Bulletin

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GENEALOGY

COLLECTION

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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

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BULLETIN No. 2 FEBRUARY 1920

db. V/L. SONS OF THE REVOLUTION

IN THE

STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

GENERAL SOGIETY

Organized at Washington, D. C, April 19, 1890.

OFFICERS.

General President,
JAMES MORTIMER MONTGOMERY, 108 Water St., New York, N. Y.

General Vice President,
RICHARD McCALL CALDWALADER, 133 S. 12th St., Philadelphia, Pa.

General Second Vice President,
CHARLES IRVING THAYER, Boston, Mass.

General Secretary
PROF. WILLIAM LIBBEY, Princeton, N. J.

Assistant General Secretary,
W. HALL HARRIS, Jr., 216 St. Paul St., Baltimore, Md.

General Treasurer,
RALPH ISHAM, 1411 Ritchie Place, Chicago, 111.

Assistant General Treasurer,
GEN. GEORGE RICHARDS, 1734 New York Ave., Washington, D. C.

General Registrar,
HON. GEORGE E. POMEROY, 510 Madison Ave., Toledo, 0.

General Historian,
ORRA EUGENE MONNETTE, 619 Citizens Bank Bldg., Los Angles, Cal.

General Chaplain,
RT. REV. DANIEL SYLVESTER TUTTLE, St. Louis, Mo,

WEST VIRGINIA SOGIETY

Organized at Wheeling, April 19, 1894.

Officers Elected February 22, 1919.

President,
JAMES ROGERS MOKELAND,

Morgan town.

Vice President,

dr. reed Mcculloch baird,

Wheeling.

Secretary,

THOMAS RAY DILLE,

Morgantown.

Treasurer,
FRANCIS EDMUND NICHOLS,

Fairmont.

Registrar,

THOMAS RAY DILLE,

Morgantown.

Historian,
COL. HENRY RAYMOND,

Clarksburg.

Board of Managers,

OWEN S. McKINNEY,
Fairmont.

FREDERICK THORNTON MARTIN,

Grafton.

HARVEY FARIS SMITH,

Clarksburg.

CHARLES LEWIS HICKMAN,

Clarksburg.

ROBERT LINN BLAND,
Weston.

JAMES ROGERS MORELAND (Ex-officio),
Morgantown.

THOMAS RAY DILLE (Ex-officio),
Morgantown.

ANNUAL MEETING, FEBRUARY 22ND, 1919.

The annual meeting of the Society was held at the Fort Henry Club, in
Wheeling, and while it was not largely attended outside of Wheeling, was a
very nice meeting. Several changes in the By-Laws were proposed and were
laid over under the provisions of the Constitution until the Called meeting in
June, 1919, for final action.

The report of the Historian, Col. Henry Haymond, congratulated the
Society upon the fact that we had lost none of our members by death during
the year.

The Secretary made an offer to donate to the Society the monthly publi-
cations of the Daughters of the American Revolution for the years 1911-18,
with the understanding that the Society would have the same bound for the
use of its library. The matter of acceptance and binding of the same was left
to a future meeting of the Society. A Committee consisting of Dr. Reed M.
Baird, Alfred Paull and William Paxton Burke all of Wheeling to co-operate
with the Committee of the Daughters of the American Revolution in regard to
the proposition of removing the remains of Ebenezer Zane from Martins Ferry,
Ohio, to a cemetery in Wheeling, W. Va., it being pointed out that he was the
founder of the City of Wheeling.

The election of officers resulted as follows: President, James R. More-
land, of Morgantown ; Vice President, Dr. Reed McCulloch Baird, of Wheeling ;
Secretary, Thomas Ray Dille, of Morgantown; Treasurer, Francis E. Nichols,
of Fairmont; Registrar, Thomas Ray Dille; Historian, Col. Henry Haymond,
of Clarksburg; Board of Managers, Owen S. McKinney, of Fairmont, Frederick
T. Martin, of Grafton, Harvey F. Smith, of Clarksburg, Charles L. Hickman,
of Clarksburg, and Robert L. Bland of Weston.

