USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 7
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or face the muzzles of the firing squad. And life would not have been worth living; and the daughters of America would have been the slaves of a conquering soldiery, dranken with victory.
From all this we were saved, for some reason-because, Fo far as our finite vision can see, generals of distinction of ability, and of experience, made mistakes, unaccountable, I believe that tide of conquest was stopped os it was and when it was, in order that America, including Illinois, might have its purt in the energ- izing and spiritualizing which comes with sacrifice.
If this is true, then Ill'hois today, faces the obligation and opportunity of all its existence; and it will be worthy of it, worthy of the history of glory which it enjoys, worthy of the high hopes our fathers cherished, and we can leave here tonight singing and believing :
Then conquer we must, For our cause it is just And this be our motto In God is our trust.
Let us be not deceived, the Illinois of today has a hard task set before it, to equal the patriotism of the Illinois of the olden day.
Do you know what Illinois must do to equal their givings and offerings? Take the one item of mnen alone ---
In the four years, 1861-2-3-4 Illinois gave 259,000 men, to the army and navy-a quarter of a million, plus nine thousand; the population of Illinois was then 1,100,000-about one and three quarters millions ; so that one man was given for every sixth of the population.
On the same basis, Illinois, with its present population of between six and seven millions, must furnish one million men, before it can equal the offering of our fathers, to the army and the navy, in the glorious days, the great days the great and glorious days of Illinois.
Can it be done? God helping us, it can be done.
But, when victory shall have come and the American millions shall have come home, will no problem be left? When Kaiserism
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shall be no more, what about Bolshevism? Kaiserism inspired and instigated anarchy in Russia, and it yet remains there, and will remain there, until by the aid of American bayonets disorder is ended and order is restored. Bolshevism is not. better than Kaiserism. It has the same hellish origin. It is autocracy- brutal, cowardly, autocracy. It is brutal, bloody, tyranny. Its leaders in Russia have been murderers. If it gets over here, it will murder, burn and torture here, as in Russia. It paraded its red flags in the hands of a lot of fools in New York the other day. Thank God, its flags were torn to tatters by American soldiers and sailors who happened to see them. It will parade them in Illinois, in Chicago, aye in Springfield, some day, unless we show and prove now that we will not tolerate antocracy in any form, for one moment, whether it comes as Kaiserism or whether it comes as Bolshevism, whether it comes as tyranny or whether it conies as anarchy, whether it comes, attacking with poison gas, or whether it comes with the red flag and torch.
In this hour of crisis and of new danger and new trial, in this moment when artful, scheming, cruel, brutal, cold, calculating demagogues and agitators (are equipped), God knows how or whence, with money and plenty and some support from parlor anarchists in high degree and position), can we depend upon the men and women of America to aid and help utterly regardless of all its costs, the eternal right, to the end that we may not have driven out the Kaiser and yet be overcome by Kaiserism, after all ?
But my fellow citizens, I appeal to you as Illinoisans, to serve the State as never before.
Fellow citizens, who would not be proud to serve Illinois? Illinois exceeds a majestic empire in size. Illinois exceeds a royal realın in resources. Illinois is the queen of all the prairie states, and richer and fairer than any monarch or potentate could possibly be. Yet it harbors no aristocracy, no oligarchy. no militarism, no imperialism -- simply enlightened liberty. Illinois is a republic of itself. It has both prospects of renown and a history of glory.
Two hundred and fifty-nine thousand lusty and loyal men it sent forth fifty-five years ago, to do battle and to dare, and if heed be, die, for Union and Liberty, for you and for me, for
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posterity and the eternal right. To the State Penitentiary it in later days sent the violators of the sacred laws of suffrage, to the end that political rights might be preserved inviolate. To the sanctity of the suffrage, to the honesty of municipal government, the upbuilding of American nationality the mighty State stands pledged today.
Great in its domain; great in its citizenship; great in its intelligence; great in its liberty; great in it- benevolence; great in its energy ; great in all its capabilities ; great in both its strength and its beauty -- Illinois is worthy the devotion of any man, or any people; worthy of your undying affection, and of mine.
