The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission, Part 29

Author: Weber, Jessie (Palmer) 1863-1926, comp
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: [Springfield, Illinois State Journal Co., State Printers
Number of Pages: 1038


USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 29


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In this terrible struggle in which all civilization is involved, to what statesmen of the past can we turn in comparison for les- sons of wise statesmanchip, effectual and profound? Why, it is a singular fact that there is no statesmian, however able, whose ex- ample is so often quoted in England today as that of Abraham Lincoln.


But there is more than that Men are fighting, men are dying today, for ideas of democracy, of freedom, of equality. It is well, when our sons are dying for that, that we should sometimes con- sider a little deeply what these words mean. How can we govern ourselves, when some of us, God knows, are not wise? In what sense are men equal, ought they to be equal, when in certain obvious ways nature herself has fashioned them so unequal ? Where shall we look for the answer to these paradoxes which sometimes baile us? I speak as a student. There is no statesman, no poet, no philosopher, whose thoughts on these deep matters, are at onee so profound and far reaching, and put in language so transparently simple, as Abraham Lincoln. And perhaps the deepest philosophy that was ever uttered on these momentous questions of democraey was uttered upon Illinois platforms in those wonderful debates which Lincoln hell upon your soil with the great Douglas, his generous antagonist and when the great crisis came, his friend, who was so worthily commemorated this morning.


But there is something more than that. Beyond his states- manship, beyond the profinudity of his thought, beyond the poetry of his language, there was something interwoven with his genius, which brings it singularly near to the hearts of men of all con- ditions and characters and kinds, wherever their lot in life may be cast.


I might well. I think, ask first this question: How comes it that not only J. brought up as an English boy, but untoldl thousands of Englishmen. I can safely say, though we knew little of America, and understood nothing at all about the issues of your Civil War.


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nevertheless, quite early in boyhood fell under the spell of Lin- coln's name ?


I think in part it is for this reason. there is a type of man- hood-it has, of course, its corresponding type of womanhood-but there is a type of manhood which at his mother's knee, every well brought up American boy has been. taught to think of as American, and which every well brought up English boy has been taught to think of as English. It is the type of the man who can, when the occasion comes, be the most terrible of all fighting men, but who, in the main, and more and more as the years go by, is above all things gentle and pitiful in his dealings, absolutely honest, and in his inner heart, intensely humble.


It is a type which bears some resemblance to the old world ideal of the chivalrous knight, but it differs from it; it is more simple, more humble, more full of sound common sense, and more ready always to take life upon the amusing side. Well, of that type of manhood which I hove described so poorly, but which all of us recognize, the very pattern in history was Abraham Lincoln.


Let ine ask again, how is it that of all great statesmen, how- ever, much we revere their names, none has such a hold upon our affection as Lincoln has? Chiefly it is this: More than any of them he brought to bear on great questions of state just that sort of wisdom which every man and woman can apply in the common affairs of his or her daily life. There never was a great man who had so thoroughly learned, so heartily accepted, the hard and wholesome conditions of our common human life, set as we are in a world which is always very puzzling, and is sometimes very rough ; set as we are to do the best we can, and not to dream about some impossible better : set as we are to do the best we can and yet be always awake to the better which may any day suddenly become possible. That is the union of the practical man and the idealist. a union without which practical qualities and idealism are alike- vanity. Of that umon again the pattern for all time was Abrahamn Lincoln.


With the help of Mr. O'Conner's work, and that of other arti-ts, with the help of some of those old friends of Lincoln, a' few of whom I have had the privilege of meeting this day, we


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seem to see the man himself as we read his character in some of those simple sentences of his. "i am here," he seems to say, "F must do the best I can to bear the responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take." "The subject is on my mind day and night; whatever shall appear to be God's will. I will de." "I ste the storm coming, and I know that God's Land is in it. If he has a place and a work for me, and I think he has, I believe I am ready."


These are the unmistakable accents of a manly humility, which is, perhaps, the most uncommon of all the Christian graces, but which, when it is really there, gives to its possessor, a tre- mendous power.


Humble he was, and we cherish his memory for every little thing about it, that to the uuthinking mind might seem rough, for the little things that remind one that he had been and was proud to have been a day laborer upon Illinois soil. These things endear him to us. Don't let them hide from us the fact that he had the statesman's genius, and that he had the prophet's vision. And so, before I commence drawing to a close. may I read to you, and may I ask you to note their significance today, some words which he spoke on that last journey from Springfield on his way to ocenpy the President's chair at Washington.


He was speaking, as he said, and as I believe without prepar- ation, in the Hall of Independence at Philadelphia. Ilo said: "I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and framed and adopted that Declar- ation of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were en lured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great prin- ciple or idea it was that kept the confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of separation from the motherland, it was that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, But only to the people of this country, but a hope to the world for all future time" "It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be liftel from the shoulders of all men."


