USA > Wisconsin > Centennial records of the women of Wisconsin > Part 15
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"Eternal Vigilance is the price of Liberty." A pronunciamento which it re- quires neither sage nor seer to expound. It is well to pause ere we enter the door, already ajar, and know whither our footsteps are tending. This is a fitting time; these are golden opportunities. Like beacon lights, they will be scattered throughout the year, making it brilliant with the love light of loyalty. Men and women have each their place and their measure of responsibility in working out the intricate problems of the day - more, perhaps, in the prescience of interpre- tation, than in the wisdom of aggressive formulas. The faith that sustained and inspired our patriot hero, amid the conflict of war and carnage, will enable the leading spirits of this generation to stand amid a shock and a warfare none the less deadly because its weapons are spiritual rather than carnal. Let us each be fully persuaded in reference to our own position. The combatants in this warfare are not recognized by the regimentals of the "Regular" or the "Continental." Distinctions are no longer broad and palpable to the sight, as in the olden time, but they are definite and pronounced in their influence for good or evil. As women, as mothers, we have sacred interests in the establishment and main- tenance of true and safe standards for the family, for society and for the nation. Our all is laid upon the common altar, and we cannot be negative or indifferent in the proper selection and adjustment of the elements of our advancing civiliza- tion. Development does not consist in the acceptance and occupation of condi-
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tions prepared for ns, but rather in the effort and struggle incident to their creation. The laws of labor and compensation are unvarying in God's spiritual kingdom. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." In the early days of our history, we were dealing with stern faets, setting the foundation stones of our new home. Men and women wrought as best they could with the material at hand. The faith and hope of woman were the incentive and inspira- tion of man in his rough toil. Her silent endurance and patient love surrounded him with home influences which blessed and beautified his life, and thus the theory of her mission has come to be the sentimental and poetie, while facts show a wide range of literal and practical duties for which she is mainly responsi- ble. The plane upon which we now stand is not one of crude forces, where physical energies and material results stand in the foreground of enterprise. "He that runneth may read " a higher and nobler lesson. The indications of the period and the status of womanhood, both teach that the necessities of each demand aid from the other. The plastic material now in the storehouse of Time, is awaiting the refining processes which only woman's thought and touch ean transform to its highest uses.
Women equally need more earnest and more rational spheres for the exercise and development of their best gifts. Can we doubt that He who has revealed Himself in every great emergency as our nation's guide, will open to the earnest, the waiting and the faithful a way which they know not? The work which the women of our state have undertaken, in connection with those of our nation, we recognize as one of the indices of the times, important in its bearing upon this subject. The union of feminine forces in the prosecution of a grand plan, is in its nature enlarging and ennobling. In this instance we are brought into close sym- pathy with the sentiments which animated the heroes and heroines of '76. We drink at the same fountain of divine inspiration, and embrace within the scope of our enterprise the emancipation of woman from every self-imposed and accepted tyranny. In this work we are learning primary lessons in the school of progress, opening new avenues, arranging new methods, and classifying energies hitherto silent and inoperative. Who can tell its full import? Let our annunciations be so clear and distinct that we shall hereafter find our names written with those who have blessed the world. In seeking out the best tangible forms to represent our gratitude and devotion to our country, we find ourselves in the creative realm of ideal beauty, striving to embody sentiments in shapes of grace and loveliness, and preceded by those whose companionship and association are most agreeable and. improving. In this sort of labor, we realize day by day how thoroughly we are removed from the ranks of meaningless show and insipid frivolity. Instinctively
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loving the beautiful, the refined and the true, women have yielded to the soft persua- sion taught by theory as well as precedent, that in social ways, the ornamental and the useless, not to say the harmful, are legitimate alliances, making them the tools instead of the guardians of society. Our centennial arousing is not, I con- ceive, primarily for the purpose of preparing articles to exhibit, but to bring us in sympathy with each other, to teach us new modes of thought and effort in har- mony with the growing necessities of our individual, social and national life. The organizing power has not hitherto been woman's prerogative, consequently as a rule, she lacks the method and definiteness which come from the exercise of this faculty - the basis, to a great extent, of all practical attainment. Results already reached prove her equal to its development in an eminent degree, commencing as she has in the present instance with llimited facilities, working out by the most elaborate and energy-expending processes, her financial status. Without the aid of precedents, in the face of prejudice, and often of reproach, she has reached the point of honorable recognition. This first step gained, she may hope that the future will be brilliant with conquests, and illuminated with the light of a new day, whose rosy hours shall be marked with the trophies of progress.
