USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 22
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annals is the story that the writers of that time give of Lafayette's visit.
The romance that shines in Illinois history more largely centers about this spot whereon we stand today than any other spot within the borders of our State. And as we today are eele- brating the close of one glorious century of Statehood in Illinois, let us have the confidence that with the aid of our boys across the sea, we are going to conquer the perils that beset us and embark upon another century of equal glory and of equal usefulness to the world.
KASKASKIA: AN ODE
BY WALLACE RICE
Read by Frederick Bruegger at the Pioneer Cemetery, Fort Gage Hill, Randolph County, July 4, 1918.
How weak, how futile, seem niere words today When every swing of Fate's great pendulum Beats to the roar of giant guns 'neath grey Astonished heavens thunderous and grum ! How idle, words, when hour by hour such deeds Of courage and self-sacrifice cry out As draw our wondering tears, and throbs and bleeds The Nation's spirit in our warriors' shout ! Along the seas, where coward murderers hide, Our sailors steadfastly keep open path ; On desperate miles our soldiers constant bide, The instruments of God's Eternal Wrath; And we speak words! Yet they are words of cheer. Beyond, tho' ruined now and desolate, Sleeps old Kaskaskia, and we shall hear Of destiny thro' this evangel of our State.
The urgent Mississippi round her rolls Adown this Valley of a Continent. Herein today how many a million souls Are reaping generous harvests of content !
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The gift of summer sun and rippling flow Thro' fruitful hours of free men's willing toil, The comfort of the world is in this glow From league on league of fruetifying soil. See how the emerald plumes of corn unfold Bring in their satisfying sheen and swing, Forthgrowing fair from tiny grains of gold! In nature's miracle of bourgeoning ; But yonder was a greater marvel wrought By friendliness and spiritual health Where honor, chivalry, and truth were taught And lived by the forefathers of our Commonwealth.
Look up and down our Valley's visioning; Gaze east and west with comprehending eyes! Northward our inland waters lilt and sing; And south the Gulf is blue 'neath tropic skies; Far to the east vast mountain ranges stay The Valley; toward the sunset its arrest Is on the snow-clad peaks a world away ; How glorious a growth is here, how blest ! On multitudinous plains between, which smile Upon the affluents of the river there, The hopes of all the world have domicile : Men for its war-hosts, bread to lighten care. A score of States now rise, of queenly mien, Sacredly sworn to do their utmost deed. For Liberty-from Illinois demesne Arise, for on yon isle was sown their single seed.
In kindliness, to dull the edge of war, Kaskaskia was born beside the stream. Athwart the terrors these broad prairies bore The Cross sent thence its mild compelling gleam. There, first in all this Valley, on those leas Our race found resting place for wandering feet.
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Worshipped our God and published His decrees
Thro' lengthening years, and peace was lasting, sweet. There lay the city, now in ruin laid And all its beauty fled and far away, Wherein the Valley saw the prelude played To its tremendous drama. Tho' astray, The world comes back to confidence in God And Man, finding here inspiration sure For faith renewed while passing 'neath His rod, Leaving our heavenly hope and human trust secure. The fathers of our Illinois lie here
Beside us, gratefully remembered still. High their devotion, free their hearts from fear, Earnest their wish to know and keep God's Will. Homely their virtues, arduons their hours Of labor, but its fruits and flowers were theirs ; Greed and injustice and a despot's powers Theirs to despise, and heard their simple prayers.
For poverty they knew devoid of dread despair, Concordant spirits touching happiness, With little mirths and gayeties to share In freedom from the greater world's distress. Give them all honor! Far from their own land Their profitable lives on history's page They wrote without repining, and shall stand Blessed thro' all time by us who hold their heritage.
