USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 5
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Into the keeping of the young men who are now going forth to do batt !- for their country we commit our flag with all the hallowed memories that cluster about it. I have looked into many of the determined and intelligent faces of these young men and I am sure they will constitute the most effective and courageous army that was over marshalled mider our flag. I am sure too that they will carry that flag in triumph across the bloody battlefields
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of Europe and will bring it back with victory written all over its ample folds and thereby add additional honor and glory to the imperishable history of past achievements. And when they return in triumph to their native land they will be welcomed by glad hands to the freest. the happiest and the most prosperous country in the world.
If I believed this war was being waged for conquest and vain glory, I should oppose it. If I believed this war to be only the prelude to still other wars and was not being waged for the peace of the world, I should oppose it. I hope and believe this conflict will teach the world the great lesson, that at the bar of history prior adjudications of armed force cannot be pleaded and that he who would win in the Supreme Court of civilized opinion must leave captured colors and the spoils of cities and come with fruits of justice and humanity in his hands. To this judgment bar the great American people are content to rest their cause and invoke the consi lerate judgment of mankind. And, should that judgment be in our favor there shall bloom on earth at last the snow-white flower of Universal Peace.
THE ORATORS OF ILLINOIS
EDWARD F. DUNNE, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS, 1913-1917
Today we enter the year, the last day of which marks the centenary of the admission of the great State of Illinois into the Union. The citizens of no State in this great Republic have better reason to celebrate the State's centenary than have the citizens of Illinois. Within a hundred years she has advanced among these States from a sparsely settled, frontier State having a population less than the city of Springfield has today, to the third place among the States of the Union. in population and political and commercial power.
On such an occasion, it is well to mark and point with pride to the material progress of the State, and during the year upon which we.are now entering that progress and prosperity of Illinois will be dwelt upon by many a tongue within the borders of Illinois.
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We are, however, in my judgment, altogether too prone in this material age is point with pride to, and boast of, mere material and financial strength. It has occurred to me that the spiritual and intellectual history of the State has been altogether too much . neglected by the historian.
We never cease to point to the fact that Illinois has distanced all of her sister States, excepting two, in population and com- merce; that she stands first in agricultural wealth, fertility of soil and railway development, and second today in the possession of all wealth, but we should be equally proud to boast that it was upon the soil of Illinois that Pere Marquette made most of his important discoveries. We should be equally proud of the achieve- ments within her borders of LaSalle and Joliet, Tonti and IIen- nepin.
We should be equally proud of the fact that the hardy pioneers of Illinois dwelling around Kaskaskia anticipated, as far back as 1771, the demands of the colonists in Massachusetts, New York and Virginia, when they repudiated Lord Dartmouth's "Sketch of Government of Illinois" as being "oppressive and absurd" and declared that "should a government so evidently tyrannical be established, it could be of no duration. There would exist the necessity of its being abolished." This declaration of independence antedates that of 1726 in Philadelphia by nearly five years.
We should be equally proud of the fact that on Illinois soil took place, on July 4, 1778, the struggle resulting in the capture from the English, by George Rogers Clark, of the Fort of Kas- kaskia, which wrested forever from the British crown all the terri- tory west of Pennsylvania lying between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
We should be equally proud of the fact that it was upon the prairies of Illinois that the two greatest Americans of their day, citizens of Illinois, Lincoln and Douglas, discussed in joint debate the greatest moral question ever presented to a free people-the question as to whether a Republic of free men could endure with human . slavery legally enforced in one part of it and legally pro- hibited in another.
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We should be equally proud, if not more proud, that when that question was finally settled by the awful arbitrament of Civil War, it was a citizen of Illinois who was President in the White House and a citizen of Illinois, in the person of U. S. Grant, who led the victorious armies of the Republic to a final and complete vietory, backed by the valor of 250,000 of the sons of Illinois upon the battlefield.