It was voted that an adjourned meeting of the Society should be held at
Fairmont sometime in the month of June, 1919, and that the date of the said
meeting should be designated by the President of the Society.

At the banquet James R. Moreland delivered a very intertaining address
of a historical nature upon ' * The Day We Celebrate, ' ' and Dr. Frank LeMoyne
Hupp, of Wheeling, delivered a short, but very well received, toast upon
"Patriotism, 1776-1919."

1492432

ADJOURNED MEETING, JUNE 26TH, 1919, PRICKETTS FORT.

For many years Hon. Owen S. McKinney, Chairman of the Committee in
charge of the arrangements of the dedication of the monument erected at the
site of Pricketts Fort, on Pricketts Creek in Marion County, has been promising
the State Society to have a meeting at the site and dedicate the monument
erected by the State Society through the efforts of the Committee.

Mr. McKinney had arranged all the details of the dedication and they were
all carried out with nicety and exactness. The ritual service and unveiling of
the monument carried out by William Haymond Chapter Daughters of Amer-

ican Revolution, of Fairmont, was certainly a most impressive and inspiring
ceremony. Addresses were made by James R. Moreland, of Morgantown, Pres-
ident of the Society; Mrs. George DeBolt, of Fairmont, State Regent of the
West Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution; Judge William S. Ray-
mond, of Fairmont, and Frederick T. Martin, of Grafton. The musical num-
bers were rendered by the Elks Quartet, of Fairmont, composed of W. D. Bar-
rington, LeMar Satterfield, Charles Bornfeld and Ernest Yost. Great credit
should be given to the able Committee on arrangements for the Sons of the
Revolution, who assisted Mr. McKinney, composed of A. G. Martin, C. L. Mus-
grave, W. S. Haymond, Harry F. Smith, R. T. Cunningham, Samuel Leeper
and Brooks Fleming, Jr., and to the Committee on arrangement of grounds,
M. W. Harris, Levi M. Harris, L. J. Pricket and Leonard Curry.

ADDRESS OF COL. FREDERICK THORNTON MARTIN, DELIVERED

BEFORE THE STATE SOCIETY SONS OF THE REVOLUTION

AT FAIRMONT ON FEBRUARY 22ND, 1918.

In this company I see many familiar faces, which reminds me that it has
always been somewhat embarrassing to me to speak to an audience where I was
too well known. But when, just a few days ago, I was ordered by some of
my old friends to report here today for duty, I felt that I had no right >to
deny them in what they seemed to think would be a pleasure for me. And
in all respects, except the one I mention, it is a pleasure to be here, and at
genuine one.

For many years, with only a few exceptions, I have made it a point to
attend the annual dinners of this Society, and now that by reason of new State
laws and new National regulations, much of the zest is taken away, I still
feel that I must always try to be present at these meetings. The old friends
are here to meet and greet me, the old sentiments are here to move and cheer
me, and we have the additional charm, of the presence of the Daughters of the
Revolution to lend eclat to the affair. But there are places that are vacant.
We miss them and feel that we shall not see them here again. They have fought
the good fight, they have finished the course, they have kept the faith. We
loved them in life ; we do not forget them in death, and we feel that they have
at last received their reward.

Long, long be my heart with such memories filled,

Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled ;

You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will cling to it still.

The Society of Sons of the Revolution is consistently a teacher of pure,
undefiled and staunch patriotism. It believes in America and the principles of
liberty, equality and justice upon which this great nation was founded, and
the espousal of and adherence to these principles, it has been a factor in our
social and political life.

It has taken for its first article of faith the declaration that all men are
created free and equal, and it has always insisted that every man shall be
accorded the full, free and untrammeled right to life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness. And today, while in the midst of the most violent assault that
has ever been made upon these ideals, we pause again, upon the birthday of
George Washington, the Father of his Country, to renew our allegiance to all
the great things for which he stood and to revivify in our own hearts the fires
of patriotism and loyalty.