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We are beginning to see that prophecy fulfilled. Of course 1 do not mean that in this war, or any single struggle, we shall per- feetly achieve those idels of human progress after which you, with your magnificent daring dash, and we, in our persistent, blundering, faithful way, are striving through the ages.


Not one war will win that far goal. Every great work that is done is, in his familiar phrase, "a work thus far so nobly ad- vanced." But the work which Lincoln accomplished when he saved the Union of these States was an indispensable step to the work which we and our sons have set our hands to do today-from which neither America, nor France, nor the British Empire, will turn back until our purpose is accomplished.


Governor Lowden, in his gracious telegram to invite me here, spoke of the fact that Americans and Englishmen are now fighting side by side on behalf of those principles for which Lincoln lived and died. Yes, we meet here in the presence of the dead. Think- ing of that great man, we think all the while of the fields where iny nephews have fallen, where, if the war lasts, my son miay fall ; where, it seen.s to me, all the best young men I knew at home have fallen, and fallen not in vain. Where lives. it hurts the heart to think how many have had to be sacrificed by the French, and sacrificed not in vain. And where the sons of America and the sous of Illinois are now falling, and falling not in vain.


I cannot find words of mine fitting to sum up the feelings of this day, and I must turn to the words so often quoted, and never quoted once too often: words in which you will permit, and he would invite me. to make one trifling change: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." "That our far-scattered. yet united nations, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people. by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."


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THE CHICAGO CELEBRATION, OCTOBER 8-13, 1918


Chicago held its Centennial celebration during the week be- ginning October the Sth, and ending October 13th. Patriotic mass meetings were held in the Auditorium on the evenings of October the 8th and 12th, and a beautiful historical pageant was given on the evenings of October 9, 10, 11 and on the afternoon of October 12th. On Sunday, October the 13th, the Illinois Centennial Monu- ment was dedicated in Logan Square.


The celebration was held under the auspices of the Illinois Centennial Committee of Chicago, and the State Council of De- fense, with the cooperation of the Illinois Centenniel Commission.


The pageant was written by Arthur Hercz, with special music by G. Paoli, Daniel Protheroe and Walter G. Goodell. It was pro- duced under the direction of Mr. Herez, pageant master, and Lillian Fitch and Bertha L. Iles, assistants. One scene was pro- duced by the drama league under the direction of Mrs. 1. Starr Best. The musical directors of the pageant were Daniel Protheroe and William Weil. The dances were arranged and directed by Marie Yung. August MI. Eigen was stage director, with Thomas Phillips as assistant.


All the seats in the Auditorium were free, but the boxes were sold for 850 each. The house was packed at each presentation of the pageant.


The pageant was highly praised both for its artistic quality and its historical accuracy. The various scenes were beautifully stageil and the music and lines were most pleasing.


The pageant opened with the Indian period and then followed the history of the territory and State, on down to the present, show- ing the arrival of Marquette and Joliet, the settlement of Kas- koskia. the Fort Dearborn Massacre, the admission of the State into the Union, the reception of La Fayette, the development of the State prior to the Civil War, the Civil War, the Chicago Fire, the


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World's Fair, and finally the call to arms in the present war. . 1 striking feature was the roll call of nations made up of various nationalities, each dressed in a costume of the nation represented, and showing the National Flag.


The Illinois Centennial Monument was dedicated in Logan Square at three o'clock, Sunday afternoon, with appropriate exer- cises. W. Tudor ApMaloe presided. The dedication was under the auspices of the Illinois Centennial Committee of Chicago. Reverend John Timothy Stone, D. D., delivered the invocation, and Governor Frank. O. Lowden delivered the address. The pre- sentation of the monument was by Charle, L. Hutchinson, Presi- dent of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the acceptance by Jens C. Jansen, member of the West Chicago Park Commission.


The monument was erected with money provided by the Benjamin Franklin Ferguson Fund. a bomnost providing an in- come which is to be expended by the trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago, for the erection and maintenance of enduring statuary and monuments in Chicago in commemoration of worthy men or women, or important events of American history.


ADDRESS BY GOVERNOR FRANK O. LOWDEN AT THE DEDICATION OF THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL MONUMENT IN LOGAN SQUARE, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1918


Mr. Chairman, Veterans of the Civil War, the Newest Recruits to the Present World-War. Ladies and Gentlemen: I do not re- call that I have ever seen in Chicago a more impressive scene than this we behold today. Coming as it does at the end of our first great century of progress and civilization, staged at the inect- ing of these four great highways of Chicago, the Centennial memorial piercing as it does the blue above, this celebration makes a picture such as I do not recall to have ever seen the like of before in this great city of your- by the inland sea.


