USA > Indiana > The Indiana centennial, 1916; a record of the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of Indiana's admission to statehood > Part 27
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The original settlers had started out with a diversity in their social experience. From the South, from New England and from the middle States, from the educated and the cul- tured, from the well-to-do and the poor, they had come in with points of view so different as to make life difficult for neighbors. In Indiana along the line of the frontier they had found, once they got settled, that conditions different from those they had known at home were likely to prevail. It made little difference where they came from when it came to lowering the great timbers for the cabin; chopping was just as hard for a Yankee as for a Southerner, and the experiences
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resulting from handling the timbers were the same. Inside the cabin the babies came with about the same frequency, and with them came diseases, hard grinding labor, all the elements of life of the frontiersman. The frontiersman who lived to be forty was likely to live to extreme old age and to last through anything that life might bring to him. They had been subject to frontier conditions that were uniform regardless of their origin, and the result was that every year the settlers gained more of the common quality.
As the new generation grew up in Indiana it must have been bitter for the good southern family to see that their children were no better than the Yankees', as it must have been bitter for a family with culture and education to see that their children were no better than the little rough chil- dren on the next clearing. The life of the frontier has ordi- narily been a period not more than twenty-five years. By the time the first children born in a new frontier have ripened into matrimony the region has almost invariably settled down in life. Its log cabins have degenerated into smoke houses and big frame houses have taken their places. County seats have grown up and the old frontier is gone. The children have acquired similar habits. The two things that appear to have brought the change about in Indiana after a half cen- tury are, in the first place, this frontier influence forcing upon the children born here the uniformity of type, regardless of their ancestors' home lands, and in the second place, the lust for communication-the need for a market for their crops which had led the people to improve the waterways and build railroads, and to make communication flow back and forth in every possible direction across the State. These two things made possible amalgamation, and if our Domesday enumer- ators had come back they would have reported "the diversity has generally gone, its sharp edges have been rubbed off and there has been an increase of similarity among the inhabi- tants who there exist."
One of the saddest errors of judgment-one in whose train disaster followed-was based upon the contemporary's fail- ure to realize that in these fifty years Indiana had changed from a sectional into a unified community. In the days of Andrew Jackson, Indiana was pretty largely sectional, and that sectionalism was the sectionalism reflected from the plan- tation South. The southern leader never could get away from
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the idea that Indiana was a Southern State. There were southern leaders who believed in the Civil War that the South had only to organize its confederacy for Indiana to join. They were blind to the influences that had turned the central face of Indiana from New Orleans to New York. The realiza- tion of that fact during the Civil War was a surprise to the confederacy. It was a good deal of a surprise in many quar- ters in the North and probably when the Union found what Indiana thought about the fundamental facts of its govern- ment, it knew better what it thought itself. The fact that this State had become unionized during this half century al- most without knowing it, was the fact that made it possible for the Union to be maintained. Of course this does not mean that every citizen of Indiana agreed with every other one, but the internal controversies stopped short of an ex- plosion and the preponderant opinion had unity and similarity and nationality that one would not have foreseen in the days of original settlement.
At the beginning of the century our first Domesday enu- merators, in the days of our grandfathers' grandfathers, would have had to report that Indiana was diverse, showing little prospect of unification, and might have added that if Indiana could live as a State, any State might hope to live. A half century later they would have to say that through the forces of communication and the stronger forces of frontier pressure upon the human habit Indiana had lost its sectional- ism, and had become national.