When the sage of Monticello penned the immortal words of the great dec-
laration, little did he dream that ere a century and a half should pass, the
emanation of his mind would so expand and grow as to embrace in its influence
the majority of civilized mankind. No more did Washington see the vast
reaches to which his example, his fruitful and persistent efforts for the free-

dom of his country, would extend, for today that example is the hope of pa-
triots and the despair of tyrants over all the world.

None of the patriots who have done their task and gone before have ever
had, so far as we know, any vision of the full purport of their work on earth,
although their sacrifices, their works, have so diffused the light of liberty that
all men might strive for it, even as they did. They planted the seed of liberty
in this fertile and congenial soil and their descendants have nurtured and cared
for it until the tender sprout which they planted has grown into a strong and
sturdy oak and the shade of its spreading branches now covers the whole earth.
It has been our habit, in considerating the history of our own great struggle
for liberty and personal freedom to confine our views of our own country and
to regard the matter of American Independence as local rather than general;
and until recently this view seems to have been so natural that we are perhaps
to be excused for seeming to be provincial and rather selfish.

But the great idea of human liberty has refused to be longer confined by
geographical lines, and like the free air of heaven, it goeth no man knows wither,
laden with the blessings for which all peoples have dreamed and for which they
now live and long and strive. This idea is as limitless as the ocean, as firm as
the foundations of the earth, as resistless as the tides, as constant as the planets
in their orbits, as alluring as the song of the sirens, as just as the Eternal
Justice of God himself.

In its present day application, it resolves itself back quite naturally into
the original declaration that all men are created free and equal, and endowed
by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness ; and that all are equally entitled to a voice in the
effort to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general
welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

These sentiments, the first from the Declaration of Independence, the other
from the Constitution of the United States, seem to be so eminently just and
so comprehensive as to partake of the nature of the divine justice.

From the very beginning, even until now, the destiny of our country
seems to have been in the hand of the Almighty, for always we have been
blessed very abundantly and in every crisis there appears to have been some
sort of a miraculous intervention to bring forth a man who was ready for and
equal to the emergency. The scourgings that we may have received have been
given us in kindnesss and have been for our ultimate good, as all now clearly
recognize, and we would laugh at the man who would dare tell us now that
God had not kept his vigil over us during all the past years of our history.
And so we feel that there is a divinity that has shaped our ends, and we may
say, as David said : "lama wonder unto many, but thou art my strong ref-
uge. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise with thy honor all the day."

It would be difficult to convince any intelligent student of our National
history that Washington had not been raised up from among the people to
command our armies for us and to guide our frail bark through the stress
and storms of a rough voyage into a safe and secure harbor.

It would be equally difficult to make any of us believe for one moment

that in the dark days of fraternal strife it was not a kind and beneficent prov-
idence that brough forth a Lincoln, upon whose calm, unruffled judgment
we might safely rely for guidance, and to whose strong and kindly hand we
might cling in confidence.

And the present exigency only adds to the feeling of safe reliance upon
him who holdeth the fate of nations in his hands. One could hardly conceive
the possibility of a truer, safer pilot than he who now holds the helm of the
ship of state. He is holding the old craft to her true course and will bring
her into the haven of universal liberty. Yet there are those who seem to be
uncertain and dissatisfied. Criticism is always easy, but where it is ill-timed
or unwarranted, it is invariably the mark of a small and narrow mind. We
may differ as to measures and means, but if we be true Americans, it is our
duty to help and not seek to hinder. The justice of our cause should appeal
to every man, but, after all, some people refuse to be moved, except by their
own personal desires. They fail to recognize the full import of the situation
and do not realize that it is their duty to close their ears to treasonable clamor,
to close their mouths to disloyal utterances, to close their hearts to unpatriotic
thoughts, to stand by at all times and to watch, pray and Hooverize. It is,
not so much what we are able to do as to faithfully do our part, which is to
do all that we can do, in the best manner we may, and to do it promptly,
cheerfully, unreservedly, ungrudgingly and like true Americans. And we
should also remember that "they also serve who only stand and wait."