And at such a time as this, it occurs to me, that the orators and oratory of Illinois should not be overlooked. Every epoch of history finds a tongue, and every erisis in the affairs of nations, find an evangel. This is the history of the world and this is the history of Illinois and this Republic. Since the Revolutionary War this country has faced two great epoch-making erises-the War of the Rebellion in 1861 and the war for the preservation of democracy in 1912. In both erises, the State of Illinois found its tongue, in the persons of great orators and statesmen. In the erisis of 1861, not only did Illinois furnish in the Presidency a gifted orator from whose eloquent tongue fell the classie ef Gettys- burg, but two other men of lofty eloquence in the persons of Stephen A. Douglas and Edward Diekinson Baker.
In view of all that has been uttered of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas by abler tongues than mine, I will not on this occasion add a single word to mar the completeness of eulogy which has heretofore been theirs and which shall remain theirs as long as man shall read and assimilate history. Let me devote my atten- tion, but briefly, to the wonderful part played by Edward Diekin- son Baker in the history of the State and the nation as the mouth- piece of the people at the opening of the Civil War.
There is hung in the mansion at Springfield the oil painting of a singularly handsome man-by the way, the only oil painting in the mansion. When elected Governor of this State, my atten- tion was attracted to this picture and I must confess, to my humiliation and shame, that for some time I was unable to dis- cover who was the original. I was too young in 1861 to have heard in my boyhood of this great man nor had I ever seen a portrait of Senator Baker until I entered the mansion. Upon inquiry, I discovered that the oil painting of this handsome man
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was that of Edward D. Baker, colonel ot volunteers in the war of the rebellion and United States Senator from Oregon, one of the most patriotically eloquent men of his day. While at the time of his death, he was United States Senator from the state of Oregon, Senator Baker was a thoroughdy Illinois production. Ou the fourth day of July, 1837, he had established such a reputation for eloquence in the city of Springfield where he lived that he was selected by a committee who had under consideration Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, James Shields, Lyman Trumbull, James A. MeDougall and Jolm A. M.Clernand as the orator to deliver an oration appropriate to the laying of the cornerstone of the new State House in Springfield. Thereafter he was elected to the lower house of the General Assembly from the county of Sangamon. and shortly afterwards to the State Senate. His repu- tation for eloquence as a member of the Legislature for several terms secured his election to Congress from the Springfield dis- trict. Almost immediately he distinguished himself as one of the leading and most influential and eloquent members of the National House of Representatives. On the death of President Taylor, he was selected by Congress to deliver the memorial address. It proved to be as choice a specimen of eloquence as can be found in the records of Congress. The concluding sentence of this noble speech may well be quoted here: "The President during whose administration the war commenced, 'sleeps in the house appointed for all the living,' and the great soldier who had led the advance and assured the triumph, 'lies like a warrior taking his rest.' Ah, sir, if in this assembly there is a man whose heart beats with tumultuous, and unrestrained ambition let him today stand by the bier on which that lifeless body is laid. and learn how much of human greatness fades in an hour. But if there be another here, whose fainting heart shrinks from a noble purpose, let him too, visit these sacred remains, to be reminded how much there is in true glory that can never die." This great oration was delivered in the month of July, 1850. Within a short time thereafter, attracted by the lure of the gold discoveries in California, we find him practising his profession as a lawyer in that great state. Here again the innate and irrepressible eloquence of the man breaks
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out in a classic delivered over the dead body of Senator Broderick who fell in a duel with Judge Terry. In that great effort is recorded as fierce and as powerful a protest against the "Code of honor" as is contained in the English language. Listen to his words :
"Today I renew my protest; today I utter yours. The code of honor is a delusion and a snare; it palters with the hope of a true courage, and binds it at the feet of crafty and cruel skill. It surrounds its victim with the pomp and grace of the procession, but leaves him bleeding on the altar. It substitutes cold and deliberate preparations for courageous and manly impulse, and armis the one to disarm the other; it may prevent fraud between practiced duclists, who should be forever without its pale, but it makes the mere 'trick of the weapon' superior to the noblest cause and the truest courage. Its pretense of equality is a lie; it is equal in all of the form, it is unjust in all the substance-the habitude of arms, the early training, the frontier life, the border war, the s ctional eustom, the life of leisure-all these are advan- tages which no negotiations can neutralize, and which no courage can overcome."
