USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Official report of the centennial celebration of the founding of the city of Cleveland and the settlement of the Western Reserve > Part 11
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If the good men will not do the work the worse men will take care of it. Evil-minded men will be audacious; better men must be more so. The democratic government is the most laborious and expensive.
It should be easy to rally men for a righteous war. In three days after Lincoln had called for this 75,000, Ohio had voted a million for preliminary expenses and a quota of thirteen regiments being required of her, before the rush could be averted, enough for seventy regiments were offered.
Indispensable political labors are not always agreeable. So much greater is the honor. "That tower of strength which stood four square to all the winds that blew," Tennyson sang of Wellington. So let it be said of the great common man -of the plain people of the United States.
A round of applause was accorded Senator Hawley as he resumed his seat.
The Centennial Ode, especially composed for the occasion by Colonel J. J. Piatt, the well-known Ohio poet, was then read by the author, who was frequently interrupted by applause. The ode was listened to with great interest. It was as follows:
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FOUNDER'S DAY. CENTENNIAL ODE. I. .
Praise to the sower of the seed, The planter of the tree !- What though another for the harvest gold The ready sickle hold, Or breathe the blossom, watch the fruit unfold? Enough for him, indeed, That he should plant the tree, should sow the seed, And earn the reaper's guerdon, even if he Should not the reaper be.
" Let him who after a while, when I shall pass, may dwell In my sweet close, 'neath my dear roof instead, Enjoy the harvest, pluck the fruit as well- For every other man is other me."
II.
And praise be theirs who plan And fix the corner-stone Of house or fane devote to God or man, Not for themselves alone. -Not for themselves alone,
The Pilgrim Fathers of the Western Wood,
Not only for themselves and for their own,
Came hither planting in heroic mood
The seeds of civil-graced society,
Repeating their New England by the sea In the green wilderness.
From church and school, with church and school they came
To kindle here their consecrated flame:
With the high passion for humanity,
The largest light, the amplest liberty,
(No man a slave, unless himself enthrall),
The key of knowledge in the door of Truth For eager-seeking youth, With priceless opportunity for all, (The tree of knowledge no forbidden tree, )- Free speech and conscience free. -Honor and praise no less Be theirs, who in the mighty forest, then The haunt of savage men, And tenanted by ravening beasts of prey Only less fierce than they, (The fever-chill, the hunger pang they bore,
Dangers of day and darkness at their door,) Abode, and in the panther-startled shade The deep foundations of an empire laid. The corner-stone they put (Where he the patriot sage, with foresight keen, Its fittest site on some vague chart had seen) Of the fair Place we know- Their capital of New Connecticut.
III.
In the green solitude, A hundred years ago, The founder stood. Ilark, the first ax stroke in the clearing! Lo, The log house with its civilizing gleam By yonder Indian stream !-- Such was the small beginning far away We celebrate to-day.
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
IV.
There were two prophecies. He the founder, he Whose statue stands in yonder Public Square, (He only came and went: The city itself is his best monument, ) That lonely evening gleam, Reflected heavenly fair In the still Indian stream, He saw, and prophesied, With home-returning eyes:
A peaceful forest-shadowed town should rise, Here by this azure Inland Sea,
With clustered church spires, happy roofs half-seen
Through leafy avenues of ambush green,
And school house belfry -- such he erewhile knew,
And the fond picture homesick memory drew,
In far New England by the Atlantic tide.
It was not long before the prophecy Had grown reality :
That Forest City seemed a haven of rest- New Haven of the West.
Another later came, in dreamful mood,
Where the tree-shadowed early village stood,
Who saw the flitting sails, the horizon-bound Of the great Inland Sea before Its open harbor door,
With the broad wealth-abundant land around,
(What wealth above of corn and fleece and vine !-
What wealth beneath of myriad-gifted mine!)
To him another vision: prophet-wise, With prescient eyes, He saw a great commercial mart,
With arms outstretching over land and sea,
And linking continent to continent With bands of gold beneficent ;
The smoke of steamers, plying ceaselessly,
Bearing our harvest stores to far-off hands In transatlantic lands ;
With interchange of goods and gifts divine In rivalry benign,
Lo, peaceful navies, alien with our own!