And in the interval between this set of enumerators and those would go out today these tendencies have become more firmly grounded. In the last half century some of our States which fifty years ago were strongly and preponderantly American, have filled up with the foreign born; others of our newer States that today are important are mere congregations of citizens arrived from pre-existing States or from abroad. The purity of the American race is in many parts of our coun- try threatened in the present period, because of the shifting of the new population into this country. But Indiana escaped having any of the greatest industrial centers; she kept un- changed the happy plan of former times. She increased con- tinually, in her average thousand inhabitants, the proportion of the happy, comfortable, well-to-do middle class; not near
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enough to either extreme to be very much distressed by what either extreme was conscious of, and representing more and more truly the average of the whole United States. The diffi- culty is, we cannot strike the average elsewhere. We have to take the experiment that nature has staged, and that the hand of man has confused. We have to determine the vari- ous elements of the mixture in spite of the conflicting testi- mony of the various cooks who mixed it. We have to get the proportions and quantities of things contained. We can- not repeat the process, and so when we find an instance in which nature has provided a reasonable experiment herself and has apparently left out some of those things which make it difficult to judge conditions in other communities, we are better prepared to come to a judgment on ourselves.
Since the first years in which Indiana showed to the United States that it had become amalgamated, and a national or- ganism, this process has gone on; types have developed. There was no Middle West fifty or sixty years ago. There was a South, there was a West, but there was no Middle West, no area that had shown its proclivities for reform, or for theoretical altruism in its politics. But the Middle West has a definite meaning now. The middle class in which Indiana is so strong has produced its type in literature, and "Huck Finn," "Silas Lapham," and even "Freckles," adapted Hoosier though he is, are clear American. We get an insight in these to that happy-go-lucky character which has survived the hard- ships of the frontier, which includes the contempt for re- straint that the frontier always had, the reliance upon self which the frontier never lacked, and that is perhaps our most important asset developed from the past.
After all, the study of our Domesday is significant if it gives us something upon which to stand today as we con- front the future. What is it going to mean? What does this American result that we have found here signify with reference to the things we are going to have to look forward to ourselves? Every one is entitled to his own opinion. My own wonder is at the amazing strength of the institution we have built up. If the American state could live in Indiana, arbitrarily drawn out, including sections that had no business to be put together, including population from every conceiv- able American stock, then there is hope for the rest of the machine. The hopeful thing with reference to the future is
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not to be found by those who look upon government as a mechanism responding always to theoretical lines, responding immediately and precisely to the will of the director and de- livering precisely the result intended by him. Persons who seek this will get relatively little comfort in considering any phase of American history or of the Middle West. We look to government to see what chance it offers to the average in- dividual, for freedom, for growth, for self-restraint, without failing in the reasonable accomplishment of those reasonable desires that are coherently expressed. One may find in the West, as your Indiana shows it, comfort for all time. The machine of government is clumsy, it is wasteful of power, it takes more strength to make it go than a machine of its weight ought to take, but history has shown that it will ac- complish any reasonable task. It will accomplish it perhaps as the vehicle did that moved the pioneers into this State in the beginning. In the pageant this afternoon was an old Conestoga wagon, an unconscious type of our American gov- ernment. It is heavy and lumbering, but it is capacious; it can be made water-tight, it can go over a log or stump, it can be rolled over and over down hill and start off again on its own running-gear. It can stand unreasonable treatment without ceasing to function as a wagon; and our government has much of that character. It goes, it actually works, and if we must count its cost, because it is an expensive mechan- ism, we must find our compensation in the fact that although it is wasteful it conserves the freedom of the individual to an extraordinary degree. It is possible to walk by the wagon, or to step aside to prospect, and yet know that the wagon ultimately will move along, not accurately nor pre- cisely, but in substantial safety.
And as we study this Domesday of ours, of your State in particular and of other States, the same general lesson has to come out-that living under conditions not the most promising they have endured, they have met shocks and have grown stronger. When we see the disasters likely to confront them and are apprehensive of collapse, we must remember the things that have been met and passed, and cherish our belief that the future will be met and passed over in the same way. The wagon in the days to come will be creaking along, leaving every generation a little ahead of the generations that came before.