T want to pay my tribute to the genius which has wrought this triumph of art. They who help us build these monuments to our mighty past help to inspire us to a greater future.


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Coming as this event, does in the midst of this great war that is raging all around the earth, let ns see if we can gather some lessons from our past which will help us in our perilous present. No one in Illinois can in this Centennial year recount the glories of our past without recalling the central figure of the last century, her own beloved Lincoln.


Today I want to remind you that Lincoln too had his great temptations to enter upon a premature peace; but Lincoln declared that war had been forced upon us, that we were compelled to take up arms for a certain object, and when that objeet was attainel we would grant peace an I not before.


So today in the presence of this great concourse of people, I am sure that I am right when I say that the President of today, when he answers this last peace note from Berlin, will insist that we too entered upon this war for an object, and that until that object is attained there can be no peace.


That object, my friends, what was it? Declared in clear and indisputable terms by the President himself. it was to destroy the kind of government which had wrecked the peace of the world. Until that government which had inflicted untold miseries and sufferings upon humanity throughout the earth is crushed, and in its stead there comes a government of the people and all the people. the peace of the future is not secure, and the object of this war will not have been accomplished.


This effort which emanates from Berlin is being made not so much because she desires peace as that she desires a few months respite from our attacks on her western front, until she can gather up her shattered forces again and await us in her stronger fortifi- cations upon her own frontier.


So, if we, misled for the moment, were to grant an armistice at this time, it would add to the sufferings of your boys who are at the front and would prolong this war.


Now, let us, in Chicago and Illinois, and the United States. imitate our sons upon the battle fronts and when peace is urged answer that plea by a renewed assault all along the line. They have the true idea of the only path that will lead to peace, and if we at home are worthy of those boys, we will meet every duty


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that comes to us, and the first and most immediate duty is to over- subscribe the Fourth Liberty Loan.


I want to remind you that a few months ago we all asked nothing more of our soldiers on the battle front than that they should stay the enemy daring the remainder of this year, hold them where they were and with another year we might hope for victory. That is all we demanded of these boys ninety days ago, but they not only have stayed the enemy where he was, but have driven him back from day to day until, as I speak, all of the gains of our enemy for those four months have been blotted out and more besides.


The American soldiers in the battle line have not only met their undertaking, but they have more than met it-they have over-subscribed and over-paid their undertaking in this war.


Now, shall it be said of those of us who remain at home that we shall not over-subscribe our undertaking?


I want to read to you today, briefly, on this subject of peace, what a distinguished Germes journahst himself said of the Ger- man people in this war but a few weeks ago.


Dr. Rosemeyer, who was asked why he did not write something to move the German people to an understanding of the real issues involved in this war, said :


"Nonsense! Haven't I been writing my fingers off for thirty years! What those fellows need is not ideas for their brains, they need bombs on their skulls. Help can only come from one place- from Bethlehem-Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. They will cheat you yet, those Junkers. Having won half of the world by bloody murder, they are going to win the other half with tears in their eyes, crying for mercy."


That is what this great German writer, who knew the Prus- sian mind and the Prussian heart, said of the Pan-Germans them- selves, and today, by their tears and their eries for merey and their professions of love for justice, they are asking for a peace with the spoils of their bloody crin. > in their hands, without reparation for a single one of the infamies they have perpetrated upon an un- offending world.


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My friends, this war is not over. Let us not delude ourselves. It is not over, because we cannot be true to our soldiers who have made the last supreme sacrifice for us, and make a peace short of unconditional surrender.


I want to give you a form by which to answer the next note that Berlin writes to us. { call some of you old heroes of the Civil War to witness the sort of correspondence which went on between General Buckner of the Corfederate forces and General Grant of our forces, at Fort Donelson Buckner only asked for an armistice of six hours, and for the appointment of commissioners to arrange the terms of a possible surrender. A note somewhat like the last German note, except that only a six hours' armistice was asked by Buckner, while if the armistice is granted in this case, it will be prolonged until the Germans have reorganized their shattered armies and are ready to meet us on another battle field.


Grant received that note and this is his reply: "No terms will be accepted except immediate and unconditional sarrender. I propose to move immediately upon your works."


So now, with the German armies in a condition of demoraliz- ation and despair, the time is not for an armistice, but the language of Grant. If you will let Pershing and his boys and our brave Allies alone they will move immediately upon the enemy's works.


I cannot tell you, my friends, how proud I am to be here this afternoon. I can't tell you how much hope brightened within me when I saw these hundreds of new recruits pa-s by. Three days some of them have been training, and you saw their martial bear- ing and their martial tread. When you see what we make of these American soldiers in seventy-two hours, is it any wonder that they are adding new glory to the American flag every day on every battle front?


A letter that I have received from an officer in France said that if every commissioned officer of an American regiment is killed or disabled and seventy-five per cent of the bank and file become disabled, the other twenty-five per cent will still go forward under the command of a sergeant or a corporal, if need bo.