He concludes that noble oration with these eloquent words : "But the last word must be spoken, and the imperious mandate of death must be fulfilled. Thus, O, brave heart, we bear thee to thy rest ! Thus, surrounded by tens of thousands, we leave thee to the equal grave. As in life no other voice among us so rang its trumpet blast upon the ear of free-men, so in death its echoes will rever- berate amid our mountains and valleys, until truth and valor cease to appeal to the human heart. Good friend! true hero; hail and farewell."
FIRST MEMORIAL ADDRESS
Upon his election to the United States Senate, he at once leaped into front place as one of the orators of that august body. Ilis first memorable speech in the United States Senate was in answer to that of Judah P. Benjamin, senator from Louisiana, in which he successfully combated the right of the state of South Carolina to secede from the Union. The whole oration is one of
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matchless logic and exalted eloquence. I quote merely from its peroration :
"Whatever moderation, whatever that great healer, time, whatever the mediation of those allied to these people in blood, in sympathy, in interest, may effect-let that be done: but at last, let the laws be maintained, and the Union be preserved. * *
* As I take my leave of a subject, upon which I have detained you too long, I think in my own mind, whether I shall add anything. in my feeble way to the hopes, the prayers, the aspirations, that are going forth daily for the perpetuity of the union of these stotes. I ask myself, shall I add anything to that volume of invocation which is everywhere rising up to high Heaven, 'Spare us from the madness and disunion and Civil War ?'
"Speaking upon this subject, I cannot forget that I am stand- ing in a place onee occupied by one far mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. It was upon this sub- ject of secession, of disunion, of discord, of Civil War, that Mr. Webster uttered immortal sentiments, clothed in immortal words, married to the noblest expressions that ever fell from human lips; which alone would have made him memorable, and remembered forever. Sir, I cannot improve upon those expressions. They were uttered nearly thirty years ago, in the face of what was imagined to be a great danger, then happily dissipated. They were uttered in the fullness of his genius. from the fullness of his heart. They have found an echo since then in millions of homes, and in foreign lands. They have been a text-book in the schools. They have been an inspiration to public hope and to public liberty. As I close, I repeat them. If, in their presence, I were to attempt to give utterance to any words of my own, I should feel that I ought to say,
'And shall the Lyre, so long divine, Degenerate into hands like mine?' "
His last and probably most eloquent speech was delivered in the United States Sonate in the full uniform of a colonel of volunteers a few days before he met his death upon the battlefield of Ball's Bluff in answer to a speech delivered by Senator Brecken-
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ridge of Kentucky. The whole speech is one of exalted patriotism and eloquence, which should be read by every citizen of the re- public. An idea of its power can be obtained from its closing sentence:
"Shall we sink into the insignificance of the grave, a degraded, defeated, cmasculated people-frightened by the results of one battle, and scared by the visions raised by the imagination of the senator from Kentucky upon this floor. No, sir, a thousand times no. We will rally -- if, indeed, our words be necessary-we will rally the people, the loyal people of the country. They will pour fourth their treasures, their money, their men, without stint and without measure. The most peaceful man in this body will stamp his foot upon this Senate floor, as of old a warrior and a senator did, and from that single stamp there will spring forth armed legions. Shall one battle, or a dozen battles, determine the fate of an empire -- the loss of one thousand men or twenty thousand men-the expenditure of $100,000,000 or $500.000,000! In a year of peace, in ten years at most of peaceful progress, we can restore them all.