Romance shone here in many a deed and name. LaSalle and Tonti o'er those waters wend, Discoverer and statesman crowned by fame, Not least because he won so true a friend. Then Seventeen Hundred dawned. Good Pere Marest Rose with it. This was centuries ago. The Illini floek hitherwird to pray,
Hearing The Word, and safe from every foe. A pleasant scene it was, now worn so bare:
The virgin forest virgin prairie met
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Below, with swaying trees in summer air
And fragrant flowers in tossing grasses set ; With nuts and fruits and berries ruby bright, The bison and his herds, the elk and deer, Carolling birds-'twas peace with plenty dight, An earthly paradise upon a far frontier. The thirst for gold, the search for sudden gain, The Mississippi Bubble and its lures, HIunger for empire, and old Slavery's pain,
Here frowned, here passed, where Time alone endures. Hereby the royal walls of Fort de Chartres
Set forth the slender stage whereon we see Reflected ray by glittering ray the part The Sun-King played of radiant majesty. Thence D'Artaguette his piteous army leads,
De Villier goes to conquer Washington ; And Braddock falls, what time Kaskaskia speeds Her silvery lance toward the rising sun. Then, then at last the fluttering flag of France Falls, as may sink the day adown the west, And gone our Golden Age and old romance,
To rise in this new morning with new meaning dressed.
How distant seems today the gleeful France That danced so long ago to melodies Upon yon sward, as tho' fond circumstance Found in this newer West Hesperides! Yet golden lilies here our hearts rejoice, Smiling to azure heavens as of yore, And wistfully reechoes here the voice Of the unconquered France whom we adore, Our Mother still, else were we motherless.
Here o'er an empire ruled her brave and fair; A jewel in a jocund wilderness Their capital-yon village now laid bare.
A promise was it, and a Providence,
With every memory ringing sound and true.
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How loyally and with what reverence
This venerable fealty we here renew
A while, a little while, old Britain comes
A conqueror here and floats her bannered flame Until Virginia rolls victorious drums As "Liberty !" her frontiersmen proclaim ! The Northwest here is made American Forever, as Fate thunders slowly on; Tho' only now discerned the Almighty's Plan Enfolded in these ages we thought gone: Dead is the day when Tyranny and Hate Can Britain and her free descendants part Or France from England hold-how brave the Fate Uniting as one country with one heart The untainted origins of Jilinois !
The tyrants on the Thames and by the Seine
Time's slow inevitable hands destroy,
And there, as here, today the sovran people reign.
Here, on this distant and secluded sod-
In little, purposes the greatest run --- We see the everlasting arm of God
Guarding the empires that lost here, and won. Virginia's word, the war-ery of the free,
"Thus ever unto tyrants!" trumpets far Across the seas to herald Victory.
And eyes war-weary glimpse the morning star. To thrust a maddened monster to his knee,
Her swift blade drawn and scabbard thrown away Staunchly beside ns battles Italy. Who gave us Tonti in our dawn of day. And we, to whom our Illinois is dear,
Hail all these ancient friends with newer pride
In the Great Cause that easteth out all fear,
Our God's Eternal Cause in Freedom's glorified.
THE CENTENARY OF THE PROMULGATION OF THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, AUGUST 26, 1918
The celebration of the anniversary of the adoption of the first Constitution of Illinois, was held at Springfield on August 26, 1918, and was a memorable occasion. Thousands of people from all sections of the State came to Springfield to participate in the celebration and the only drawback to the complete enjoyment of the day was the fact that it was possible for only a portion of the enormous crowd of visitors to get within hearing distance of the speakers at the afternoon meeting or to get inside the Coliseum at the Fair Grounds in the evening to see the presentation of "The Masque of Illinois."
However, more than twelve thousand people crowded into the Amphitheater at the afternoon meeting to hear Theodore Roose- velt, and at least eight thousand were accommodated in the Coli- seum in the evening.
A luncheon was given at the St. Nicholas Hotel at noon which was attended by Governor Lowden, Colonel Roosevelt and several hundred officials and guests.
Former President Roosevelt was the principal speaker at the afternoon meeting and he delivered a rousing patriotic address. He was introduced briefly by Governor Frank O. Lowden, who called attention to the significance of the occasion. Bishop Samuel Fallows delivered the invocation. Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, chairman of the Illinois Centennial Commission, called the meeting to order and spoke briefly in introducing Governor Lowden, who presided.
