THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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until some years after the peace that a strong one was formed. And notwithstanding the terrible record various wars have left on the pages of her history, from that time it has been steadfast, solid progress in things material and immaterial, business, morals and intellect, until today, one hundred and seventeen years after, she stands a power among nations. Waves of sadness and billows of gladness have rolled alternately over human hearts, while threatening storm clouds have lowered, but the bright bows of promise and hope ever gilded the horizon, eloquent and prophetic of the magnificent future which has dawned already. Daniel Webster said with regard to it: “ There is no poetry like the poetry of events, and all the prophecies of this land lay behind the fulfillment.” We recall the parable of the grain of mustard seed, which is indeed the least of all seed, but it has become a tree so great the birds from all lands rest amid her sheltering branches, and her roots are deeply hidden in the century of strong, true hearts that open the ground, planted and nourished the seed. Their sons, honest, brave men, still safely stand with that same Declaration their bulwark and stay.
Well may we be proud of America, “ the land we love,” stretching from the blue Atlantic to the broad Pacific, from the Arctic to the Antarctic oceans. Snow-clad mountains towering three thousand feet above sea level, mighty cataracts, giant geysers, vast prairies, broad rivers flowing between fields heavy with golden grain.
And deep in the bowels of the hills Is coal and mineral wealth untold.
New riches every year unfold As nature opens wide her gate That stood ajar so long, we wait Expectant, thankful, glad to say This is the land we love today.
Placid lakes that would bear on their bosoms the leviathans of the centuries, cities whose magnificence vies with those across the ocean, and sixty-five millions of people brave and true as ever God’s sunshine smiled upon. On every sea her vessels float, and in every land her people are found. She is at peace with all the world, and plenty and prosperity and strength surround her.
To our great festival, this Columbian Jubilee, from all lands visitors have come to rejoice with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome, one and all! Without doubt each heart and voice will unite in the Nation’s Hymn and say:
“Long may the land be bright With freedom’s holy light,
Protect her by thy might,
Great God, her king! ”
How wonderful the discovery he had made Columbus never knew, for he believed it to be a part of India. The gold he sought in large quantities he never found, yet the land teems with mineral wealth. It has filled the coffers of many nations, and when famine gaunt and grim stalked among less favored people we could throw open immense granaries, and blessings of plenty and abundance bestow cheerfully and gladly, for are we not all brothers? So lavish is Nature from the Western prairies and Southern cotton fields, her Northern pines and Eastern granite hills, we can gather the richest products and bid all to come and share our abundance, while her starry flag floats proudly above them as an emblem of that country, able and willing to protect the stranger within her gates. The pulse and pace of this land has been so marvelously quickened during the last century, time will not permit me to even mention the thousands of noble ideas that have enriched the world and startled it into wondering applause, while as a manufacturing people we have won first rank. All forces seem to be at our bidding and the nations wait in awe, whispering what next?
Steam and electricity, says one, have compressed the earth till the elbows of ( 15 )