The foundry's plume of fire, a dreadful flower, Hle saw, at midnight hour.
With cars that heard, as eyes that saw. th' foreknown,
Hle heard the hum of mighty industries,-
The vulcanie forge's echoing clang of steel, The whirring wheel, With other myriad sounds akin to these; And up and down, and everywhere, the beat Of busy-moving feet,- In thronged thoroughfares of trade apart,
The throbbing of the Titan Labor's heart. -
Hle saw and heard: a transient shadow he, But lo, the prophecy ! The Genie's dream-built tower, in morning's ray. In fable world it shone-the City stands to day !
V.
Whoever backward looks shall see What wonder-working strange Of ever-moving change! Lo, everywhere around we meet, In every highway, every street, New daily miracles of the century !
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FOUNDER'S DAY.
The harnessed elements, with that elusive sprite, The errand-running Slave, with world-compelling might, Obedient to a man, and hurrying to and fro, Wherever he would send, wherever wish to go! In every house at night The enchanted lamp alight, In each frequented way, Its keen celestial ray-
New wonders of a new world, they rise from day to day ; And all repeated, ail reflected show In the fair Place we know! . - A sigh for their sad fate, For those red tribes, so late Tenants-at-will of their vast hunting ground, That had nor mete nor bound
In the deep wood around. Him, lord the forest knew,
On Cuyahoga's stream where glides his bark canoe ?
We have not banished quite their names from stream and wood,
We cannot banish quite their ghosts that will intrude ; We cannot exorcise Their still reproachful eyes. Pity we must their fate- The inexorable doom That gave our fathers room ; That they must fade, Shadowhke, into shade,
So we might celebrate the city's founding here:
That they must disappear, So we might celebrate
Their mighty wilderness our mighty State,
Among the brightest of her galaxy,
(With New Connecticut her chiefest pride),
Mother of famous soldiers, statesmen tried, (New mother of Presidents, her well-beloved, In camp and council proved). -- One time an alien fleet was hovering near,
(Let us be strong, and well protect our own ! )
When on yon shore the school boy at his play Stooped down with hand at ear By the lake-side to hear The guns at Put-in-Bay. War summoned then and since again her sons. (City and State, with common sympathies, Unite in claiming these) Her Past is bitter-sweet.
Heroic grief, heroic gladness meet,
With memories proud in monumental stone, In civie square and street ;
Of him that hero of an earlier day;
Of those her later, now her aureoled ones, Her eager youth who went
To battle as to tennis tournament, Not for themselves alone, Not only for themselves and for their own -- For all men, us and ours! Returning but in sacred memories, That ever green are kept and sweet with flowers ;
Of him the kindly neighbor, cordial friend, (Now far uplifted from familiar ways, Blameless and high above the stain of praise, ) Down-stricken at the Helm of Highest Trust. (She keeps his honored dust. ) And many another worthy even as they, Banded to sweep the nightmare dark and dire,
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
If with cyclonic broom-with earthquake, flood, and fire- From our great land away. -Old griefs and glories blend.
VI.
Into the future-who shall look Into that cloud-clasped Book ? What strong miraculous spark Shall pierce that deep-walled dark ? Whoever forward looks shall see, Mayhap, a vision, an enthusiast's dream,
Of this or of another century --
The flower of each together here as one Blossoming in the sun.
Whoever looks shall see, reflected there
The features of her Past, oh, not less fair ;
The features of her Present, even more bright: A city that shall seem To bear aloft and hold a steadfast light:
With ampler domes of Science, Learning, Art, In academic groves apart ;
Earth-blessing commerce at her every door,
With sails that come and go for evermore;
The earthly Titan's sweltering toil made light
By the invisible heaven-descended might. Goodfellow or frolic sprite:
With myriad mechanisms faëry-nice,
Beneficent art and delicate artifice-
All human goods and graces priceless wrought In every house for nought
But a mere wish or thought;
The enchanted statue's grace In every market place-
But Nature breathing ever, everywhere,
Her breath from flower and leaf, from park and pasture fair. Streets that are highways to green fields and woods,
With charmed solitudes, Whither the workman pent Flies from his toil, content :
With hanging gardens of delight
For all men's sense and sight,
Where they may see the dancing fountain's flower,
Fabrily silvered, wavering in the moon,
And hear the wild bird sing his vesper hymn in June, Through the still twilight hour. In that bright city then, Himself one of a myriad multitude, Shall the Good Citizen, Who loves his fellow-men,
Who makes self-interest work for common good,
Dwell, and make beautiful his dwelling-place,
Striving to keep his city pure and clean,
With avenues to heaven its walls between.