The presentation of Mr. Rice's "Masque of Illinois," in the evening was most elaborate and the immense audience was greatly pleased with the production. Colonel Roosevelt praised the cast, Frederick Bruegger, the pageant master, Edward C. Moore, com- poser, and Mr. Rice, the author, very highly and declared the "Masque" one of the most interesting entertainments of the kind he bad ever seen.
Mrs. Roosevelt accompanied Colonel Roosevelt to Springfield and attended the evening performance.
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Miss Florence Lowden, daughter of Governor Frank O. Lowden, acted the part of "Illinois," and a cast composed of promi- nent Springfield and Central Illinois people had the leading parts.
Groups were furnished by organizations and altogether more than a thousand persons participated. A huge stage, ninety feet across was erected at the west end of the Coliseum and seats were arranged for eight thousand persons in the audience.
The stage was covered with green boughs and carpeted in green giving it the appearance of a woodland scene.
A great deal of praise is due Mr. Frederick Bruegger, pageant master, and Mrs. Bruegger who ably assisted him, for the efficient manner in which they trained the great cast for this presentation, and for the repetition of "The Masque" in October.
In introducing Governor Lowden as the chairman of the day Dr. Schmidt said :
"One hundred years ago in vanished Kaskaskia a score of chosen representatives of the people were collected to enact a dec- laration of principles under whose bounds and injunetions this commonwealth of Illinois was to be organized and to live.
Though many important principles for the government of the new state were fixed by the Articles of the old Northwest Ordi- nance of 1787, and by the laws of the Union of the States, wide limits notwithstanding were given to these pioneer constitution makers to mold the course of statehood. It was theirs to choose between a rigid form of a non-progressive government and one re- fleeting the then advancing politienl idcals. Today is the centenary of the happy completion of their labors by their adoption of the first Constitution of Illinois. We are here in grateful acknowledge- ment of their work well done.
"Through that Constitution, for the duties of the chief executive of Illinois a first governor-an able man-was elected. Through one hundred years Illinois has been served faithfully by his successors, but by none with more patriotism, with more de- votion, with more efficiency than the present incumbent, the well- beloved leader of all true Illinoisans, who will address you and be the chairman of the meeting. I have the honor of introduc- ing Governor Lowden as Chairman.
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In introducing Colonel Roosevelt, Governor Lowden spoke briefly as follows:
"A hundred years ago at almost this very hour, the people of the little village of Kaskaskia, the then capital of the State, cele- brated the adoption of our first Constitution. The great question that involved the discussion, which preceeded the adoption of that Constitution was slavery. Slavery was finally prohibited. The rights of all men therefore were the chief subjects in controversy even at that early date. In the hundred years of our glorious history that since have come, the high peaks have always been those points about which a discussion over the rights of man has taken place. Today as we celebrate our hundredth anniversary, the whole world is aflame over the same question of human rights as against the claim of privilege. Whether or not our next een- tury shall be as replete with achievements and progress as of the past, depends upon whether or not we shall win this mighty war.
"Today it is fitting -- it is more fitting than anything else I could name-that the greatest of all American partisans of the rights of common man, the average man, should be here to bring his message at the close of our first hundred years and at the open- ing of the second.
"It is my great privilege and my honor to introduce to you a private citizen who has held the most exalted position in all the world and yet who, as a private citizen, reigns in the hearts of the American people as he never reigned before.
Colonel Roosevelt received a great ovation and he delivered a vigorous address on patriotic and historical lines.
ADDRESS BY COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
Governor Lowden, Mr. Chairman, Bishop Fallows, and you, my Fellow Americans, Men and Women of Illinois: I am honored by the chance to speak to you today. And, friends, on this occasion of the Centennial of Illinois' admission to statehood, it is a matter of good augury that we speak under a governor whom we all know has deserved what Dr. Schmidt has said of him. The American people will have had a mighty triumphant next century,
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if, on the occasion of the bi-centenary of Illinois, we have such publie servants as you, Governor, to preside over our destinies.
Now, friends, I come here today to speak primarily of the things that are closest to the souls of all of us. For this is a great crisis at which time the men and women of the nation think not of little things, but of the great fundamental matters that most intimately concern all of us. We are passing through the third of our great national crises. In this case it is a part of a world crisis, the like of which has never been seen before.