PART IV
ADMISSION DAY EXERCISES, DECEMBER 11, 1916
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INDIANA'S ONE-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
JONATHAN JENNINGS
SAMUELM.RALSTON
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1816
1916
THE OBSERVANCE OF ADMISSION DAY
The Indiana Historical Commission, considering that it would be desirable to observe with appropriate exercises Admission Day, called the attention of county centennial chairmen, schools, historical societies, clubs and civic organi- zations in general, to this occasion. The following official communication was issued :
Indiana has this year seen a great outburst of state loyalty and patriotic enthusiasm occasioned by the observance of its one hundredth anniversary. Results of great significance to the citizenship of the State have been attained and the Indiana Historical Commission looks with much satisfaction, therefore, upon the work which has been accomplished under its auspices. To all those who have heartily cooperated toward this success, the Commission feels warmly grateful.
While it is felt that the substantial work laid out for the year has been largely performed, the Commission calls general attention to the fact that Admission Day, December 11, should be widely observed over the State, in accordance with Governor Ralston's proclamation making it a public holiday. It is therefore requested that appropriate Admission Day exercises be held throughout Indiana. These need not be elaborate at all, especially in those counties which have had adequate Centennial celebrations. But in all counties it would certainly be fitting to hold simple, dignified services in commemoration of the formal ad- mission of our Commonwealth into the Union. Such should naturally be arranged by the county chairman, especially when held as county observances.
In addition to this, it is suggested that the schools hold exercises. In some cases it may be advantageous to combine that of the school with that of the community as a whole. As a tentative program for the schools the Commission has prepared an outline which may be found in the Teachers' Manual of uniform course of study, page 198, and Teach- ers' Institute outline for 1916-17, pages 49, 50, issued by the State Board of Education. Patriotic and civic organizations and elubs are likewise encouraged to observe the day especially where other initiative is not taken. For such, the aforementioned outlined program may offer some helpful ideas. The Commission has this general recommenda- tion to offer-that these Admission Day exercises be community, home product affairs, as regards those participating. Whether it be in the speeches or music or other contributions, may it be a home tribute by home people.
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Finally it is recommended that on December 11, the Stars and Stripes be displayed, not only by public and business houses but by Hoosier homes, throughout Indiana.
INDIANA HISTORICAL COMMISSON, SAMUEL M. RALSTON, President. HARLOW LINDLEY, Secretary. W. C. WOODWARD, Director.
The Indiana Historical Commission arranged for a state celebration of this event at Indianapolis, a full report of which follows :
CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF IN- DIANA'S ADMISSION INTO THE UNION, DECEMBER 11, 1916
Held at the State House in Indianapolis on the evening of December 11, 1916, under the auspices of the Indiana Historical Commission and the Citizens of the State.
By Walter Sidney Greenough From the Indianapolis News, Dec. 12, 1916
Snow fell a trifle more softly last night than ever before on the hills and valleys and rolling prairies of Indiana. For it was a milestone snow, limning into bold relief the hills of progress of a hundred years of Hoosier life; covering the mire and the dark spots in the valleys, where history should, perhaps, not have been written as it was, and spreading across the prairies the white promise of a thousand good years to come.
Through the canyons of the streets of Indianapolis marched soldiers-Indiana's soldiers of peace. Beneath the golden dome of the Hoosier capitol, an assemblage of earnest, thoughtful, thankful men and women gathered to greet the men in khaki. And when they had greeted them the Hoosiers turned to watch the official passing of a century of Indiana life-the celebration of the Centennial of Admission Day.
Much gold braid there was, and broadcloth and jeweled gowns. And many faces that are known to fame, even beyond the boundaries of the Valley of the Wabash. Also stooping against the wind, came a black-gowned widow, leading a lit- tle child. The clothes they wore were not enough for such a night. And yet she came, and took her seat far in the rear of the great crowd. For she was a Hoosier-just like the rest.
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And thus, with rich and poor, poet and painter, soldier and statesman, sitting together at the shrine of a common home, did the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Indiana as a state pass into the history of the nation it has helped to make. Officially, the centennial of the nineteenth state's ad- mission to the sisterhood was celebrated with unusual cere- monies before perhaps the most distinguished and yet the most representative gathering that has ever graced a Hoosier meet- ing place.