"Great emergencies make great heroes." This axiom involves a philosophy and wisdom which we as women may appropriate. A distinguished writer has said, that every great man has the best element of the womanly character in him, and every great woman has the best element of the manly character in her. The feminine attributes of the immortal hero, whom we to-day honor, are our lineal heritage. Let us henceforth come in closer union with them. As he con- quered the tyrants of monarchical oppression, let us conquer despots of more for- midable mien, even those who aim directly at the citadel of feminine strength and glory. The rule and reign of fashion as an arbitrary and destructive power, is being considered. The day of final release cannot be far distant, as with American women to ponder and to realize is to act. There are other strongholds of tyrranny and oppression, where fortresses will be weakened as the advancing light of truth shall portray them, in their danger and deformity. Let us not hes- itate to embrace within the scope of our responsibility, every phase of reform that bears upon the life and destiny of woman. We shall find the theme prolific in interest and abundant in compensation. There are no barriers in our way that we cannot remove or overcome by " united and cooperative effort." our centennial watchword. There is no need of struggle or contention, of personal or generic dis- contents. But alas! there is need of a more vitalized and earnest comprehension on the part of women. A more open and heartfelt sympathy with the silent but intense workings of that Unseen Power who created all things, and who designed that the
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abundant treasures of the kingdoms of the earth, to which, through patient toil and research we find the key shall be made subservient to the development of the highest type of spiritual manhood and womanhood. Women of 1876, I greet you as the elder sisters, who are tenderly and lovingly pointing out the way, which leads into "the green pastures and beside the still waters " of a more christianized era. The new impress that is being stamped upon woman will tell upon the generation to come, although you and I may not enter into the rich possessions of the future. Faithful and devoted in the very fiber and essence of her being, woman needs to be held to higher estimates of herself, and her capabilities instead of ac- cepting the unchristianized dogmas of the ignorant and bigoted, who pronounce her desire for change and relief from the ever recurring detail of domestic cares, her longing for new and more compensating labor and for better educational ad- vantages synonyms for negligence and depravity.
Let us discriminate wisely and intelligently between the anxious and nervously thrifty housewife, whose merit lies chiefly in tiresome detail and oft repeated sta- tistics, bearing upon her wonderful method and the competent, faithful mother. The latter embraces all that is valuable in the former and supplements it with the crowning glory of the true woman. So exhaustless is the theme, so numberless the changes and variations that make up its harmony, that we can only sweep the chords, whose vibrations will make the music and the inspiration of the next century. Come to this banquet of love, which is being spread for the nourish- ment of your highest and holiest powers.
Strengthened and renewed, they will take hold upon virtues and motives, which shall be for the purification and exaltation of woman. This is no poetic flight of fancy; it is the lesson of to-day, and will find methods and utterances beyond the hope of the most sanguine. Let us prepare to tread the new pathways of the future, with dignity and womanly grace, guiding, rather than opposing, receiving and augmenting -instead of expending - our physical, mental and spiritual en- ergies. The philosophy of this higher plane is rich with noble thought and bril- liant with the scintillations of truth. As jewels of the purest water are in the decorations of womanly apparel, so are the radiations of the soul life the beauty and lustre of womanhood. "In the elder days of art," motherhood was its crowning sentiment. The Madonnas of Raphael are still the altar pieces before which devout and sentimental religionists bow with feelings of reverence and awe if not of worship. This sentiment has, like a thread of light, been woven into all the artistic thought of the ages, and is a true reflection of the inner life which God reveals to the inspirations of genius. From this revelation poets sing, artists mould and sketch the ideal woman - a being who inhabits the realm of
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their creature power. The light of her eye is not deepened, nor the glow of her cheek quickened, by the life currents of wifehood and motherhood. Still the type, the divine copy, remains true and unchanged, and as its spiritual meaning is better comprehended, the rhythm of the real poem, the warmth of the living picture, and the perfection of the true model will be revealed in the midst of life.