He holds his vote a sacred gift and trust,
And every neighbor's sacred as his own, Not bossed, or bought, or sold,
For bribe of public place or private gold.
He knows his public duty, will not shirk This burden of public work ; Public Affairs, his pleasure, study, pride,
Rightly to know and not ignore but guide, Not leaving to ignorant, faithless bands to rule City and court and school He gives lus hand and hell
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HON. O. VINCENT COFFIN,
Governor of Connecticut.
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FOUNDER'S DAY.
To make a sacred shrine the voting-place,
Not a foul huekster's mart-
Where woman, if she please, may use her right,
Inalienable as man's to speak, how still !
A still small voice to execute her will,
And go with son or sire, without disgrace,
In Sabbath garments pure and dedicate
To home and child and State,
Even as at church to share their sacrament,
Guarding her world-old sphere beneficent,
And share of government.
He builds for others, not for himself alone,
Not only for himself and for his own,
And gladdens with all good that comes to all, Wherever it befall.
So the House Beautiful the poor man's home shall be, In that far, better day, (Is it so far away ? )
The day we may not see, Save only in prophecy. When, standing like that City on a Hill,
She shall be seen afar and known of all,
Our City Beautiful-Forest City still,
The seaside Capital Of our proud Forest State!
Governor Coffin was next called upon and responded with an address which aroused a great deal of enthusiasm. As the Connecticut execu- tive stepped to the front he was greeted with a volley of hand-clapping which lasted for several minutes. When it had subsided he spoke as follows:
It is with a sense of extreme diffidence that I undertake the task, impossible for me to perform with even approximate justice, of occupying a few minutes of the time devoted to these interesting and important exercises. It is desired that I suggest some thoughts here in New Connecticut about the little State down by the sea, which I have the honor to represent, and which may well be designated as " Mother of States." In the early days, it has been claimed, Connecticut held by grant a wide section, extend- ing westerly to the ocean. Portions of this section now form parts of at least thirteen different States. But Connecticut gave up nearly all this territory, reserving here in Ohio the large tract known as the Western Reserve.
Here where we are met her people prepared the ground for a great city, which is now set, as the most beautiful of gems in the crown of your queenly commonwealth.
It is a familiar fact that in individuals " blood tells; " that we can trace as an in- heritance tendencies both vicious and virtuous. So also we find it in the ancestry of States, and our pride in our own State mounts rapidly as we contemplate her splendid daughter and remember what glory of motherhood is hers.
The country and the world are deeply indebted to that mother, through the work of some of her children. Thomas Hooker first announced that doctrine of self-govern- ment by the people which has been and is to remain the corner-stone of this nation. John Fitch first successfully moved boats through water by steam power. Daniel French, with his son Daniel, built the first steamboats that successfully navigated the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. A quotation from a letter now in my possession, written by French in 1816 to his mother, is perhaps worth giving. He had emigrated some years before the letter was written from the vicinity of Middletown, Conn., to the "Far West "- a point in Pennsylvania on the Monongahela River.
He writes: "I will inform you that in this country I am getting my living by those means for which I had like to have a master put over me for attempting at home, to- wit: Building steamboats. I have built two that are now running in the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi. I have also put in operation a large cotton manufactory moved by a steam engine, have begun a large steam sawmill, and have more steamboats to build, also grist or flour mills, all to be put in motion by steam. I have, with Daniel's help, made the greatest improvements on the steam engine that have been made in a long time, the benefits of which will be incalculable to this western country. The
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
steamboat I first built in this place, called the Enterprise, performed her passage from New Orleans to this place in thirty-five days, against the currents of the Mississippi, Ohio and Monongahela rivers, a distance of more than 2,200 miles, and was the first that ever ascended those waters. The success of this boat has raised the value of the country bordering on these waters fifty per cent. Since I built the first I have built another, which moves with more speed. She arrived from New Orleans at Cincinnati, where I was a few days past, 700 miles below this place by water and 1,500 from New Orleans, in twenty-four days, and the boats that I have built are the only ones that have yet traversed the waters of the Ohio upward to any distance.