In the dark days of the revolution, while men, half -starved, half -clad, rag-
ged and hungry, marched upon the frozen ground of Valley Forge and fought
unequal battles with poor weapons and empty stomach, smug Tories lolled in
comfort before their hearthstone and traduced and ridiculed Washington and
his little army of patriots; yet he never lost for a moment his faith in the
Almighty nor for a moment doubted that by and by there would come a
Yorktown. He knew that God would raise up men to fight our battles for us,
and after awhile they came, and Lafayette and Rochambeau, sleeping their
everlasting sleep in their beloved France, must now know, it seems to me, that
we are repaying them for their valor and unselfishness many fold.

The great and good Lincoln, he of the modest mien and the kind heart,
was perhaps more traduced and maligned by foes without and within than
any President who had, up to that time, filled the position of chief magistrate.
Yet in the darkest days of the awful conflict in which he was our chief re-
liance he never faltered or gave way to doubts and fears, but firmly relied
upon the aid of the God of nations, in whose hands rests their destiny, and
always felt that some day, sooner or later, somehow, there would come an
Appomattox to end the fearful scourge that rested upon our land, and that
then would be demonstrated his declaration that a government of the people,
for the people, by the people, should not perish from the earth.

And today, in our distress and sorroy, our President, burdened as he is
by the heaviest load of grave responsibility that ever rested upon human
shoulders, amid the clamor of ambitious and self-seeking men, surrounded
and annoyed by the yelping and snarling of mongrels whose eyes are ever

looking and whose hearts are ever yearning for personal advantage and profit,
harped at by those who are moved with that "base envy which withers at
another's joy and hates that excellence which it cannot reach ;'" never for
an instant does he doubt that by the help of God, in his own good time, will
dawn a world-Appomattox which shall not end the present strife only but
open the doors of hope through which shall come Peace which, will endure
forever. ' '

And oh, what glory will there then be for all of us, by countrymen! The
bright rays of the sun of human freedom will shine upon all men and will
cover the whole earth with the light of liberty. Its fervent heat will warm
every single drop of blood in every single human heart; it will istrike the
shackles from the bondman, and thenceforth all men shall be free; it will dis-
pel the dark clouds of ignorance and superstition and fear and restore to
mankind a full heritage of light and wisdom. Out of this world-wide cataclysm
of horror and misery — out of this maelstrom of sorrow for the stricken sons
and daughters of earth — will come a redeemed world of Justice and universal
brotherhood, purged from the brutal idea that might makes right or the sword
conquers evil. Grim-visaged War shall smooth his wrinkled front and his
bloody tools of slaughter will give place to the sword of righteousness, and
unspeakable Huns, insolently assuming that they rule by divine right, shall be
banished forever from the face of the earth, and the places that knew them
once shall know them no more forever.

After the last great battle for freedom and democracy shall have been
fought and won, and Angel of Justice will bivouac over the Valley of Peace,
and the awful carnival of hate and woe will give place to paeans of joy that
will sound through the ages.

And the question comes: How will we bear our part in the days which
are to come and how will we respond to the calls of duty to surely be made!
upon us? Everyone of us, man and woman, should be ready and anxious
to perform the high and serious and solemn tasks which we will be called upon
to render for our country/ Searching out the lines upon which we may most
successfully serve, we should perform the things for which we are called with
a full realization of their import, in good faith and with firm, resolution.
And by all means let us remember that no half-hearted acquiescence, no pas-
sive obedience, will serve in the awful responsibilities that are immediately
before us. The tasks will be hard, the burdens will not be light, but we must will-
ingly and cheerfully assume our share of both and must show our faith by the
constant practice of good works. If our associations here do not lead us to do
these things, then they are all in vain. There is no escape from this great respon-
sibility and no true man will seek for any escape. The duty of every one of us
is to do the very best that is in him, in whatever position he may find himself ;
and this duty is paramount, no matter what our abilities, our condition, our
circumstances or our opportunities may be. Some of us will be able to do less
than others, but no man will shirk his part and no excuse will justify any
failure or neglect of duty. In the last analysis of things, it may be that he
who felt himself able to do the least shall find that he has really done most.