I know that the rest of you will not begrudge my saying a special word of greeting to the men who wear the button that shows that over half a hundred years ago they showed their troth by their endeavor.
Now, men, we are here today under that flag. We are citi- zens of a great and proud nation only because those men and the men like them in their youth cast aside everything else for the chance of death in battle for the right. As we look back at those years, keener and brighter grows the fame of the men who fought for the union and for liberty. And today from throughout our borders men in khaki have gone in their youth to venture every- thing with a proud and gallant recklessness of what may befall them so that you and I, you men and women here, that we and our children may continue to hold our ideals high among the nations.
I want to say just a word as to the form of advertisements which I see here, "Square Deal. Give us a Chance." Now, friends, I regard one form of advertisement for good causes, which I see here in Springfield, just as I have seen it in New York. There are a dozen A-1 movements in all of which I am interested. I am immensely interested in the Thrift Stamp Saving Campaign ; in the Food Saving Campaign; in the Conservation Campaign; in the Food Growing Campaign, but I always object strongly when I see any picture or any advertisement that "food will win the war," or "money will win the war," or "savings will win the war." Tell the truth. Saving food will help win the war. Sav- ings will help win the war. Money will help win the war. But the war will be won, as the war was won at the time of Abraham
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Lincoln, by the fighting men at the front. Everything else is only auxiliary to the fighting men at the front. Shame, triple shame to us who stay at home unless we do all those things, unless we buy Liberty Bonds, buying to the limit, unless we subscribe to the Red Cross and all kindred organizations, unless we buy Thrift Stamps, unless we save food. Do all those things, but don't get conceited about it. Recollect that when you have done all, you have just done a half of what you ought to do to put your strength back of the men at the front. Stand by the men at the front. And remember that the only people who have fulfilled the full measure of their devotion to the country at this time are the men who have gone and the women who have bravely bade them go to fight for their country. There is only one person I put as high as I do the soldier and that is the soldier's wife or mother who stands by him; she who takes care of the house, and takes care of the baby, and does whatever can be done at home. If she does her full duty and sends her husband or her son away with a smile, even though her heart is breaking, and writes him cheer- ful messages, I respect her as I respect the soldier. I have no use for the soldier who runs or for the woman who whines. Recollect, you women, that if you make it hard for your sons and for your husbands, if you fail in your duty, you are acting just as ill by the country as would the man who fails his country on the field of battle. Bear yourselves as gallantly as the gallant boys you have sent to the front. Remember that is the duty of all of you.
Now the immediate duty of the hour is two-fold. In the first place, to insist upon a 100 per cent Americanism through- out this land. In the next place, to speed up the war and win it at the earliest possible date.
In the first place about Americanism. This is merely another way of insisting that we are a nation proud of our history, proud of our past and proud of our present : that we are a nation, not a polyglot boarding house. Unless we have a nation we won't have anything to fight for. Nobody fights for a boarding house. If we treat this country or permit it to be treated as a land into which people from thirty different old world countries crowd and squeal and struggle for the best place at the trough, while all their allegi-
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ance is to some land over seas, if we do that, we have no country at all. There isn't any possibility of a divided allegiance. Either a man is all American or he is not an American at all. Any kind of an alloy to loyalty makes it utterly valueless. At this time the man of German origin who says that he is loyal to Germanism, to Deutschtum, although he is not loyal to Germany, to Deutschland, is making a distinction without a difference. You cannot be loyal to Germanism and Americanism at the same time any more than you can be loyal to Germany and to the United States at the same time. Germanism is incompatible with Americanism. If a man has the slightest loyalty to Germany at this time he is disloyal to the United States. There is no half way to it, of any kind or sort. It is exactly as it was at the time of the Civil War. You had to be all for the Union or all against the Union. If you were half Union and half Cecesh, you were kicked out by both sides. Isn't that so? (An old soldier: "Sure.") It is just the same thing now. You have got to be all one thing or all the other. If you live in the United States you are not entitled to be anything except an American, pure and simple, and nothing but an Ameri- can. If any man still looks back and wants to be a half or a quarter or a tenth something or somewhere else, send him back to that somewhere else. There can be in this country loyalty to but one flag- the flag of the United States. Loyalty to any other flag is disloyalty to that flag. And when I say any other flag, I mean not only the flag of any foreign nation, but I mean the red flag of anarchy or the black flag of international socialism. If any man follows the red flag or the black flag here, put him out. Make him go wherever the red flag or the black flag is, but don't let him stay here. And more than that, I want to have a man be United States and stand by the flag of the United States and talk United States. I am perfectly well aware that you can talk United States and still talk treason. At any rate we know what you are talking about in a case like that ; whereas. if you are talking some language we don't know, then you can talk pretty much anything without our knowing it. We have room in this country, permanent room, for but one language -- the lan- guage of the Declaration of Independence : the language of Wash-
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ington's Farewell Address; the language of Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech and second Inaugural-the English language. All other languages that are spoken here or printed or used in newspapers should be used only during the transition period, a period to be established by law, after which the newspaper shall be printed in English. In cur schools there is only one language that should be used, and in our primary schools only one that should be tanght -- the English language. In our upper institutions of learning, study German or any other modern language as you do one of the ancient languages, bot study it as a foreign language.