"There will be some graves reeking with blood, watered by the tears of affection. There will be some privation; there will be some loss of luxury ; there will be somewhat more need of labor to procure the necessaries of life. When this is said, all is said. If we have the country, the whole country, the Union, the Con- stitution, free government-with these will return all the blessings of a well-ordered civilization. The path of the country will be a. career of greatness and glory, such, as in the olden times, our fathers saw in the dim visions of years yet to come, and such as would have been ours today had it not been for that treason for which the senator from Kentucky too often seeks to apologize."
Such was the character of the eloquence that fell from the lips of E. D. Baker, a Springfield lawyer and former member of Congress from the State of Illinois. In this great erisis in the country's history he spoke the true sentiments of the people and truly prophesied the future, and from the days of Baker and Lincoln and Douglas down to the present day, Illinois has had in its Legislature, at its bar, and on the public rostrum men of
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extraordinary eloquence and forensic power. During this year I hope some student of the great State of Illinois will take the trouble to collate and preserve for future generations some of the eloquence of Illinois' many gifted orators.
Today, in the crisis of 1917, we have in the Senate of the United States, representing this great State, probably one of the most gifted orators of our day and age in the person of Senator Lewis, and no mean rival for him in repartie and power of debate in the person of Senator Sherman. As in the great crisis of 1861, we had the tongues of Lincoln and Douglas and Baker voicing the sentiment and patriotism of the State and nation, so in this great crisis of this world-wide war we have in the Senate of the United States, expressing its patriotism and eloquence, the gifted tongue of Illinois' incomparable orator, Senator Lewis, and Illinois' able debater, Senator Sherman. Since the days of Douglas, the State of Illinois has never had a more brilliant orator and statesman in the Senate of the United States than it has today in the person of James Hamilton Lewis.
Between the names of Lincoln, Douglas and Baker down to the days of Lewis and Sherman, I find on the roster of the elo- quent men which Illinois has given to the nation and the world the names of Robert G. Ingersoll, that master of pathos and imagery, the trenchant and sparkling Emory Storrs, the argu- mentative and persuasive Leonard Swett. the scholarly and classical Lyman Trumbull, the firey and impetuous James Shields, whose eloquence and brilliant traits of character made him, succesively, Auditor of the State of Illinois, Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois. Brigadier-General o the United States Army and United States Senator from Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri, and who has attained, since his death, the unique distinction of having three separate states of the United States erect monuments to his memory within each of said states and in the capital of the United States.
Among the more recent oratory of Illinois have been the ornate and flowery Richard J. Oglesby, that master of jury elo- quence, W. J. IIynes, the impassioned John F. Finerty, the stately and logical Jolin C. Black, that wizard of the banquet board, Wil-
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liam J. Calhoun, and that vigorous tribune of the people, John P. Altgeld; and probably greater than all, that gifted orator who first saw the light of day in the little village of Salem, whose words, eloquence and patriotism have rung around the world, named William Jennings Bryan, the great master of Anglo-Saxon English, whose oratory has ever appealed and ever will appeal to the conscience and the intellect of the world's democracy.
I know of no state that can present a greater roster of accom- plished orators than the State of Ihnvis, and it should be a labor of love for some of Illinois students and historians to compile and preserve for posterity some of the brightest oratorical gems of these great sons of Illinois. The eloquence of these men has done much to shape the policies and guide the destinies of this great State and nation, and to stir the emotions of men to the accomplishment of great achievements in history.
For the honor and glory of the State the best that has fallen from the lips of its orators should be preserved in appropriate and enduring form by its historians.
The orators have spoken the breathing, burning words that inspired their fellow men to act. Let the historian now act to perpetuate these words of eloquence for the education and inspi- ration of generations yet to come.
ILLINOIS TODAY
RICHARD YATES, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS, 1901-1905
"Illinois Today" is my theme: not Illinois of yesterday or tomorrow -- but Illinois Today.
I reiterate the theme, because I want you to know that I am fully mindful of it. inasmuch as you may possibly think I wander somewhat afield, because of the subdivision of the subject which -I am unable to avoid.