The little spring that flows from the ground in the mountians of Randolph
county is so small that a thirsty ox, on a summer's day, can drink it dry. Yet
it soon, in its silent meanderings, finds itself broadening out into the beautiful
Monongahela, and by and by becomes the lovely Ohio, and going on and on,
meetig ever with increasing strength, it flows proudly into the mighty Missis-
sippi, watering on its way an empire and reaching breadth and depth of
channel where the navies of the world might ride at anchor. And then, still
not having finished its influence, it merges itself into the gulf and then into
the mighty ocean, the emblem of eternity. And so it may be with us. From a
small beginning, the limits to which we may reach in our proper endeavors are
beyond our knowledge, and as often as otherwise, surpass our finest hopes.

"For ye know your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty and not many noble are called; but God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. ' '

All our prejudices, all our pre-conceived notions of what we would like
to do or have done, all our partisan feelings, even our convictions, must all
be laid aside for the present so that we may have always before our eyes the
light of civic virtue, and so that we may, in charity and brotherly love, keep
our faces ever toward the sun and constantly and earnestly strive toward the
ultimate goal of pure and undefiled patriotism and the absolute freedom of
every man, woman and child.

In so far as they may affect our duty and devotion to our country, as
well as to the cause for which we are called upon to make our sacrifices today,
section and creed must be put behind us, and to the right alone must we look
as the guiding star by which we lay our course of action. Obedience to lawful
authority, when that lawful authority is duly established by the people, is the
true test of good citizenship.

And we should not permit ourselves to be diverted from this course or to
be slow to respond to the call of duty. We must follow in the straight and
narrow paths which our fathers trod, in the trail of national lightness which
they blazed for us toward the sun of liberty which they set before our yearning
gaze; and we must preserve all of the ancient landmarks which they set for
our guidance.

With a fixed and steady purpose of mind to keep inviolate and to perform
to the full extent our duty as citizens of the land which they bequeathed to
us, the dear land which gave us birth and nurture, the grandest country, the
most glorious nation, the most just government upon which the sun shines
today, with a full and fair conception of what is actually meant by the doctrine
of the equality of all men before the law, let us freely and unreservedly tender
to all men, of whatever race or creed, engaged as we are on this day in a
struggle for the perpetuity of our principles of democracy, so far as need be,
and so far as we may, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor; and let
us here resolve that we will hold fast to that which is good, adhere to that
which is glorious, emulate that which is virtuous, cleave unto that which is
true, cherish that which is grandest and best in our country's history.

The beacons of independence which our fathers set upon the watch towers
of liberty, we must ever maintain; the principles of glorious freedom which
they established, we must inculcate into the minds and hearts of our fellow
men, and ever espouse as our dearest and most priceless heritage. It is ours
to emulate their illustrious example; ours to cherish the love of the country
and of universal freedom which should inspire the hearts of all true and loyal
Americans; ours to elevate the standard of our civilization to an ever-height-
ening, ever-broadening plane; ours to guard the genius of our country's insti-
tutions; our to keep the sacred fires of patriotism forever burning upon the
altars of liberty.

And may the God of Wisdom, the God of Justice, the God of Truth, judge
of the sincerity of our professions, the integrity of our actions, and the justness
of our cause; and may the destiny of our beloved country ever rest beneath
the sheltering care of the Everlasting Arms!

ADDRESS OF DR. FRANK LEMOYNE HUPP AT WHEELING, W. VA.,

DELIVERED BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE SONS OF

THE REVOLUTION DINNER, FEBRUARY 22, 1919.