Ah, Illinois! It is my birthplace and my home, and the home of my mother, and my wife and my little ones, and I love it well. As I look into your carnest eyes, men of Illinois, I see that you, all of you, love it well too. and because we love it so well we want it guided wisely and well.
I have a serenc and implicit faith. that we will be guided aright, because I believe that our guide has been God. Having been our guide, He will not forsake us now, not forsake Illinois today, not forsake us in the appalling future. I believe that this Nation, of ours, is divinely ordained ; that the Almighty, Himself, just kept that curtain of water the Atlantic Ocean, right down, on the eastern side of this continent, until the prow of Columbus parted the waters of this Western Hemisphere, for the mighty purpose ; and that that purpose was to establish, and maintain, yea, to establish, yea, to maintain, utterly regardless of what it cost, yea, utterly regardless of what it cost in men or in money, in treasure, in time, in terror, in tears or in blood, this mighty Republie, our mighty and model Republic, with cornerstones of Freedom. with foundations cemented by the shed blood of fore- fathers, in order that, in hours of peril to the suffering human race, this mighty and model Republic, your country and mine, might be not only the heir of ages and the child of the centuries, but the beacon light of Liberty and the last hope of humanity, as it undoubtedly. praise be to God. is today. And so believing, I rejoice that I can (as I do) further believe. that Illinois, which is, already, more than one-fifteenth in population, of this mighty last
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hope of humanity, will grow and grow and grow, until it will be much more than one-tenth, over one-tenth in wealth and in courage, in resources and in high resolve-more than one-tenth of the American Republic, the stone that the continental builders re- jected, the mightiest agency ever ordained by Providence, for the welfare of humanity since the Savior walked among the sons of men. HAIL, HAIL, ILLINOIS!
ILLINOIS AND THE WAR
WALLACE RICE
Illinois commands us, her loyal children, Here to meet tonight in new consecration,
Crossing with her over the troubled threshhold Of a new era.
Jewel-bright her story, and proud her people Gathered here recounting her past achievement ; While the blare of bugles and tramp of war-hosts Call to new duties.
Born was she in warfare, and her forthcoming Red with tales of battle along these prairies : First of settlers here was the iron-handed Henry de Tonty.
Joliet, LaSalle, Pere Marquette the pious, Prophets and adventurers, brought the ensign France sent westward floating above our rivers- These our beginnings.
Britain's flag awhile on our ramparts fluttered ; Till Virginia came, and the Starry Banner Rose in splendor never to be supplanted, Emblem of freemen.
Illinois, through Clark and his fearless Long Knives, Gave the Nation, first of her gifts, the empire Of the broad Northwest, to preserve and cherish Freedom for ever.
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Soon upon the Flag was our Star of Statehood Brightly placed, the better to hold the Union One throughout the years. How we have repaid this, History blazous.
First in Mexico, when at Buena Vista Gallant Hardin perished, on to the City
Marching up with Scott, never once defeated Illinois battles.
Rose the Great Revolt. Did our Douglas falter? At the call two hundred and sixty thousand
Fighting men go forth. Ours their chosen leader, Grant the undaunted.
Ours that Man of men, more than peer of princes, ITumble-hearted, yet honoring man and woman More than any crown, the Emancipator Abraham Lincoln.
Peace ensues, and here from our golden cornfields And rich mines beneath are afforded treasure,
Wealth beyond our dreams, with the whirring work-shops Adding new treasure.
Beauty, too, is ours; glowing arts and letters; Science sound and deep; law to help the helpless; While Religion builds templed shrines, high altars Free as the sunlight. Peace becomes our faith and our fond conviction. On a sudden Europe, in flame enveloped,
Startles us from dreaming. We see in horror Arson and murder.
Busy at our doors, as the desperate conflict 'Twixt a right divine held by sceptered despots And a government for and by the people Rocks land and ocean. Vain our hope for pence: and our old flags beckon us: France, who gave us bein, and Greater Britain, Tonty's home, fair Italy. Freedom's offspring,
Roll out their drumbeats.