This subdividing seeming to mne inevitable, I am going to speak to you :
First-Of the ties which our history binds us with, to the past of Illinois-a record which we cannot ignore, or at least, must not ignore, because if we do ignore it, we do so at our peril.
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Second-Of that Illecis which our fathers hoped we would have.
Third-Of the present conditions surrounding our State and prevailing in it.
A sincere intention to adhere to this subdivision does not prevent me from saying a certain thing to this audience. This thing I must say because I would be unfair with the audience if I were to omit it. I Have not the heart to avoid reference to the thing that is uppermost every day in the heart of everyone of you-whether the day be the birthday of Illinois or not.
In the days when the most beautiful building in all the World erowned Mount Moriah, and the Presence of God filled that far- famed Temple, into that awful place and into that dreadful Presence went the High priest of the Jews, on the Day of Atone- ment. He went in to propiciate the offended Jehovah. He went in to offer sacrifiecs for the Sins of his Nation. He went in to avert the just resentment of the Almighty. In the way God himself had appointed this Priest, as intercessor, as intermediator, as advecate, as ambassador, for a whole race, an entire People, made an unconditional surrender and awaited on his knees, on his face, the decision to be given by the Judge of all Men. You can imagine his anxiety to return to the outer world and thus prove to the people that they were a forgiven and not an unforgiven nation. And you can imagine those waiting people. that proving nation, that conscience-stricken race, standing there-waiting, yearning, eyes not one instant resting upon anything else but the glittering heights almost out-shining the sun in brightness. You can imagine that nation. waiting in silence, in breathless silence, until they could learn that God was still the Forgiving God-that the favor of Heaven had not been withdrawn.
. There was a way by which they could tell. If the High Priest came out alive, it was assumed and concluded that God had not withdrawn his favor, that forgiveness had once again been vouch- safed to the nation. And they could tell whether he would prob- ably come out alive, by the sound of certain little bells worn by the High Priest upon his garment, at the bottom edge of his blue robe, the "blue ephod." As long as these little gollen bells, the
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wearing of which was strictly enjoined by the Almighty in His instructions given to Moses, were heard, it could be told, that the priest, the intercessor, was alive, had not been stricken with the wrath of God.
All through the past months, ever since the declaration of war by the United States, I have felt as if the boys "over there" were our representatives, our ambassadors, our hostages, our delegates, our intercessors, our intermediaries, our high priests, in a most saered way, in a most sacred time, in a most sacred cause. They have looked into the jaws of death. They have looked into the mouth of hell. They have looked into the face of God. We, you and I, have stood aside and outside, but oh, how we have been interested-how intensely, how breathlessly !
When at last, the high priest of old came forth exalted but almost exhausted, how the people whispered, "He comes, he comes, oh, he comes." Now we are whispering "He comes, yes he comes, our boy comes !" .
There have been other sacrifiees. One day, four hundred years before Moses and Aaron, the moment of sacrifice came to Abraham. It is recorded "Abraham went unto the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. . And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called to him out of Heaven and said 'Abraham, Abraham,' and he said, 'Here I am.' And he said 'Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thon say anything unto him. for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.'"
, You can imagine what Abraham meant, when he said, "Here am I." I can almost see Abraham standing there. First, there he is with the slight form of his young son in his arms. He has stooped and picked him up in his fatherly arms. Then he has laid him down, and bound him-with his own loving hands and arms, that would not hurt Isaae for anything in the world, for all the things in the world. Next. he looks from the face of Isaae to the altar, and from the altar up to God, and from the face of Isaac
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again to the altar and again to God. But always his look comes back to the face of Isarc.
At last, he nerves himself, and with staggering haste for fear he may yet give out, he places Isaae on the altar, on the wood. Then and not until then, comes his deliverance; then the trial of Abraham's faith is over. But mark you, it is not over until God can say: "Now I know that thon fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me."
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