" The steamboat that I first built was of great service in carrying on the war against the British at Orleans. She was loaded with warlike stores and ammunition at Pitts- burgh, and after she arrived at Orleans was employed by General Jackson in the ser- vice of the government in prosecuting the war in which she was of essential service transporting cannon, small arms, ammunition, officers, soldiers, baggage, etc. She went one voyage to the Gulf of Mexico with British prisoners, made one trip three hun- dred miles up to the Red River, towards North Mexico, with 250 soldiers and baggage, and returned to Orleans in seven days from the time she left it, as her captain reports, and made many trips to Natchez and back. Thus you see that although I was thought to be full of idle dreams from a be- wildered brain, and airy fancy border- ing on delirium, the shadows have led to the solid substance. What would our old pious Deacon Sage say of all those things now ? Would he now wish to put a master over me, think you ? . This western coun- try is the paradise of America. The population of Ohio is already great, and contains more inhabitants than Connecticut and will support mill- ions.'
THE CENTRAL ARMORY.
Thus, Mr. Pres- ident, it appears that Connecticut has not only owned the great strip of
territory reaching from her own borders to the Pacific, and held special ownership of, and relations to, the section where we are now, but has great and peculiar claims upon the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and all the other seven States bordering the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from West Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico.
But to proceed: Here comes Whitney with his cotton gin, quietly revolutionizing and in one sense rehabilitating the business interests of the whole South; Colt, with his wonderful revolver, and Goodyear, with his process for making India rubber one of the most extensively useful materials in the world; Howe, with the sewing machine carrying help and happiness into millions of homes; Wells, the discoverer of anæsthe- sia, one of the greatest of all material blessings. Here comes the long line of great men and women in all the walks of life, the mere naming of whom would consume more than all the time I can properly take on this occasion. But I must not fail to mention that great woman, recently deceased, who, during her years of residence in southern Ohio, gathered the materials and inspiration out of which came a book which has done more toward liberating bondmen and inspiring all the world with increased regard for human liberty than any other book except the Bible-you all know that I
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FOUNDER'S DAY.
refer to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Take the little group mentioned and the long list of names that will readily occur to you, and consider as far as you can the results of their work. Who can estimate those results ? They are to be traced, always in letters of light, into every hamlet and palace, into every home in the civilized world. In the days of Grecian greatness some giants of the centuries stood forward as the illustrators and prophets of philosophy, of art, of science, of statesmanship, and even of popular government. Their words and deeds ring through a hundred generations, and it is quite impossible to estimate the extent of their influence upon the affairs and destinies of the race. Greece was a country small in area, say a little more than four times as large as Connecticut, and not over well favored by nature for any great development. But the spirit of her people in effect expanded her territory and increased her popula- tion an hundred fold. So, dear old Connecticut, with less than one-six-hundredth part of the area of this country and one-eighty-fifth of the population, has furnished so many men and women whose words and work have lifted up and blessed all mankind, that we ask in vain of ancient and modern times for a full parallel, all things con- sidered, to her achievements in behalf of universal human nature.