" All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time, Some, with noble deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low, Each thing in its place is best, And what seems but idle show Strengthens and supports the rest.
For the structure that we raise Time is with materials filled; Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build.
In the elder days of art, Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part, For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen Build the house where Gods may dwell, Beautiful, entire and clean.
Else our lives are incomplete, Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet Stumble, as they seek to climb.
Build, to-day, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base, And ascending and secure, Shall, to-morrow, find its place.
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Thus, alone, can we attain, To those turrets, where the eye Sees the world, as one vast plain, And one boundless reach of sky."
At the request of Mrs. DURAND, President BASCOM, of the the State University, remarked as follows:
"I fail quite to understand why the ladies should seek indorsement for them- selves or their cause at my hands. But when this indorsement is sought, noth- ing can be bestowed by me more cheerfully and heartily. The opening bud has a more pleasing lesson than the dropping petals. Our social life, I make no doubt, is passing into fresh flowering at this very point -the enlarged intelli- gence and activity of woman. While I rejoice in the centennial that is, I greet the centennial that is to be, and extend to it my right hand of help and good will."
Rev. Dr. CHAPIN, of Beloit College, said:
"I bid these ladies a hearty God-speed in this enterprise. They are certainly acting in a legitimate sphere when they join their influence and efforts to make the national exposition a worthy illustration and memorial of the wonderful de- velopment of this free republic under the guiding hand of God - our fathers' God and our God, through the first century of its life. The products of feminine taste and genius and skill are needed to make complete the visible manifestation of what our people have become and of what they are doing. The declaration of independence of 1776 embodies ideas of liberty and equality which have led on a steady emancipation of woman from wrongful subjection and thraldom to the despotism of the stronger sex, which originated in the selfish violence of a bar- barous age, and has been perpetuated by the traditions of feudal times. Hence the gentleness and refinement of Christian womanhood have become a power in our country as nowhere else in the world, felt and honored and full of blessing. Now if this year 1876 shall, as intimated in the interesting paper to which we have just listened. be marked by a strong and effective declaration of independ- ence on the part of women for themselves, from the tyranny of Fashion, then we may be sure that under the full and free unfolding and application of that power, yet higher blessings and a grander growth shall gladden and adorn our nation's life in the century to come."
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In the evening Belle City Opera House was filled to overflow- ing. The stage had been admirably decorated with national emblems by the ladies in charge, and by their able gentlemen assistants. In the background stood in full view a magnificent specimen of our "Eagle Bird " - glorious emblem of liberty. On either side floated the stars and stripes, while in bold relief stood the Goddess of Liberty. The immense assemblage was called to order by Hon. JAMES R. DOOLITTLE, as president, stating the objects of the meeting and its importance; after which there was the opening by BROECKER's band, which had volunteered its services for the occasion, at the conclusion of which the curtain again rose, revealing upon the stage " the great, the wise, the reverend heads" of Hon. J. R. DOOLITTLE, Rev. Dr. DEKOVEN, of Racine College, Rev. Father MATTHEW, Dr. CHAPIN, President of Beloit College, Prest. BASCOM, of the State University, Dr. P. R. Hor, and Rev. Mr. MEAD, of the M. E. Church.
Mr. DOOLITTLE, in a feeling manner, said that the blessing of God should be invoked upon all good works, and called upon Rev. Mr. MEAD, that the proceedings might be sanctified with prayer. Brief in religious pathos was the prayer of the reverend gentle- man, but it contained all that was necessary, and will long be remembered by all who heard it.
Rev. Father MATTHEW was then introduced to respond to the sentiment of WASHINGTON -"First in War; first in Peace, and first in the hearts of his Countrymen." No man, it would seem, could combine more patriotic words in response to this sentiment, than did the reverend gentleman in his brief speech. It was a multum in parro. His heart is full of American ven- eration for the great day, and the great and good man, the anni- versary of whose birth we celebrated. He also considered that
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the objects that were to be furthered by this observance of WASHINGTON's birthday were in perfect accord with the patri- otic sentiments uttered here to-night, and the beautiful sur- roundings.