» r— .- 1492432

It affords me gratification to meet this little gathering of the Sons of the
Revolution in West Virginia; to pay the homage of our profound admiration
to that patriotism which animated our forebears in the Washingtonian days to
fight for a principle and to make this country not only safe for Democracy
but a safe and decent place to live in. Yea. they did more than this. They,
through patriotic example and living, handed down to the boys of today, who
are now returning from France and Flanders, a brand of daring, courage,
and love of freedom, which has proved itself a legacy rich indeed, and, shall
we say which is more enduring as a memorial than brass.

1 cannot do better than quote literally from the address of the great Pres-
ident McKinley, at the end of the Spanish- American War: ''Upon the sus-
pension of hostilities of a foreign war we are here in a spirit of peace," pro-
foundly grateful for the glorious achievements of the Allies and particularly
our own men, who were permitted to help win the victory, and earnestly wishing
in the final termination to realize an equally glorious fulfillment.

It is not with a feeling of exaltation, but with profound thankfulness, we
contemplate the work of the past year. They have all been too serious to ad-
mit of boasting or vain glorification. They have been so full of responsibility,
immediate and prospective, to admonish the soberest judgment and counsel and
the most conservative and yet finest action.

This, gentlemen, is not the time to fire the imagination — notwithstanding
we are thanking God for the valor, achievement and patriotism of 1918, but
rather to discover, in calm reason, the way to truth and justice and right, and
when discovered to follow it with fidelity and courage, without fear, hesitation
or weakness.

This great war, gentlemen, has put upon our Allies, and particularly this
great nation, grave responsibilities. Their extent was not altogether antici-
pated, yet, probably foreseen by that great man, Woodrow Wilson.

Our country cannot escape the obligation of victory. We cannot avoid
the serious questions which have been brought home to us by the achievements
of our arms by land and by sea. How true, as McKinley has said: "We are
bound in conscience to keep and perform the covenants which the great cruel
war has sacredly sealed with mankind."

The splendid victories we have achieved would be our eternal shame
and not our everlasting glory, if they lead to the weakening of our original,
lofty purpose, or to the desertion of the immortal principles and ideals on which
the national government was founded and in accordance with whose ennobling
spirit it has ever since been faithfully administered from Washington to Wilson.

We shall hope and pray as a Society, that the final confirmation of peace
will be as just and humane, yet as firm as the conduct and the consummation of

the War. When the work of the treaty-makers is done the work of the law-
makers will begin. The one will settle the extent of our responsibilities in deal-
ing with the Hun assassin, the other must provide the legislation to met them —
and backed by the self same patriotism that animated the boys in the trenches.
As McKinley has said:

"The army and navy have nobly performed their part. May God give the
Executive, Congress, and the people, wisdom to perform theirs."

I thank you!

ADDRESS OF JAMES ROGERS MORELAND, PRESIDENT OP THE

SOCIETY AT THE ANNUAL MEETING AT WHEELING,

FEBRUARY 22ND; 1919.

Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen:

In behalf of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of
West Virginia, it becomes my pleasant duty to bid you welcome on this occa-
sion, the anniversary of the birthday of George Washington, the Father of his
Country.

The Society of the Sons of the Revolution was founded in 1883, in New
York; its purpose, as expressed by the constitution, being,

"to perpetuate the memory of the men, wrho in the military, naval,
and civic service of the Colonies and of the Continental Congress, by
their acts and counsel, achieved the independence of the Country."

The New York Society, to be historically correct, was instituted February 22,
1876, but was reorganized in 18S3, when the General Society was formed. State
societies have since then been organized in most of the States of the Union.

The Society in the State of West Virginia was organized April 19, 1894,
at the McClure Hotel in this city (of Wheeling), and it seems peculiarly fitting
that the Society should return to this, the city of its birth, to celebrate the
occasion of its completion of the first quarter century of its existence.