Those of you who have traveled much over our country have, I am sure, been often and forcibly struck by the number and character of the people you have met, who either went from Connecticut, or traced to Connecticut ancestors. As far as I have observed, the sons and daughters of Connecticut, wherever found, usually illus- trate a high type of manhood and womanhood, and the best grade of good citizenship. They are enterprising and courageous in welcoming changes of clearly proved value, but are not usually of those who are too hospitable to untried and uncertain theories and plans in religion, in morals, in business or in public affairs. . From the number of Connecticut people found scattered in every part of the country, it might be inferred that the State is going backward. But such is not the fact, as you probably know. Permit an item of comparison between her and her great daughter. The increase in population in Ohio in the ten years from 1880 to 1890 was equal to 14.65 per cent., while the increase in Connecticut was 19. 78 per cent. If we consider density of popu- lation we find few States in which there are as many people to the square mile as in Connecticut. In this respect Connecticut compares with Ohio in about the proportion of 160 to go. In other words, if Ohio had been as densely populated as Connecticut, her population in 1890 would have been 6,560,000, instead of 3,672,000. But, my friends, it is not numbers that count best for your State or ours. It is the sort of man- hood and womanhood that makes for or against the welfare of a State. I fear that we are too anxious about mere numbers and, as yet, too little concerned about the quality of those who make up our increased population. The question instead of being, "How many men," should be, in the language of the old Arabian sheik, "How much man have you?" Mere strife for numbers inevitably brings cheap men, and cheap men are apt to make bad citizens. Bad citizens insure the coming of the demagogue and the corrupter of the franchise. Each, whatever his other classification, is the natural foe of all the elements of good citizenship and good government. They are the septic in- fluence, the blood poison, in the body politic. If the blood be rich and pure the dem- agogue is disturbed; if the circulation be good he is angry, and if the central force, the heart, be vigorous, he is desperate. He thrives upon the misfortunes of others and is a promoter of discontent. From him, and those whom he is able to deceive and lead, we may all well pray to be delivered.
Connecticut furnished more men for the army in the Revolutionary War than any other State except Massachusetts, and far more than Massachusetts in proportion to her population. In the last war her percentage of men furnished was within a small fraction of the highest in any State. To-day the National Guard (or organized militia) of all the States is from 110,000 to 114,000, of which not more than about 60,000 are considered in condition for effective service. Of this 60,000 Connecticut has nearly . 3,000, or about one-twentieth, while her population is only about one-eighty-fifth that of the whole country. We are so opposed to war that we are ready to do our share toward being so prepared for it as to secure perpetual guarantees of peace.
But time compels me, Mr. President, to draw these fragmentary observations to a close. Only a word further: Thirty days before the beginning of the French Revolu- tion of 1848 the great De Tocqueville, in the Chamber of Deputies, predicted its com- ing, and was laughed at and hissed. He predicted his warning upon the fact that the private morals of the people had deteriorated and that the influence that had brought them down was the deterioration of public morals. Are there not many indications of the lessening of the force of high moral considerations in our own public life, a ten- dency to break down the moral safeguards of government and of the elements of pros- perity and morality in the people ? The times upon which we have fallen are full of
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
unrest and uncertainty. With clearness of perception and the strength of the high . purposes of former days, may not Ohio and Connecticut lead the way, avoiding the dangers of anarchism on one side and despotism on the other, to the full and perma- nent establishment of those principles and methods of self government through which this land has been so blest in the liberty and prosperity of its people during the last one hundred years; so that when another century shall have elapsed, great as are the benefits that have accrued to the country, and the world, from what has been done by citizens of these States, we may then see results a thousand-fold greater that shall have followed from their work.
I spoke a moment ago of the existing unrest and uncertainty. Let me say, how- ever, that I am of those who believe that God has purposed a great nation in planning and fostering this grandest example of human government, and that that mission is therefore to be fully accomplished. "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
A pleasant surprise was at this point afforded the audience by J. G. W. Cowles, who announced the gift to the city of land for park purposes valued at $600,000, from John D. Rockefeller. In reference to this munificent gift, Mr. Cowles said:
Mr. Chairman, Honored Guests, Fellow Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen :
By your courtesy and by the request of the Board of Park Commissioners of this city, I am permitted to make, on this occasion, a statement and announcement relating to the parks of Cleveland.
Prior to the gift of Wade Park to the city by J. H. Wade in 1882, Cleveland had no park of any considerable extent, the total area of its six so-called parks being less than thirty acres. Mr. Wade's gift of seventy-three acres raised the park area to 102 acres, where it stood until 1893, when the gift of W. J. Gordon of the park called by his name, containing 122 acres, made the total 224 acres.
The park area of the city is now 1,212 acres, showing an increase in less than three years of 988 acres. This has been done, as will later appear, at a cost to the city of less than $280,000 for the purchase of the land.
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