Then followed the "Ode to WASHINGTON, by Mrs. THORP, of Madison; Prof. HEYER at the piano, sung by the entire andi- ence, standing.
FOR FEBRUARY 22D, 1876. TUNE, " Auld Lang Syne."
God saw on that auspicious morn That gave our Hero birth, A nation buffeted and torn, And sent him crowned to earth.
Benign and gentle, full of grace, Was his fair manhood's prime, The lustre of his soul-lit face Resisted toil and time.
As step by step, through war and peace, He reached immortal fame, And gave the signal for release, In freedom's hallow'd name, The birth day of a nation's sire, Great century bells ring out! Her Jubilee's magnetic fire Is kindled in the shout.
From height to height glad signals blaze, And joy sweeps o'er the land, As swell our sweet Centennial lays, From Liberty's full band. We worship Thee O God, to-day, For WASHINGTON the Great, Who guided o'er her stormy way, Our Grand old Ship of State.
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Prest. BASCOM, of the Wisconsin State University, being called upon, made the following speech :
"Science, society, art and religion unite to drive us out of ourselves, beyond our- selves, to enlarge our lives in the universe about us, and put us in grand possession of earth and heaven. The selfish soul hedges and fences in vain. It is born into the family, and, shortly, the family in a new form lays hold of it, and the hus- band, parent, leader, finds his own fortunes backed up in the fortunes of the mimic state that gathers about him. But the second enlargement of our lite is far greater than this, its first enlargement; it is that of patriotism, that of the nation. No great nation has been born or nourished otherwise than by the patriotism of its citizens. Its power has been, not that of herding men together, but that of calling out manly, individual endowment. Patriotism is the life and power of na- tions, and no great nation, great in knowledge, in action, in government, has been built up otherwise than by the patriotism of its citizens. Ours is the festival of patriotism, and our patriotism sprang in those early days from its noblest roots. The patriotism of Greece was one of culture and of art, of a versatile, volatile, social life. The patriotism of Rome was one of conquest, one of law and govern- ment, one of construction and strength. Mere conquest makes no nation and nourishes no patriotism. Only as the conquest is the pushing forward of ideas, only as it carries with it new organizing forces, intellectual and social, is it the product of patriotism, and has it the strength of patriotism. It is the thought of United Germany that lifts the abhorrent, bloody veil from the Franco-Prussian war, and discloses it as an era in the world's progress. Our patriotism, the patri- otism of our fathers, was one of truth, truth reposing on justice, announced in behalf of human liberty, and so of human progress; truth deeply tinctured by benevo- lence, by the divine enunciation of good-will to man. Our nation had then the true national, the only national birth, that of patriotism; it had it in its highest form, that of the largest, most just and most generous ideas. Hence the wonder- ful constructive power it has shown. It assimilates, compounds, compacts all na- tionahities, and builds itself up by them, not by virtue of power, nor by race, nor by language, but by an inheritance of ideas that everywhere quicken and cement human affections, call forth and consolidate, in social and civil commonwealth, our best citizens by their best purposes. We are a nation, Saxons, Germans, Norwe- gians, Celts, the American nation, by virtue of the highest warrant, a national compact, a national patriotism sealed in truth and directed toward progress. We shall do well to remember, in this our centennial year. that the truly integrating, constructive forces of our national life are liberty and justice-the liberty of man
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and woman in the full exercise of every power, and justice towards each, in that this liberty is limited to, and restrained by, a like exercise on the part of every other man of his powers. We shall do well to remember that the only disinte- grating forces in this our nation are oppression, restriction, injustice. In our cen- tennial festival no strife of laws, no conflict of nationalities come in to mar our success, only a faint clamor of sections, and a fainter clamor of sects. The grand principles, the ideas of a social and civil nationality still remain regnant, still rule out and crowd out those secondary interests which have hitherto constructed na- tions, or have rent nations in pieces. Yet, the years of hardship are the years of sacrifice and so the years of patriotism. We are fast passing into that easy pros- perity, that enlarged wealth, which engender selfishness and corruption, hush patriotism, and subject to fatal strain all social ties. In two directions smothered voices of strife indicate our time to be critical, and disclose the weakness of our organic principles. The first is the incipient struggle