The third infantry of the state's national guard, fresh from the Mexican border, detrained at Massachusetts avenue and the Big Four railroad at 6:30 o'clock, and was met by an escort, formed of members of the Indiana Historical Commis- sion and others. The regiment, led by Colonel Aubrey L. Kuhlman, of Auburn, marched through the streets to the state house.
In the big reception room of the Governor's suite, Gover- nor and Mrs. Ralston, with a group of representative Indiani- ans, awaited the arrival of the troops. The new picture of James Whitcomb Riley, painted by T. C. Steele, had been hung in its place, and all who gathered there paid silent tribute to the poet.
As the regiment marched, the Second Infantry Band, com- posed of Indiana University students, played Hoosier music and martial airs.
The 800 men of the regiment broke ranks at the state house and filed past the receiving line, in which were the fol- lowing :
Governor and Mrs. Ralston, Colonel L. R. Gignilliat, com- mandant of Culver Military Academy ; John H. Holliday, Mr. and Mrs. Meredith Nicholson, Mr. and Mrs. John E. Hollett, Mr. and Mrs. William L. Elder, Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Lilly, Hugh McK. Landon and daughter Julia, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hoke. the Rev. Francis H. Gavisk, Mr. and Mrs. Evans Woollen, Mr. and Mrs. Eben Wolcott, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Cole- man, Richard Lieber, Mr. and Mrs. Homer L. Cook, John W. Holtzman, William Fortune, chairman of the general admis- sion day committee; members of the Indiana Historical Com- mission and many others.
At the close of the reception the troops and the civilians gathered about a stage which had been erected almost beneath
21-15997
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the state house dome, where the evening program was carried out.
Perched on the railing above the speakers' stand was a golden eagle draped with flags. The speaker's stand itself bore a bronze wreath. Draped along the railings and stream- ing above the heads of the assembled crowd of Hoosiers were flags and bunting. Interested men and women and children filled the seating spaces, provided on the first floor corridor north of the capitol dome, and many were in the upper corri- dors. In the background stood the replica of the little old Corydon state house.
Governor Ralston appeared on the platform at 8:35 o'clock. The Second Infantry Band, stationed in the balcony to the south, struck up patriotic airs as Colonel Kuhlman stepped on the platform and was greeted by the Governor amid applause from the crowd.
In addition to the speeches, and the Centennial Ode by William Dudley Foulke of Richmond, Ind., Mrs. Helen War- rum Chappell, a notable Indiana singer, greatly pleased the au- dience by her encores of "The Last Rose of Summer" and "Com- in' thro' the Rye." As a fitting close to the great occasion, a chorus under the direction of Edward Bailey Birge, Centen- nial Chairman of Music, sang the great "Hallelujah Chorus."
PROGRAM
Music-
Second Indiana Infantry Band.
Introductory Remarks-
Governor Samuel M. Ralston.
Presentation of Service Medals to the Members of the Third Indiana Infantry-
Governor Ralston.
Response-
Colonel Aubrey L. Kuhlman.
Music-
Second Indiana Infantry Band.
Centennial Ode-
William Dudley Foulke.
Centennial Address, "Foundations of the Commonwealth" -- James A. Woodburn.
Songs-
Mrs. Helen Warrum Chappell.
Hallelujah Chorus-
Peoples' Chorus of Indianapolis, Edward Bailey Birge, Director.
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ADMISSION DAY EXERCISES
GOVERNOR RALSTON'S ADDRESS
Fellow Citizens :
I have been assigned the very honorable duty of presiding at this meeting. The honor is a significant one-significant because this event is both historic and patriotic. It is historic because it marks the first centennial milestone in the life of our commonwealth. It is patriotic because it has its source in our love for our state and evidences in a very fine sense our devotion to the imperishable Union of which Indiana is an essential part.
This is Admission Day-the anniversary of the day when Indiana took her place in the sisterhood of States, and resolved henceforth and forever to do her part by the Federal Union. This resolve she did not make in an outburst of passion or without sound reason therefor.