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And we rush to arms. Hear the trumpets blaring ! On our sacred soil sce our brave young warriors, Youth in blue or khaki, our sons and brothers, Haste to the Colors!
Illinois renews now the fine old pledges
Given at her birth and redeemed so proudly ;
Illinois once more gives with solemn gladness Her best and noblest.
How can she do less, she who ended slavery
In its age-old form, now that new enslavement
Threatens at her gates? Hear our fathers cheering, Liberty! Union!
Liberty for all, great or little peoples --
This our mighty task, this our sacred duty; Never peace until maukind in union Dominates bloodshed.
God of Liberty, Illinois is praying,
Not for glory or gratified ambition,
But for generous truce with no thought of conquest, War for War's deathblow.
We who gave America in her peril
Instruments for victory, Grant and Lincoln,
Under God shall force new emancipation, Freeing Man's spirit.
The above pocm was read by the author at the banquet, given at the Leland Hotel in Springfield, Monday evening, De- cember 3, in honor of the ninety-ninth anniversary of the admission of Illinois into the Union and the beginning of the Centennial year. Mr. Rice is a Chicago poet of wide reputation, and was the official pageant writer and lecturer for the Illinois Centennial Commission, which, in conjunction with the lilinois Ilistorical Society, gave the banquet. The metre of the poem is sapphic, the same used by Horace in his "Integer Vitae."
THE LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE
Two mass meetings were held at the State Arsenal in Spring- field on Lincoln's birthday, February 12, under the auspices of the Illinois Centennial Commission, and the Lincoln Centennial Asso- ciation.
In the afternoon a chorus of twelve hundred Springfield school children sang patriotic songs, and addresses were delivered by Hugh S. Magill, Jr., Director of the Centennial Celebration, and Mr. Addison G. Proctor, of St. Joseph, Michigan, who was a delegate from Kansas at the Wigwam convention which nomi- nated Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860. Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, Chairman of the Centennial Commission, presided.
In the evening another great mass meeting was addressed by Justice William Renwick Riddell, of the Supreme Court of Ontario, Canada, and the Hon. Thomas Power O'Connor, the Irish Nation- alist member of the English Parliament. Judge J Otis Humphrey, of the United States District Court, and Chairman of the Lincoln Centennial Association, presided.
Governor Frank O. Lowden issued a statement on February 9, in which he urged a greater observance of Lincoln Day than ever before. This statement helped materially to focus publie at- tention upon the Lincoln Celebration throughout Illinois. The Proclamation of Governor Lowden, was as follows:
"Lincoln's spirit still walks the earth. His life remains the greatest resource to the forees fighting for freedom and righteous- ness throughout the world. When autocracy seems to win vic- tories, it is Lincoln's unshaken faith in the worth of the common man which impels us to go on at any cost. When some fear that the monstrous doctrine of the mailed autocrats-that might makes right- may again rule the earth, our resolution is renewed by these words of Lincoln: 'Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty.'
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"When our allies have felt the need to refresh their courage they have turned to Lincoln's words. More and more do the lovers of liberty everywhere make pilgrimage to Lincoln's tomb. It was an impressive moment when Joffre, who saved civilization at the Battle of the Marne, with reverent hand and tear-dimmed eye laid a wreath above his dust. Who shall doubt that the old hero felt at that moment a new resolve to 'carry on'!
"We may become war-weary before peace shall come. If we do, Lincoln will revive our will. To adopt his words to the present crisis: 'Fondly do we hope-fervently do we pray-that the mighty scourge of war will speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue "until the privileges of emperors and kings shall finally give way to the rights of man; until the sword and cannon shall become the servants, not the masters, of the state; until nations everywhere shall confess their fealty to the moral law; until the God of Justice and Righteousness shall rule the world," as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said: "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- gether.' "
"As the weeks shall come and go, in ever increasing numbers, the stars upon our service flags will turn from blue to gold. The temptress will whisper peace to us, as she whispered it to Lincoln, when no peace is possible-but only a truce. Let us in that hour, with Lincoln, 'highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'
"The cause of democracy is the cause of humanity. It con- cerns itself with the welfare of the average man. Lincoln was its finest product. In life, he was its noblest champion. In death, he became its saint. Ilis tomb is now its shrine. His country's cause, for which he lived and died, has now become the cause of all the world. It is more than half a century since his country- men, with reverent hands, bore him to his grave. And still his pitiless logie for the right, his serene faith in God and man, are the surest weapons with which democracy, humanity and right- eousness now fight their ancient foe. His birthday draws near.
