USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 16
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judices serve to make up the picture of contemporary Illinois in 1818.
I have introduced this episode of the Irish for a very import- ant purpose. The American public is moved by sentiment and is inclined to place on its nose rose-colored glasses when looking at the past. This is a common failing of all nations in the world; the virtues of the fathers exceed the virtues of the son, the good old days and the good old customs are the ones which we wish to perpetuate; and therefore we picture in our minds our grand- fathers as men of greater and nobler mould that we ourselves and our grandmothers as inore virtuous, more noble, and more-self sacri- ficing than we are capable of becoming. With the same seuti- mentalism we as a people raise our heroes to the skies.
Long ago George Washington lost his human semblance and rose to the rarified air of the empyrean. The apotheosis of Abra- ham Lincoln has taken place before the very eyes of the present generation. Already his long shanks are resting on a throne in the skies beside the divine George. How uncomfortable both these men who were so human in all that made up their characters inust feel as they sit there weighed down by their golden crowns and their royal mantles! We go further and are inclined to deify even the humble souls who have participated in our past. The pioneer is no longer human, but divine, no longer a man with human vices, but a hero of gigantic proportions. He must be pictured as invariably just and noble in his dealings though living in the midst of the violence of the wilderness : though uneducated, as rising to heights of political wisdom seldom reached by his des- cendants. We would drag back the generation of civilized mnen to the ruder virtues of primitive times. Such a conception of the frontier is by no means true. The conditions in Illinois at the time it became a State were not very dissimilar from the frontier Alaska of our own days or the pioneer Montana of a generation ago; the picture we have of either of these places can scarcely be called one of virtuous simplicity. On the border the uneultivated, the illiterate, and the desperado rubbed shoulders with the virtuous farmer, the college graduate, and the missionary. Here there
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were for examples of noble self-verifice; but here al o were in- stances or sellien greed e ally paralldling anything ve . now to lag. The frontier afforded a freedom which thrill. the Hr. gination o: a more stiff. J generalon, it allowed al-, a lawlesshe : arel hotse which would be intolernde to nr.
Illinois in passing from frontier conditions to : state of higher civilization best nothing that was worth keepher atol gained much that was of the greatest voue. The higher civilization !... brought atoll a greater solidarity of the people, a podle Face of daty to the community, and more intelligent action. Today we are in the midst of a gult world gault and on jec, e here bell thrilled. a. they never here before, by & noble idealinfo. When I see the young men of !! are as much to the call of duty sounding from a little Han ten miles away, in order to pewnie to the world an ideal. And when I are their Mister- forozo their pl soares in order to dette Hengelo to a ce . rolling & With degree of inte Ligenec to und rstand, Ire Iz: that the grandfathers and grandmother who dressed in homely I wep a were no greater than they even in the atrede virtue of self- white, and devotion to duty.
THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL
GOVERNOP FPACK O. LOWDES
attempt a Centerdi fromnation, in view of the Mat theater which enfold: the world; bit et ril mot d. nul on-pler. 9 : Aich the Commit cion was able to gi & to the question, the Nation .... reached that the war was all .i ; more rossa for pc. Vier . No. events
mande of de present. We knew th : we had a hunde I gine co
today, an l therefore would be more likely too late ont : wentary cynally glorious.
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I am not going, of course, to make a speech to you tonight, but I do want to read a few words, before I introduce the first speaker, from the Annals of Congress, which, as most of you know, is the official record of the proceedings of Congress.
This State, a hundred years ago today, was told by the Federal Government at Washington that it might organize itself as a State, if it so wished. Twelve days before the President signed the bill the following proceedings eccarred in the House of Represent- atives at. Washington :
"The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the Bill to enable the people of Illinois Territory to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the ad- mission of such State into the Union on a footing with the original States.
