Part 44 (1/2)
”'Till the war-drus are furled In the parliah the instrumentality in no small measure of the man personally known to sohted to honor, no less as a private citizen than as President, this Governer of tiotten that the responsibility of its preservation and transenerations of his countryo
”Truly it has been said: 'To-day is the pupil of yesterday,'
and also 'History is the great teacher of human nature by means of object-lessons drawn from the whole recorded life of human nature'
There is, then, no dead past Every event is in a nificant
The annals of the ales, the achieveht with lessons of deep ie is the heir to that which preceded We nificant events
”McLean County had its historical beginning as a dependent but distinct political organization on the joyous Christ backward from that date, its history is bound up solely in that of Illinois, under its various organizations and naiven to a hurried review of the reat State of which our own county is so i in mind that 'that which conificant events of the past ently comprehend the present, and are enabled, even in scant measure, to forecast the future
”No State of the American union has a history of more intense interest than our own Its early chapters, indeed, savor of the roo ti-ground of the red men, and his frail bark the only craft known to its rivers That period belongs to the border-land age of tradition rather than of veritable history It is of Illinois under the domination of civilizedthe Treaty of Paris in 1763, 'the Illinois country' was a part of the French domain Inseparably linked with that portion of its history are names that will live with those of the Cabots and Coluator in his lonely search for a new pathway to the Indies was buoyed by a courage, a yearning for discovery, scarce greater than that which in the heart of the new continent sustained the later voyagers and discoverers, Marquette, Joliet, Hennepin, and La Salle
”A--for explorers in the seventeenth century no less than for defenders in that which ie which tells of the lofty heroism of Lafayette has for us no deeper interest than that which records the daring achieveers Two centuries and a half ago Marquette and Joliet, bearing the commission of the French Governor of Quebec, embarked upon their expedition for the discovery of new countries to the southward Anis of religion no less than that of adding to the domain of their imperial master, they set out upon an expedition which has become historic The bare recital of what befell the with the scattered tribes of Indians, bestowing presents and in turn sharing the hospitality offered; now speaking words of ad up the crudeup the cross in the wilderness; again threading the pathless forests, or in frail barks sailing unknoaters, they pursued their perilous journey
”In tian, crossing Lake Winnebago, visiting the ancient villages of the Kickapoos, 'with joy indescribable,' as Marquette declared, they for the first time beheld the Mississippi In June, 1673, upon the east bank of the great river, they landed upon the soil of what is now the State of Illinois At the little village they first visited they received hospitable treatment Its inmates are known in our early history as 'the Illini'--a word signifying _ives us the name Illinois It is related that, upon the first appearance of Marquette and Joliet at the door of the principal aed native with the words: 'The sun is beautiful, Frenchmen, when you come to visit us; you shall enter in peace into all our cabins; it is well, ht of the ed chieftain seem prophetic We, too,discovered the upper Mississippi and the valley which bears its nas to Marquette and Joliet It was theirs to add the vast domain under the name 'New France' to the eift But no history of the great valley and the majestic river would be co of the priest and historian, Hennepin, and of the knightly adventures of the Chevalier La Salle
”Much, indeed, that is ro his connection with a theological school in France, his fortunes were early cast in the New World From Quebec, the ancient French capital of this continent, he projected an expedition which was to add elamour about his own name It has been said that his dream was of a western ay to the Pacific Ocean In 1669, with an outfit that had cost him his entire fortune, with a small party he ascended in canoes the St Lawrence, and a feeeks later was upon the broad Ontario Out of the mists and shadows that enveloped much of his subsequent career, it were iather that which is authentic It is enough that, with Hennepin as one of his fellow-voyagers, he reached the Ohio and in due ti reat achievement--and that hich abides his imperishable fame--was his perilous descent of the Mississippi from the Falls of St Anthony to the Gulf of Mexico On the sixth day of April, 1682, upon the east bank of the lower Mississippi, with due for of the _Te Deum_ and the plaudits of his comrades, La Salle took formal possession of the Louisiana country in the name of his royal master, Louis the Fourteenth of France
”For the period of ninety-two years, beginning with the discoveries of Marquette and Joliet, the Illinois country was a part of the French possessions Sovereignty over the vast do through his commandant at Quebec But as has been truly said, 'The French sought and claimed more than they had the ability to hold or possess Their line of domain extended froh the valley of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of over three thousand nificent domain, but one destined soon to pass forever from the possession of the French monarch and his line
”The hour had struck, and upon the North Ale for supremacy between France and her traditional enemy was to find bloody arbitrament Great Britain claimed as a part of her colonial possessions in the New World the territory bordering upon the Great Lakes and the rich lands of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys As to the ht by discovery or conquest, it were idle now to argue Our concern is with the le which for all time determined the question of race supre rapidly thefortunes of the stupendous struggle which had been transferred for the time from the Old World to the Nee reach the hour which was to mark an epoch in history The tihts of Abrahaht out one of the pivotal battles of the ages It was the closing act in a great dralish-speaking race or its hereditary foe was to be le for e from the St Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico The incidents of the battle need not now be told
Never were English or French soldiery led byyears have not dispelled the roathered about the na at the self-same moment--one amid the victors, the other aether in history
”By the treaty of Paris which followed, France surrendered to her successful rival all claim to the domain east of the Mississippi River In accordance with the tere, the commander of the British forces in America, took formal possession of the recently conquered territory Proclamation of this fact was made to the inhabitants of the Illinois country in 1764, and a garrison soon thereafter established at Kaskaskia Here the rule of the British was for the time undisputed British domination in the Mississippi Valley was, however, to be of short duration Soon the events were hastening, the forces gathering, which were in turn to wrest from the crown no small part of the splendid domain won by Wolfe's brilliant victory at Quebec