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It will nerve the soldier's arm, it will strengthen the stateman's resolution, it will grip humanity's great heart. if, upon that day, the friends of man everywhere shall pause long enough to recall his life and death, and resolve that Abraham Lincoln, too, shall not have lived and 'died in vain'."
Previous to Lincoln Day, the. Centennial Commission sent out circular letters and notices to the press, urging the observance throughout the State. This request was very generally complied with by local Centennial organizations.
AFTERNOON PROGRAM AT 2:30
DR. OTTO L. SCHMIDT
Chairman Illinois Centennial Commission Presiding
Invocation .Rev. Euclid B. Rogers Music . By Chorus and High School Orchestra
Address -- The Capital City's Part in the Illinois Centennial
Celebration. By Hon. Hugh S. Magill, Jr.
Director Illinois Centennial Celebration
Music. By Chorus and High School Orchestra
Address --- The Nomination of Abraham Lincoln.
By Addison G. Proctor, St. Joseph, Mich. Delegate to Republican National Convention of 1860
Music. . . By Chorus of 1200 Pupils of Springfield Schools and High School Orchestra
EVENING PROGRAM AT 7:30
HON. J OTIS HUMPHRI'Y
President of Lincoln Centennial Association Presiding
Invocation Rev. Lester Leake Riley
Music. Watch Factory Band Address. . By the Honorable Mr. Justice William Renwick Riddell Of the Supreme Court of Ontaria
Watch Factory Band
Music. By the Honorable T. P. O'Connor Address Member of Parliament Watch Factory Band Music.
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THE CAPITAL CITY'S PART IN THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
HUGH S. MAGILL, JR. Director Illinois Centennial Celebration
We have assembled here today to celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Once he belonged to Illinois, and in a more stimato sense to Springfield, the city he loved to call his home. Today, though our city contains his dust, his spirit no city, no state, no nation can contain. He belongs to the liberty loving of every land. Where statesmen meet to uphold the cause of humanity again-t the ruthless aggressions of despotie power. his great spirit in-pires and guides their councils. Where today the brave sons of America and France and Britain and Italy stand shouldler to Melder in the trenches of Europe to battle back the onslaughts of the mereilles Iluns, there the spirit of Lincoln nerves . these aldiers of liberty to offer, "the last full measure of devotion," "wat government of the people, by the people, for the people, all not perish from the earth."
Fifty-seven years ago yesterday, Illinois gave Lincoln to our nation. When he assumed the duties of the presidency, the coun- try was rent with fierce dissension. His one great passion was to save the Union, for he knew it was the world's last hope of ithe government. If this American Republic went down in fra- ternal strife, the despots of earth would laugh in derision at the final failure of democracy. This nation "conceived in liberty wul dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." m.u.i be preserved for the welfare of our own people, and as an inspiration and example to all the world.
Through four long years of sacrifice and suffering he "carriol on," until freedom triumphed, and democracy was saved. It is in support of the same principles of free government that millions tolay are dedicating their lives and all that they have. We would 'we umervo to him, and unworthy of the liberty for which he gave hi life if we faltered in this hour of trial. Who should dare put a pri e on these ideals and principles? For the sake of ourselves -- T CC
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and the people of all nations, and of generations yet to be, these principles must be maintained, though it cost billions of our treasure and millions of our best and bravest inen.
When, war-weary, we would consider for a moment a com- promise peace, let us remember that Lincoln was tempted in like manner. During the dark days near the close of the Civil War, just before the dawn of victory, men who were reputed as states- men went to Mr. Lincoln and urged him to offer a compromise in order to end the war. He replied, "We accepted this war for a worthy object. and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it will not en I until that time!" This should be the sentiment of every staunch patriot today. The last vestige of that military autocracy, which deliberately brought on this terrible war, must be put down forever, that it may never again destroy the peace of the world.
