Chapter VIII: Centennial Address

In the year 1876 the patriotic citizens of the state of Pennsylvania, and especially of the old city of Philadelphia, had conceived the idea of a world's fair to commemorate the great event of the world; to-wit, the declaration of the independence of the American colonies from the mother country. In planning this great exhibition the managers had invited the governors of the several states of the Union to appoint, each, one of their citizens to deliver an address in behalf of their state, giving something of its history and settlement, its resources and possibilities. In pursuance of this plan Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood of Iowa did me the honor to appoint me to make the address in behalf of Iowa. I prepared such an address with considerable care, and delivered the same upon the exposition grounds on the 7th day of September, 1876. My cousin, Henry Clay Cameron, who was then professor of Greek at Princeton University, did me the honor to visit me at Philadelphia at this time and took luncheon with my wife and myself upon the exposition grounds; also Samuel F. Miller, justice of the supreme court of the United States came from Washington and was present on that occasion, and many other distinguished men. Among other gentlemen present were official representatives of a number of the governments and nations of Europe. The legislature of Iowa printed at the state expense some twenty thousand copies of this address, that were thereafter distributed among the people of the state. I have sent at their request to a number of the libraries in the different states printed copies of this address, and now the supply has been about exhausted and the document is about out of print, and I think I should give here a short synopsis of it.

The following is the introductory matter, stating something of the discovery of the territory that now constitutes our state:

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: On the 13th of May, A.D.
1673, James Marquette and Louis Joliet, under the direction of the
French authorities of Canada, started from the Straits of Mackinaw,
in their frail bark canoes, with five boatmen, "to find out and
explore the great river lying on the west of them, of which they
had heard marvelous accounts from the Indians about Lake Michigan."

From the southern extremity of Green bay they ascended the Fox
river, and thence carried their boats and provisions across to the
Wisconsin. Descending that stream, they reached the Mississippi on
the 17th of June, and entered its majestic current, "realizing a
joy," wrote Marquette, "that they could not express." Rapidly and
easily they swept down to the solitudes below, and viewed on their
journey the bold bluffs and beautiful meadows on the western bank
of the stream, now revealed for the first time to the eyes of the
white man. This was the discovery of Iowa.

The address then proceeds to give a short account of the first settlements in Iowa at Keokuk, Burlington, Davenport, and Dubuque, and also the settlements afterwards made at Council Bluffs and Sioux City, and cites the various treaties made from time to time between the government of the United States and the Indians, extinguishing the Indian title. It also gives something of the topography of the country, and in regard to its resources and the natural fertility of the soil it contains the following:

We have now on exhibition in the Centennial buildings 15,000 pounds
of Iowa soil, selected from forty-five different counties of our
state. This exhibition shows a vertical section of the natural
formation of the earth to the depth of six feet from the surface.
The selection has been made from _five_ several _groups_ of _seven_
counties each. The counties have been classified according to their
contiguity, or natural location, as the northwest, northeast,
southwest, southeast, and central. These specimens of strata are
exhibited just in the condition they existed in the earth. The
strata, undisturbed, have been transferred to glass tubes six
inches in diameter and six feet in length. These tubes are encased
in black walnut, and each labeled with the name of the county from
which the strata have been taken. The object has been in good faith
to show the world what Iowa really is, without exaggeration, and
without room for cavil. Here is the formation from nature's own
laboratory. Behold, what hath God wrought!

The address also particularly gives an account of our school system, our state university and agricultural college, our benevolent institutions for the unfortunate classes, also the extent of our newspaper publications. It discusses to some extent the questions arising out of the Civil War and the heroism of our troops. On this subject the address contains the following:

It is impossible, in the reasonable length to which this paper
should be limited, to write even a summary of the battles in which
Iowa soldiers took part. The history of her troops would be
substantially a history of the war in the south and west. To
recount a portion of those battles and sieges would be to give a
partial history to the neglect of others, equally deserving of
honorable mention. A task alike impossible would be to give here
the names of the heroes, living and dead, who distinguished
themselves by their courage and valor. Our efficient Adjutant
General has preserved in the archives of his department, the
material from which this glorious history will one day be written,
for the honor of the state and the inspiration of the generations
that shall come after us. In the adjutant's department at Des
Moines are preserved the shot-riddled colors and standards of our
regiments. Upon them, by special authority, were inscribed, from
time to time during the war, the names of the battle fields upon
which these regiments gained distinction. These names constitute
the geographical nomenclature of two-thirds of the territory lately
in rebellion. From the Des Moines river to the Gulf, from the
Mississippi to the Atlantic, in the mountains of West Virginia, and
in the Valley of the Shenandoah, the Iowa soldier made his presence
known and felt, and maintained the honor of the state and the cause
of the nation. They were with Lyon at Wilson's Creek, with Tuttle
at Donelson. They fought with Siegel and with Curtis at Pea Ridge;
with Crocker at Champion Hills; with Reid at Shiloh. They were with
Grant at the surrender of Vicksburg. They fought above the clouds
with Hooker at Lookout Mountain. They were with Sherman in his
march to the sea, and were ready for battle when Johnston
surrendered. They were with Sheridan in the Valley of the
Shenandoah, and were in the veteran ranks of the nation's
deliverers that stacked their arms in the national capital at the
close of the war.

The address concludes as follows:

Iowa hails with joy this centennial of our nation's birth. She
renews her vows of devotion to our common country, and looks with
hope to the future. The institution of slavery, that once rested as
a shadow upon the land, that was fast producing a diverse
civilization dangerous to our unity and nationality, has been
forever abolished.

This centennial exhibition of our national greatness and material
progress must re-awaken in the mind and heart of every American
emotions of profound love for his country, and of patriotic pride
in her success. Surely no American would consent that such a
civilization as is evidenced here should perish in the throes of
civil war. If there be anything in the history of Iowa and its
wonderful development to excite a just pride, the other, and
especially the older states of the Union may justly claim to share
in it. Such as we are, the emigration from the other states made
us. Our free soil, free labor, free schools, free speech, free
press, free worship, free men and free women, were their free gift
and contribution. Iowa is the thirty-year old child of the republic
that celebrates the first centennial of its birth. Our state is
simply the legitimate offspring of a civilization that has found
its highest expression in building up sovereign states. Iowa was
not a colony planted by the oppressions of the parent government,
and that threw off her allegiance as soon as she gained strength to
assert her independence; but she was the outgrowth of the natural
vitality and enterprise of the nation, begotten in obedience to the
divine command to multiply and replenish--born a sovereign by the
will and desire of the parent, and baptized at the font of liberty
as a voluntary consecration of her political life. Not a sovereign
in that absolute sense that would make the federal government an
impossibility, but sovereign within her sphere and over the objects
and purposes of her jurisdiction, with such further limitations
only upon her powers as render an abuse of them impossible, to the
end that the personal liberty and private rights of the citizen
should be more secure.

This wonderful exhibition of mechanical skill, of cunning
workmanship, and of the fruits of the earth, is but the evidence
of the existence and character of the people that have produced
them. The great ultimate fact that America would demonstrate is
the existence of a people capable of attaining and preserving
a superior civilization, with a government self-imposed,
self-administered, and self-perpetuated. In this, her centennial
year, America can exhibit nothing to the world of mankind more
wonderful or more glorious than her new states--young empires,
born of her own enterprise, and tutored at her own political
hearthstone. Well may she say to the monarchies of the old world,
who look for evidences of her regal grandeur and state, "Behold,
these are my jewels." And may she never blush to add: "This one in
the _center_ of the diadem is called IOWA."