"Mr. Pope," who was delegate in Congress from Illinois Terri- tory --
"moved to amend the bill by striking out the lines defin- ing the boundaries of the new State, and to insert the following: . Beginning at the mouth of the Wabash River, thence up the same, and with the line of Indiana to the northwest corner of said State, thence east with the line of the same State to the middle of Lake Michigan, thence north along the middle of said lake to north latitude forty- two degrees, thirty minutes, thence west to the middle of the Mississippi River, and thence down along the middle of that river to its confluence with the Ohio River, and thence up the latter river along its northwestern shore to the beginning."
"The object of this amendment, Mr. Pope said, was to gain, for the proposed State, a coast on Lake Michigan. This would afford additional security to the perpetuity of the Union, inasmuch as the State would thereby be connected with the States of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, through the Lakes."
I doubt if, in all the voluminous records of Congress, from the beginning until today. any event has transpired, recited in so few words as this, which has so affected the destiny of America as
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this simple amendmert. Before it was offered, the northern bound- ary of Illinois was to extend from a point at the southern extrem- ity of Lake Michigan, west to the Mississippi River. Without this amendment Chicago would not have been in Illinois; without this amendment Illinois would have been a slave state, because it was that part of the population of the state in the northern part of the state which saved it when the great trial came; without this amendment northern Illinois would have been a part of Wisconsin ; the Lincoln-Donglas debates would not have occurred, and in all human probability Lincoin would not have been President, but would have died an obscure country lawyer !
So I read these simple, wapretentious lines from that rather dry and dusty record of the proceedings of Congress, to show io the people of Illinois that a hundred years ago a Providence seemed to be with her, shaping the great destiny that has come; and if there ever was a time in our history when faith in a Providence guiding the destiny of State and nations was needed, that time is now !
The first speaker of the evening, Monsieur Louis Aubert, a member of the High Commission of France, a distinguished scholar and writer, is doubly welcome to our midst. Illinois' early history concerns itself principally with French names. Marquette, Joliet, LaSalle and Tonti are among the great names of her early days. One of the most beautiful of our early traditions is the visit of LaFayette, upon his return to America. This State has cherished with affectionate pride every incident of that visit ; and when you visit southern Illinois today the first things of which they will remind you are the spots and scenes of LaFayette's early visit.
I want also to say to Monsieur Aubert that Illinois' first Con- stitution was probably the only Constitution ever framed by any government which was expressly drawn so that a Frenchman might be a publie official. When the fathers of a hundred years ago con- vened, they provided qualifications of citizenship for every one else for whom an office was created, but expressly and purposely omitted to include the Lieutenant-Governor as coming within those qualifications in order that old Pierre Menard might be the first Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois.
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Those early memories have been greatly strengthened for us of this generation, in Illinois, by the visit a year ago of Marshal Joffre and Monsieur Viviani. It seemed to us fitting then that the hero of the battle of the Marne should come to our city and with loving hands should bear to Lincoln's tomb a wreath and lay it upon his bier, because of all the peoples of all time who have battled heroically for the principles for which Lincoln lived and died, the French nation during these years occupies the forefront.
These are gloomy days. We have all of us been under more or less depression; and the best comfort I have had recently was coming across a report that another great Frenchman, General Foch, sent from the field of the battle of the Marne to General Joffre at perhaps the critical moment in that battle. I am going to read that order :
"My right has been rolled up; my left has been driven back ; my center has been smashed; I have ordered an advance from all directions."
I don't know -- maybe at this moment they have rolled up our right, on the western battle front ; they may have pushed back our left; they may have smashed our center; but while the spirit of France lives and while the Allied armies are commanded by Gen- cral Foch, we will order an advance all along the line! And as heroic France, in the battle of the Marne, saved the day for civiliz- ation, so we, the Allies, in the most sacred cause for which men have ever fought or ever died, will save the world to the civiliza- tion which it has taken so many centuries to attain.
It is my great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to introduce to you the very distinguished Frenchman, Monsieur Louis Aubert.
