word to them. They had left the world behind. They found here only the wilds of nature, a necessity to sacrifice and an opportunity to labor.

But how changed! Our State is but one of the five great empires, almost, that have been created from what was then known as the 'territory lying northwest of the river Ohio.' And yet we have within our borders a population of nearly four millions of people. Our forty thousand square miles of area are covered with all the improvements, conveniences, facilities, beauties and adornments of the most advanced modern Christian civilization, and Ohio in these respects is but typical, not only of that original Northwest Territory, but also of that further and greater West lying still beyond, and stretching away to the golden shores of the Pacific.

This is the hour of our might and glory. In it we turn to this spot, proud of our achievements, but not unmindful of our humble beginning. We come, however, not to boast of what has been accomplished, but to express appreciation for those conditions by which that beginning was surrounded, on account of which all that has since followed was made possible. We come here to-day remembering that we owe to New England and to Virginia and to other of our sister States a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid, except only by that necessary compensation that must result, if we continue to stand together, as God and our fathers intended, for an indissoluble Union, a common Constitution, one country, one flag, and one destiny of the whole American people.

In other words, we remember to-day, and are here to give testimony to them, the effective good works of Manasseh Cutler and his associates and co-laborers in demanding and securing, as a condition precedent to their occupation of this soil, our first organic law, that immortal instrument, the Ordinance of 1787; and for the further purpose of giving testimony that we remember with gratitude the generous, liberal, patriotic action of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Delaware in voting. as they did by their representatives in that old Continental Congress, that slavery, although a domestic institution with them, should not be allowed to put its accursed blight on this fair herit

age. The people of this Commonwealth remember how largely they are indebted for the blessings they have reaped and enjoyed, to these important contributions from our sister States, and hence it was that, in connection with this occasion, they not only remembered this indebtedness, but were solicitous that representatives of these other Commonwealths should be here to engage with us in the exercises of this day. The spirit that prompted the invitations, in response to which our visiting friends are honoring us with their presence, bids me say to them now that they are welcome earnestly, heartily, cordially-thrice welcome to our midst, our homes, our hearts and a participation in this joyous event.

ORATION OF HON. GEORGE F. HOAR.

THERE are doubtless many persons in this audience who have gathered here as to their Father's house. They salute their Mother on her birthday with the prayer and the confident hope that the life which now completes its first century may be immortal as liberty. If we were here only to do honor to Marietta -to celebrate the planting of this famous town, coeval with the Republic, seated by the beautiful river, her annals crowded with memories of illustrous soldiers and statesmen-this assemblage would be well justified and accounted for.

But there is far more than this in the occasion. The states which compose what was once the Northwest Territory may properly look upon this as their birthday rather than that upon which they were admitted into the Union. The company who came to Marietta with Rufus Putnam April 7, 1788, came to found, not one State, but five, whose institutions they demanded should be settled, before they started, by an irrevocable compact. These five children, born of a great parentage and in a great time, are, as we count the life of nations, still in earliest youth. Yet they already contain within themselves all the resources of a great empire. Here is the stimulant climate of the temperate zone, where brain and body are at their best. Here will be a population of more than fifteen millions at the next census. Here is an area about equal to that of the Austrian Empire, and larger than that of any other country in Europe except Russia. Here is a wealth more than three times that of any country on this continent except the Republic of which they are a part-a wealth a thousand times that of Massachusetts, including Maine, a hundred years ago; one-third larger than that of Spain; equal to that of Holland and Belgium and Denmark combined; equal now, I suppose, to that of Italy; already half as great as that of the vast empire of Russia, with its population of more than a hundred millions, whose possessions cover a sixth part of the habitable globe. Below the earth are exhaustless stores of iron, and coal, and salt, and copper. Above, field, and farm, and forest,

can easily feed and clothe and shelter the entire population of Europe, with her sixty empires, kingdoms and republics.

The yearly product of the manufactures of these five States is estimated by the best authorities at from twelve to fifteen hundred millions of dollars. Everything needed for a perfect workshop in all the mechanic and manufacturing arts has nature fashioned and gathered here, within easy reach, as nowhere else on earth. These states had, in 1886, forty-one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three miles of railway; equal, within two hundred miles, to that of Great Britain and France combined; nearly three times that of Austria or Russia, and about twice that of Germany; while mighty rivers and mightier lakes already bear along their borders a commerce rivaling that of the ports of the Old World, to fair cities and prosperous towns, each one of which has its own wonderful and fascinating story. And above all this, and better than all this, man, the noblest growth this soil supplies, descended of a great race, from which he has inherited the love of liberty, the sense of duty, the instinct of honor, is here to relate and celebrate his century of stainless history. Whatever of these things nature has not given is to be traced directly to the institutions of civil and religious liberty the wisdom of your fathers established; above all, to the great Ordinance. As the great jurist and statesman of Ohio said more than fifty years ago: "The spirit of the Ordinance of 1787 pervades them all." Here was the first human government under which absolute civil and religious liberty has always prevailed. Here no witch was ever hanged or burned. No heretic was ever molested. Here no slave was ever born or dwelt. When older states or nations, where the chains of human bondage have been broken, shall utter the proud boast, "With a great sum obtained I this freedom," each sister of this imperial group-Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin-may lift her queenly head with the yet prouder answer, "But I was free-born."

They were destined, also, to determine the character and decide the fate of the great Republic of which they are a part, and, through that, of constitutional liberty on earth. In saying this I speak with careful consideration of the meaning of the

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