between capital and labor. These two are opposite sides of one productive, commercial power, and cannot be- gin to fall apart without dissolving fundamentally our social ties. The road up- ward must be kept open through every gradation of labor and every gradation of capital; so open that any citizen may safely travel it. Justice, just restraints and only just restraints, absolute legal equality, the steady repression on either hand of all depredation, good-will - these are the remedies to that insidious, deep-seated strife that divides the poor from the rich, and runs along every class-line, creating and accumulating hatred, till it becomes the thunderbolt of war. Wealth in our land needs once more, needs at once, laying aside every legal advantage, to settle down quietly, like a refreshing rain-cloud. on the parched, barren fields of poverty, to take them up in its nutritive processes and restore to them fertility and beauty. Every form of cooperation, every way in which capital submits itself freely to labor, should be our earnest, patriotic study this coming century, that the two ends in society, the poor and the rich, now parting in our industrial march, may be drawn together once more, and knit together afresh in social strength. A second direction in which I catch the sound of discord and division is education. A distrust, slight and par- tial, I believe, but real, is felt toward our public school system. Its friends hesi- tate to carry it forward to its legitimate conclusions; its enemies venture to attack it in all its branches. Our nationality, as a nationality of ideas, can be sustained and advanced only by general and enlarged knowledge; can only be so fed as itself to feed patriotism by general and enlarged knowledge. This general and this enlarged instruction calls for and includes equally the common school, the high school and the university. This is the logical outcome of our system, our fundamental truth, and we cannot hesitate in its development without endanger-
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ing all, without first arresting growth and then slowly falling into decay. The lack of courage is the lack of strength. Conference and dalliance are the pre- liminaries of retreat. The intelligence of the people, large and pervasive, that they may rule, and rule safely, this is our national thought, and when we stagger in its unfolding, this our national life is giving ground, and dividing forces will assail us on every side.
"We start our second centennial with renewed occasion, on account of the greater territorial extension of our people, their wider divisions in religion, in social customs and intelligence, for this, our first truth, public and complete edu- cation; and I fear we also start it with some little hesitancy as to its application. Once more, I say our nationality is a nationality of ideas, and when the constructive idea trembles the standard is falling. I saw the other day, in a clear sky and a brisk wind, our loved national emblem, that has a thought for every stripe, a his- tory for every star, floating freely from our State Capitol. It would, in a moment of relaxation or a veering wind, gather its folds close to the staff, and then sud- denly send forth its rippling bars in full extension. Our national principles may flag a little, may fall into the lull of truism, but from time to time we must un- fold them with a fresh breath of enthusiasm, and spread them athwart the light once more in living, glowing colors.
"Citizens of Racine, I am glad that you propose to date afresh the centennial year with a patriotic improvement. The beautifying of your city is such an im- provement. A city belongs to all its inhabitants; it is that which they hold in common. I trust that broad encircling avenues, starting from the shore line and running thence far out and far around with a cheerful embrace of foliage, will return again to the shore line, gathering up and unitiug your city with bands of life to the water of your lake, and putting you in closest fellowship with these your local conditions of beauty. Simple squares, dropped at random in a city are cheerless. The buildings seem forced back by a policeman, and like a crowd, to press only the more closely upon each other for the ground that they have reluct- antly surrendered. Shaded avenues passing into and out of parks unite and weave together an entire city. The gala, civic procession can encompass it, spread itself out in open spaces like a lake in a river, or gather itself up easily and again flow on. The city is put everywhere in fellowship with circulating air, with light and relaxation. There is a time in the growth of a city, while it is cartilagi- nous and has not yet wholly turned into bone, into brick and stone, in which improvement should be inaugurated. This time is yours, this centenmal year is yours, and among the patriotic forces that shall bind you to your country, you do well to include that love of the beautiful which quickens the pulse of every citizen
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