A MESSAGE FROM FRANCE M. LOUIS AUBERT, MEMBER OF THE FRENCH HIGH COMMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I thank you for the privilege of addressing you tonight in the name of France. In wishing that my country be represented at this commemoration, you have given once more an evidence of that charming virtue of the American people :- Gratitude.
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From 1825, when General LaFayette come to this State, up to 1914, the date of the visit of M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre America has welcomed many illustrious Frenchmen.
Today, the greetings of France are brought to you by a more modest soldier. I hope you will not deem these greeting= less warm and less sincere.
Gentlemen, as it has been your delicate idea to give to our meeting of tonight the character of a family reunion, let us speak first of our ancestors.
A Frenchman cannot glance at a map of your State without being deeply moved by souvenirs from the old country. Names of cities, Joliet, LaSalle, Vincennes -- names of forts, Fort St. Louis, Fort Chartres, Fort Crevecoeur, how sweet those names sound to a French ear especially when heard far away from France!
But, Gentlemen, there is something more cloquent than these stones or these names, now dear chiefly to archaeologists: it is the dream, the magnificent dream of which they are the last humble witnesses.
The first white men to set eyes on the incomparable landscape of this great valley were Frenchinen: Marquette, Joliet, Cavelier de LaSalle. The grand empire, the creation of which seemed invited by these beautiful waterways flowing between the Great Lakes and the mouth of the Mississippi, had its inception in French minds.
What you realized in this, the most splendid eradle of energy and boldness in the world, was first the dream of French pioncers.
These stones, however, these French names scattered over your territory do not merely b. speak dreams of by-gone days : they attest the deminating and still enduring qualities which our race has manifested with a persistency of which any race might be proud.
The idealism of a Marquette, of a LaSalle, who were neither conquerors nor merchants but merely explorers impelled by a scientifie curiosity or a religions proselytisin -- their bravery coupled with prudence, their tenacity, their love of peace which made them act as umpires between rival tribes, their spirit of kindness toward the natives, all these traits of our ancestors we find in our explorers
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and soldiers of the 19th century, and today we find them in Brazza, who won for France the innense region of the Congo without shedding a drop of blood, in General Lyautey who, almost without drawing the sword, has given Morocco the benefit of French peace.
And now, in this hour of emergency, France is reaping the reward of this human spirit in this war in which all her subjects, black, white or yellow, have rallied with enthusiasm around her flag.
No indeed, the descendants of Joliet, Marquette, Cavelier de LaSalle have not degenerated into the old stay-at-home decadent race that the Germans were so pleased to picture. They have proved it to these same Germans at the Marne, at Verdun, and they are proving it today in the Oise, the Somme and the Lys valleys.
Likewise. I can safely predict that the qualities of your fron- tiersmen will come out in the sons of Illinois who are to fight in France !
I well remember when I was in the trenches over there how, in order to find an analogy to the strange existence I was thrown into, I, who had always lived in eities and whom war had surprised in a study, had to go back to a chapter of your historian Frederick J. Turner, on "the significance of the frontier in American history."
These trenches marked the farthest line of our civilization. Beyond the barbed wire was "No man's land." Every night. in our patrols or reconnaissances, we would ereep always in the same direction towards the listening posts, guided only by the odors and the sounds brought to us by the wind. Gradually, the traces of our steps made a trail like the trails of the "coureurs de bois." Then, later on when we pushed forward our lines and advanced into "No man's land." these trails which then were used to bring supplies were widened into paths, then wagon roads and finally into railroads. So, in our turn, we passed through the different stages of your frontier life. And when. later, I heard of the skill and eargerness of the American soldier, in reconnoitering. I was not surprised : they are the worthy sons of the frontiersmen.