Abraham Lincoln, above any mortal man, has given to the world its finest example of lofty spirit and purpose in the hour of severest trial. The military autocracies of Europe have poured out on a suffering, bleeding world all the vials of wrath, and hatred, and cruelty. But in this dark hour it will sweeten our souls to contemplate his words uttered near the close of four years of awful war: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, for his widow and orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and last- ing peace among ourselves and with all nations."
And so with him, "Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it."
THE NOMINATION OF LINCOLN ADDISON G. PROCTOR Youngest delegate to the Convention of 1860 that nominated Lincoln
The year 1860 introduced into our national life Abraham Lincoln, one of the most remarkable and certainly the most in-
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teresting characters that has graced our history since the days of Washington.
Now this man, born to poverty and obscurity, whose life from its earliest days to middle age was one continued struggle for a bare existence, -- who came to the State of Illinois at the age of 21 a raw backwoodsman, clothed in the homespun that he had earned by the splitting of rails,-how this man could have so impressed him-elf on the people of this great State, and of this Nation, as to become the chosen and accepted leader of a great National party at the most critical time in the affairs of this country, must always remain one of the interesting chapters of our political history.
There inct that year in the City of Chicago, in the month of May, a convention composed of 466 delegates from the Northern States and the Border States of the South. They were men of strong convictions, who had met for a very decided purpose. Slav- cry, as a political power, had been growing more and more aggres- sive and dictatorial. It had trampled upon all of the compromises, hed outraged the moral sensibilities of the North by its enforcement of its fugitive slave law, and now under cover of a recent Supreme Court decision it was attempting to force its way into the free territories of the Northwest, and so the temper of that convention was that of exasperation.
To the West. stretching from the valley of the Missouri River to the far off Pacific Ocean, lay one great undeveloped empire, promising, as we all realized, tremendous possibilities. To that great empire of the West, this Convention invited the people of the world to come and help in its development and to share in its prosperity, and it pledged the faith of that great party which it represented to the dedicating for all time of this great empire to the upbuilding and maintaining of free homes for free men, and so like an intrepid gladiator this convention strode into the National arena, threw its gauntlet of defiance into the face of slavery, and proclaimed-thus far may thon go and no farther.
This determination of the convention, unanimously adopted and made a part of the platform on which they stood, the next
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and most vital question was -- to whom, in view of this emergency we are creating, can we dare to entrust the leadership? This was the question that gave us pause.
There had come to that convention, largely from the East, a well organized body of delegates demanding the nomination for the Presidency of Senator William H. Seward of New York. Mr. Seward had been prominent in National affairs for many years. As governor of the great state of New York, and as United States Senator, he had attracted unusual attention by his ability and clear statesmanship. He was by all odds the most prominent man of his party at that time.
He was represented in that delegation by many of the most noted political manipulators of his party under the leadership of Thurlow Weed, the most adroit politician of his day. Seward had come to that convention backed by this great element, full of confidence, lacking less than sixty votes of enough to control that entire convention, pledged to him on that first ballot. The advent spectacular event of the pre-convention days.
Outside this great movement for Seward all seemed confusion and disintegration.
Vermont was there asking for the nomination of her able and popular Senator Jacob Collimer, who had filled many places of honor, including a cabinet membership and supreme judgeship and senator.
New Jersey was there asking for the nomination of her Judge and Senator, William L. Dayton, who had stood with Fremont four years before and gone down to defeat on a ticket that many suggested "had the head where the tail ought to be."
Pennsylvania was there asking for the nomination of her able, aggressive Senator Simon Cameron with the whole Penn- sylvania delegation at his call.
Ohio was there urging the nomination of her splendid speci- men of Senator and Statesman, Salmon P. Chase, afterward our chief justice of the Supreme Court.
Missouri, with a splendid delegation made up of a new ele- ment that everyone wanted to encourage. was there asking for the naming of her eminent Jurist. Judge Edward Bates.
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