Let me illustrate what I mean in my own case. I have a right to talk against hyphenated Americans, because my ancestry is so varied that if you want to express me by a hyphen you will have to use seven of them. About 225 years ago certain Dutch traders came to the mouth of the Hudson and some German peas- ants (I have some German blood in me, but I am straight United States, however), to the Schuylkill, and some English and Welsh Quakers and Scotch and Huguenots or French Protestants who had been driven out of France because in France the Catholics perse- ented the Protestants, and the Irish Catholics who had been driven out of Ireland because in Ireland the Protestants persecuted the Catholics. Their children grew and spoke the same language. If they had not spoken the same language they could not have mar- ried one another. A young man could not have proposed in one language to a young lady speaking another. And, if they had not married one another, I would not be here.
Sometime ago I spoke in Wisconsin and in Minnesota. I had with me two Illinois citizens, friends of mine, straight Americans, Mr. Otto Butts of Chicago and Judge Harry Olson of Chicago. Mr. Butts' father and mother were born in Germany and Judge Olson's father and mother were born in Sweden. I have told you of my ancestry already. The three of us were Americans and noth- ing else. At the meeting, the Judge presided and Mr. Butts intro- duced me and then I made a speech. Now suppose the Judge, when he presided at the meeting, had spoken in Scandinavian and Mr. Butts when he introduced me, had spoken in German, and that I had then burst into eloquence in low Dutch. You would have
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needed three translators for every member of the audience. We all spoke English because you have to use one language and that is the language of the country itself.
Nobody is obliged to come to this country, but if he comes, he is to take our constitution and our flag and our language. If he does not want to do that he can go straight back to the land from which he came.
Now having said that I don't know how I could say it with any more emphasis than I have; whatever other defect of char- acter may have been lodged against me, at least I have not pussy- footed-of one side of Americanism, I wish with no less emphasis to say that the other and the equally important side of American- ism is the imperative duty of treating all men who show their good faith in Americanism as on an absolute equality with everyone else without regard to their ereed, their birthplace or their national origin. In this crisis, since our people became fully awake (I think our people remained asleep quite a time. I did my best to wake them up) the great majority of Americans of German origin have shown themselves as aggressively and absolutely and singlemindedly American as the citizens of any other stock. And when that is the case it should be recognized as being a high erime against the American spirit to fail to honor those men by putting them on an equality with the rest of us.
I can illustrate what I mean by referring to the Civil War. In the southern states, the bulk of the men joined the Confederate forces, but there were plenty like Farragut who stood for the flag. We are the fellow countrymen of men of German blood, in whole or in part, who have stood by the flag in this war, Americans, who, if we do not recognize themu as such, we damn ourselves for not doing. Let me give you an example. At the front in the flying corps, two of the best American flyers are Rickenbacher and Meis- ner, both of them of German origin. One of them an ace. The more of that kind of men we get into our army the quicker we will get to Berlin.
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