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Gentlemen, there is another trait of your ancestors that our ancestors helped to develop in addition to the spirit of boldness and energy: it is the spirit of freedom. Your historians have pointed out how your revolutionary spirit was stimulated by this large territory suddenly thrown open to the industrial conquest of a numerous, hardy and independent people. It is because the exploration by Frenchmen of the Mississippi Valley hastened the day of that Declaration of Independence for which fought La- Fayette and Rochambeau. It is because some of the most brilliant qualities of your race were prepared and assisted by those French- men who blazed the way for your spirit of enterprise and made it possible for you to satisfy your love of freedom, that from the very beginning up to today, the image of France has been firinly implanted, to use Dr. Finley's words, in the very heart of America. That true spirit of freedom of your West, no one better than your great fellow-citizen, Lincoln, has expressed when he said: "I never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the senti- ments embodied in the Declaration of Independence * Then speaking of the inspiration derived from that document, he went on to show that "it gave liberty not alone to the people of the country but hope to all the world for all further time."
Then it is not an accident if the so inspired words that Lin- coln applied to the Civil War apply equally well to our great war of today.
When he stated the impossibility for America to live "half slave and half free" did he not define exactly our own position ?
Hlas any one ever written anything that fits more adequately the present situation than this sentence that one never tires of quoting :
"We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it will never end until that time."
We were not the aggressors any more than you were. It was not our love of adventure which drove us into this war, but the necessity of fighting for our liberty. With the admirable patience with which, for more than two years and a half, you opposed Ger-
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man outrages, we, their immediate Leighhors, opposed their exact- ing demands and provocations for forty-three years.
Challenged to a fight to death, we have sacrificed everything, land and men, without stint. For over three years and a half, out of a population that the invasion has reduced to 35 millions, France has mobilized seven and a half million men. Previous to the last drive, three million French soldiers in the army zone were holding more than two-thirds of the Western front.
Before the present battle, that effort had already cost us: 1,300,000 killed in action or dead from wounds received in battle. About 1,000,000 maimed and invalide-that is a decrease of two millions and a half out of our adult population, which to America would proportionately mean a loss of nearly six million men.
All our forces have been thrown into the fight: the results are that our wheat crops have been reduced by two-thirds, our shipyards have manufactured only guns and shells instead of ships, and our export business has been practically stopped.
All those sacrifices we have accepted without complaint, not only to defend our homes, but also to defend a great cause.
We never fought a separate selfish war. Our reserves in man power and material we have always placel, in the hour of need, at the disposal of Serbia, of italy; and today in Picardy and Flanders, our divisions fight side by side with our gallant allies, the British.
With more than half of our coal fields and over 80 per cent of our iron deposits in the possession of the enemy, we have man- aged, not merely to set up entirely new industries to equip our armies, but we have been able to help our Allies. to whom, up to October, 1917, we had sent: 1,500,000 rifles, 2,500 guns and 4,050 airplanes ; and you know that when you came into the war we guaranteed that, provided raw materials should be supplied. we could equip with guns and airplanes all American divisions brought over to France before July 1, 1918.
That we did, and today we have full confidence in your co- operation to the end. Upon the occasion of the first anniversary of your entrance into the war, sour newspapers have reviewed the
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extent of your effort. Your effort has been tremendous and its results are already very important.
General Pershing's action in placing all his resources in men and material at the disposal of General Foch, has deeply touched the heart of France. We know that your whole nation is at heart with that action and that all of you are ready to amplify it in placing all your resources at the disposal of our common cause. The success of your Liberty Loan will show it plainly. President Wilson's decision to brigade small American units into larger units of the French ard British armies, reminds us of those of our revolutionary government amalgamating the young recruits of Liberty among cid seasoned troops and you know the lesson Austrians and Prussians were taught during the campaigns of the French Revolution at the hands of those troops that their love of liberty made invincible.