That is not possible under any other form of government than ours, where every man is the equal of every other man. In a mili-


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tary autocraey which holds that all the earth and the fruits thereof belong to the favored few, and that the great mass of mankind must toil in order that the few may enjoy the luxuries of life, you cannot develop an army which will move forward under the command of the humblest man in the force; but a democracy which recognizes no essential distinction between one man and an- other, is capable of producing armies like this. That is why Cha- teau Thierry i- a name that will be remembered forever in Ameri- can annals and will be written along with those other great names in American history, Valley Forge, Yorktown, Gettysburg, Vicks- burg, and Appomattox; because it was at Chateau Thierry that the American soldiers helped turn the tide of this battle which had been running against the Allies for four months; and it is now running so strongly against the Central Empires that they are trying to cajole us with honeycd talk of peace long enough to gather up their breken army; so that they may still offer resistance to us on another battle line.


Think of the glorious pages of history which our boys wrote at St. Mihiel, where Pershing's army as an independent unit first appeared.


So I am proud to be over here in the heart of this great west side, which is showing us the type of the new American. Some- thing was said about Americanization by the distinguished ehair- man. It is a worthy work, in which we all must interest ourselves : but the most complete Americanization that is being wrought, is being wrought upon these battle fields. Take up our casualty lists any day, and note the names of a half dozen nationalities side by side. When a boy is fighting in the American uniform in the cause of the world's liberty and civilization. it doesn't matter how his name is spelled, that name is an American name forever more. So when the sons of Poland, the sons of Scandinavia, the sons of Bohemia, the sons of Italy, aye, and the sons of Germany too are fighting under the same banner, the cause of civilization, those boys are Americanized in a very brief time ; a id no one will be heard to reproach them upon their return for any lack of true Ameri- canism. There is no place in all the world where brotherhood ean find surer bome than in the trenches upon the battle front : because


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tary autocracy which holds that all the earth and the fruits thereof belong to the favored few, and that the great mass of mankind must toil in order that the few may enjoy the luxuries of life, you cannot develop an army which will move forward under the command of the liumblest man in the force; but a democracy which recognizes no essential distinction between one man and an- other, is capable of producing armies like this. That is why Cha- teau Thierry i- a name that will be remembered forever in Ameri- can annals and will be written along with those other great names in American history, Valley Forge, Yorktown, Gettysburg, Vicks- burg, and Appomattox : because it was at Chateau Thierry that the American soldiers helped turn the tide of this battle which had been running against the Allies for four months; and it is now running so strongly against the Central Empire> that they are trying to cajole us with honeye ! talk of peace long enough to gather up their breken army; so that they may still offer resistance to us on another battle line.


Think of the glorious pages of history which our boys wrote at St. Mihiel, where Pershing's army as an independent unit first appeared.


So I am proud to be over here in the heart of this great west side, which is showing us the type of the new American. Some- thing was said about Americanization by the distinguished chair- man. It is a worthy work, in which we all must interest ourselves ; but the most complete Americanization that is being wrought, is being wrought upon these battle fields. Take up our casualty lists any day, and note the names of a half dozen nationalities side by side. When a boy is fighting in the American uniform in the cause of the world's liberty and civilization, it doesn't matter how his name is spelled, that name is an American name forever more. So when the sons of Poland, the sons of Scandinavia, the sons of Bohemia, the sons of Italy, ave, and the sor- of Germany too are fighting under the same banner, the cause of civilization, those boys are Americanized in a very briof time ; and no one will be heard to reproach them upon their return for any lack of true Ameri- canism. There is no place in all the world where brotherhood can find surer home than in the trenches upon the battle front ; because


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when men have undergone the hardships of war, side by side, awaiting the morrow to meet the common foe, they are not likely ever again to clash over race or religious prejudices. A real brotherhood is possible there, and you veterans of the Civil War know how dear to your hearts is the name of "Comrade." You know what that mighty tie means, how, closer than a brother the real comrade is. So we will have two millions and more when this war is over of new comrades formed in the furnace of this mighty war returning to America, and we will have a new spirit of brother- hood throughout the land as a result.


My friends, awful as is war, frightful as are the sufferings which our boys endure, mighty as the sacrifice is that we all must make, there will be some compensation growing out of this war. I am sure of that. Let me road to you a letter which I brought, and this is for the benefit of the mothers, for they have the hardest part to bear. I know something of the mother's heart; I know that in its deep and mysterious recesses every pain that her son suffers is reproduced within herself. I know that she not only suffers all the agonies that come to her son, but that she has not the stimulus of action to help her bear hor pain. The mother's part in war is always the hardest part. So I want to read this letter from a young lad who belongs to the United States Marines, written to his mother a few weeks ago:




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