL D.,
Hon. James Ross,
N. B. Van Stke,
Hon. J. D. Guenee,
Maj. J. O. CULYEE,
Isaac Lton.

24

STANDING COMMITTEES:— 1873
Publications —
Draper, G. B. Smith, Butler, Carpenter and Culver.
Auditing Accounts — '
Hastings, Firmin, Ross and Chapman.
Finance —
Mills, B.a:TZ, Hastings, Van Slykb and Guenee.
JEndoioment —
Mills, Faiechild, Van Slyke, Delaplainb, Wokthington, At
wood, PiNNBY, Oeton, Hill, Proudfit and Dbapbr.
Literary Exclianges —
Durrie, Firmin, Hobbins and Brebsb.
Cabinet —
Lyon, Shipmatj, Allbn, Stevens, Keybs and Dubsie.
Natural Eistory —
Lapham, j. Y. Smith, Bobbins, Delaplainb and Stevens.
Printing —
Ross, Carpenter, Culver, Kbyes and John Y. Smith.
Art Gallery —
Carpenter, Delaplainb, Mills, Faiechild, Bebese, Vilas and
Shipman.
Historical Narratives —
PiNNBY, Faiechild, Orton, Shipman and Deapbe.
Indian History 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, Bsitz and Dean.
Annual Addresses —
C B. Smith, Ross, Guenee, Fairchild and Pinnet.
Membership Nominatians —
Mills, Brbese, Vilas, Guenee and Proudfit.
Library Purchases and Fixtures —
Draper, Conover and Dureie.

Atwood, Delaplainb, Bobs, Dean and Hastings.

uaylord Bros.
Makars
Syracuse, N. Y.
PAT. MN. 21. 1908

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