The present battle, eruel as it is, has already brought serious and lasting advantages to the cause of the Allies. The first is the unity of command. We now have a generalisimo, a common leader, who is alone responsible for the strategy of the battle. Be assured that, when the time comes, he will know where to strike the blow. The second advantage is a greater unity of judgment. We now cherish less illusions than formerly about the sufferings of our enemies, their revolutionary discontent, their disposition towards a negotiated peace. Such a peace. the Germans mention less and less since they have treated with Russia, Ukraina and Roumania; they are gorged with lands to profit by and peoples to dominate and. even those who voted in favor of a peace of conciliation in the Reichstag in July last, are the first how to speake of necessary an- nexations in Belgium and in the French region of Briey.
Each autumn since 1915 the military leaders of Germany have made her people feel that war pays: Serbia crushed in 1915. Part of Roumania in 1916 and Russia and Ukraina and the whole of Roumania at the end of 1917. The Germans' hands are full. one more effort and all these gains will be insured for ever. The magnitude of the stake is worth the boldest venture. Let us not rely on Austria cither. Not that she would not like to make peace --- all the recent revelations of the secret negotiations which for a
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year Austria has tried to bring about, clearly indicate her desire to come out of the war, but Austria in a military way and industri- ally and financially speaking is only a vassal receiving orders from Berlin.
Let us not rely on our enemies, on the diplomacy that might divide them. Let us rely on ourselves. Let us rely on the valour of our armies to bring about pace and let us take to heart the words of President Wilson: "Force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world."
Gentlemen, the spirit in which France entered this war, the spirit in which she carries it through is the best test of the spirit in which she means to conclude peace.
You entered this war without territorial ambitions, you en- tered it for a principle. So did we! Do you believe that our country could and would have stood her enormous material losses and her frightful sacrifices in men if she had been prompted only by greed ? Poor bargain, indeed !
No, the spirit that has animated the French soldiers since August, 1914, is a spirit of crusade, and if our national aspirations are summed up in the names of Alsace-Lorraine, it is because to us Alsace-Lorraine embodies the very spirit of this crusade.
Last October, before the Reichstag, Herr von Kulihmann ex- claimed : "Alsace-Lorraine is the symbol of the German Empire." Yes, Alsace-Lorraine annexed in spite of the unanimous protests of its inhabitants, Alsace-Lorraine under German yoke for 43 years has been the symbol of this brutal empire which already before the war had enslaved all its neighbors, the Danes of Slesvig, the Poles of Prussian Poland, and, during this war has subjected Courland, Esthonia, Luthuania, Poland, Roumania, Servia, Russia, and through Turkey Armenia.
The return of Alsace-Lorraine to France on the contrary would consecrate the victory of the principle for which we are all fight- ing! It has become the symbol of the right of people to dispose of themselves.
"Citizens possessed of souls and intelligence are not merchan- dise to be traded and therefore it is not lawful to make them the
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subject of contract," objected to their new masters the newly an- nexed Alsatian-Lorrainers through their representatives in the Reichstag in 1814.
And President Wilson echoed the same sentiment when he said last February :
"Peoples and provinces are not to be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were mere chattels and pawns in a game."
Gentlemen, when Herr Von Kullmann or Count Czernin proclaim that Alsace-Lorraine is the only obstacle to peace, do not believe them. At the Peace Conference, there will be other ques- tions to settle to make the world safe for democracy. Alsace- Lorraine is only one of the fourteen peace conditions enumerated by President Wilson. No, Alsace-Lorraine is not the ouly ob- stacle to peace. But no peace is possible without the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France, for the brutal severance of these French provinces was the first crime of the new German Empire against democracy and out of that erime have come all the others that have astounded the world.
Listen to the final touching words of farewell that the popu- lations of Alsace-Lorraine addressed to the French National 1.s- sembly in Bordeaux, forty-seven years ago, and remember that when they were repeated before the Reichstag in 1814, they were met with sneers and laughter.
"Your brothers of Alsace-Lorraine, now cut off from the com- mon family will preserve for France, absent from their hearths, a filial affection until the day when she shall resume her rightful place here ouce more."
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