Striking and magnificent as our country is in its peculiar attitude and rapid growth, presenting at one view the combined ideas of ability to resist the strong, and power to defend the weak, it is scarcely less majestic than beautiful, and in attempting to convey to you in language befitting some of the important facts connected with its early history, and the birth of its flag, would seem little less absurd, than –
" to gild refined gold, to paint the lilly,
To throw a perfume o'er the violet,
To smooth the lee, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with lantern light,
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish."
I will try however to recite, as best I can, a story of facts, hoping it will prove both interesting and instructive.
The great problem has yet to be solved whether America was originally peopled from Asia, or Asia from America. How long the continent had been peopled before the advent of Columbus in 1492, is unknown, but the remains of ancient mounds in the Mississippi Valley, the prehistoric copper mines south of Lake Superior, the shell mounds along the sea coasts, and other remarkable evidences, in other portions of the country, attest the fact, that an aboriginal people existed in what is now the United States, for a period, as yet beyond the power of man to even approximately estimate. What we do know is, that our ancestors from Europe, the pioneers of civilization, who first came from England and settled on the Atlantic coast of North America found the native Indians divided into numerous tribes, east of the Mississippi, totaling about 180,000, speaking different languages or dialects. This is as our ancestors found America in 1607, three hundred years ago.
On the 17th day of November, 1558, three hundred and forty nine years ago, the reign of Mary, Queen of England, terminated, and Elizabeth, the Queen who gave to Virginia, one of the thirteen original states of the North American Union, and, "the Mother of Presidents," its name, at the age of twenty-five years, succeeded Mary on the throne.
Among the brilliant figures that made the reign of Queen Elizabeth so glorious, was a courtier, scholar, statesman and soldier, named Sir Walter Raliegh, who by reason of his many earnest attempts to found an American settlement, has by many been called the maker of the United States.
Through his persistent efforts was this great and powerful oak of enterprise planted in American soil, forty-nine years after Elizabeth became Queen of England, and agreed to aid Sir Walter Raliegh in his desire to found an American settlement in that portion of this New World, (Virginia) then considered a dominion equal in wealth to the conquests already achieved by Spain.
Our Commonwealth possesses no richer treasure than the fair fame of her children. In the revolutions of empires, the present institutions of our land may perish, and new ones, perhaps more perfect, may arise; but the glory of our national existence cannot pass away, so long as the names of those who, in it, enlarged the boundaries of knowledge, gave tone to its morals, framed its laws, or fought its battles, ate remembered with gratitude.