Hoosier pioneers were a sober-thinking and a far-seeing people. They were not only schooled in the hardships of pioneer life, but many of them were well read and were fa- miliar with the history of governments. They had not failed to note that the reason most of the historic republics were broken upon the rocks or crushed by the iron hand of fate, was the lack of a proper conception by the masses of the responsibil- ities of self-government. They early saw that no government was secure that did not have an enlightened citizenship back of it. They early saw that the liberty and progress of no people would long continue, if they allowed a few leaders to do their thinking for them, and they therefore took a stand for a system of popular education. They early understood that the blessings of government did not come to them from a few leaders, but that these blessings were founded on rights inherent in their own natures; that they did not come out of the enactments of parliaments and congresses, but out of themselves-out of self-reliance and self-restraint-through the long-drawn-out processes of evolution. And so it was that the pioneers of Indiana stood for equality, unity and brother- hood; and so standing they developed faith in themselves and faith in the destiny of their State. They were a courageous people, with splendid poise and strength of character.
It is fitting, therefore, that as a forward-looking and liberty-loving people we should assemble on this occasion, that we may do honor out of grateful hearts to the patriotic and
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heroic fathers and mothers who reclaimed this state from the wilderness and the savage; and review to some purpose the laying of the foundations of our commonwealth, and its de- velopment politically and socially.
Indiana has never been lacking in men to defend her honor in peace or in war; nor never lacked men to discharge for her the obligations she owed the Federal Government, whether the payment was to be in the public forum where intellects clash, or on the field of battle where men's courage is put to the test and their souls are tried. Her quota of such men has always been in excess of the demand therefor. This was shown when our country first had trouble with Mexico; when we passed through the fiery ordeal of our Civil War; when we were called upon for soldiers in the Spanish-American War; and when the President called for troops on the 18th day of June last to do service on the Mexican border.
And I felicitate the people of Indiana upon the presence here tonight as participants in these exercises, of the mem- bers of the Third Indiana Infantry, just back from the Mexi- can border, under the command of that fine spirited and clean lifed citizen-soldier, Col. Aubrey L. Kuhlman.
When Col. Kuhlman departed with his regiment last July for the field of duty, I asked him to be considerate of and good to the boys under him, and he promised me he would; and one can tell from looking at them that he has kept his promise.
Col. Kuhlman, will you come forward? Colonel, I welcome you and your troops back home, and I assure you that all the people of the State rejoice that you and your boys have returned to us uninjured and in good health. You have en- dured hardships for your nation's honor. You have made many and great sacrifices at the call of the President, and thereby you have maintained the glory of the flag of your country and the fame of Indiana's soldiers for endurance, courage and patriotism.
It is due you and your troops, as it is due those who have heretofore and those who have not returned, that I state in this presence, that all reports coming to me from the border have emphasized the fact that the Indiana soldiers were mak- ing good, and that their equipment and preparation, disci- pline and drill, placed them above the average of those doing service there from other States.
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In a letter received a few days ago by Adjutant General Bridges from Brigadier General Lewis, the Brigadier General says :
The Governor would, I am sure, be glad to hear that in the two- week maneuver campaign from which we are now returning and in which I commanded a division augmented by a fourth brigade of in- fantry forming one of the contending forces, the Indiana troops ac- quitted themselves admirably.
As an evidence of Indiana's appreciation of the service our troops have rendered on the border, the State has provided a service medal for each guardsman, and I am going to ask you, Colonel Kuhlman, to receive this token of appreciation for your regiment, and to see that each of your boys gets one of the medals I now deliver to you.
On the face of this medal you will find our country's national emblem, our state's coat of arms and other impres- sions designed to indicate what it is intended to memorial- ize, and on the reverse side thereof these words and figures:
Presented by State of Indiana to her National Guardsmen who rendered service on the Mexican border in the year 1916.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as long as the conception of duty suggested by these words can be consistently engraved on the tablet of American citizenship our institutions will be secure and our nation will lead the world toward humanity's noblest ideals.
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