The organizers were Judge John Marshall Hagans of Morgantown, John
Dailey of Piedmont, Major William Clark McGrew of Morgantown, Charles
Mathew Hart of Clarksburg, John Bassel of Clarksburg, John Battelle Hart
of Clarksburg, Colonel Henry Haymond of Clarksburg. Colonel Thomas Moore
Jackson of Clarksburg, and Professor John George Gettings of Clarksburg. Of
that number only three remain today as members of our Society — Charles
Mathew Hart, John Battelle Hart and Colonel Henry Haymond. All the others
excepting Major William Clark McGrew have crossed the bar and gone to their
great reward. Major McGrew is greatly broken in health and has withdrawn
from all active duties and associations of life. The little band of organizers
were all distinguished men, and well fitted by natural endowments to carry out
the purpose of the society as expressed in the Constitution by them adopted,
and their standing and influence assured the Society of its success from the
very beginning of its existence.

The first officers of the Society were, Judge John Marshall Hagans, Pres-
ident; John Dailey, Vice President; Colonel Henry Haymond, Secretary; Major
William Clark McGrew, Treasurer; John George Geddings, Registrar and His-
torian. The Board of Managers were John Bassel, Charles Mathew Hart,
Thomas Moore Jackson, John Battelle Hart and John George Gettings, all of
Clarksburg.

By way of digression let me suggest that practically all of the organizers
and first officers of the Society were from the upper Monongahela Valley, and
there, as a consequence, the majority of its members are still to be found. The
result has been that following lines of least resistance most of the meetings

have been held at Clarksburg or at Fairmont, and the failure of members living
at a distance from the place of meeting to attend has made the Society some-
what provincial. Even at the risk of a smaller attendance we, this year, decided
to reach out, and if the Wheeling members would not come over into our valley,
we would take the meeting to them. We hope the wisdom of our decision will
be established bjr renewed interest hereafter on the part of the Wheeling
members.

The objects of the State Society as expressed in its Constitution,
1 ' are social, educational and patriotic ; and the society is formed for
the particular pm'pose of perpetuating the memory of the men who in
the military, naval and civic service of the Colonies and of the Contin-
ental Congress achieved the Independence of the Country ; and to fur-
ther the proper celebration of the anniversaries of the birthday of
Washington, and prominent events connected with the war of the Rev-
olution ; to collect and secure for preservation the manuscripts, records,
and other documents of that period; to inspire the members of the
society with the patriotic spirit of their forefathers; and to promote
the feeling of fellowship among its members."

The object of the Society is not, as some may imagine, to indulge in pride
of ancestry, or to establish exclusive organizations with a membership depend-
ent upon the deeds of forefathers for its own distinction, but rather to encour-
age and stimulate a desire for knowledge of the problems which were pre-
sented to, and the circumstances which confronted our revolutionary fore-
fathers; study their courage and wisdom in council and their valor in war,
which resulted in the establishment of a Republic, the most potent in the history
of the world. To perpetuate their achievements by reducing the result of that
study to writing, and marking the places of historical interest that those of
future generations as well as ourselves may receive the stimulating effect of
their noble examples.

The illumination of the past is useless unless its rays are made to penetrate
ftito the present, bestowing guidance and confidence. The records of our fore-
fathers, therefore, are brought forth and published to the world, chiefly to
stimulate ourselves to like courage and devotion should occasion arise.

The celebration today is of peculiar significance. Questions, second only
in importance to those which confronted Washington, are before us. The nation
is entering upon a career of influence and beneficence of which even Washing-
ton never dreamed. Questions of government involving the rights of men, the
responsibilities of the strong in their relations to the weak, the promulgation
of freedom without license, are problems facing the American people today.
We are now a world power, whether we will it or not, and the force of events
during the last four years has extended the responsibilities of the United States
to every continent on the globe. From a position of isolation we have suddenly
become a leader — yes, almost the leader of the world.

During the events of the past four years every thinking man and woman
must have been impressed by the enormity and the gravity of the problems

with which our present Chief Executive has been forced to grapple — problems
which demanded of him many of the great qualities which distinguished our
first President. These problems involved a steady adherence to what is right,
a lofty patriotism sinking the individual in the consideration of the public
good. Firmness before the enemy, bouyancy and strength before friends, and
humility before the Creator who disposes of all things. These are elements of
character which not only distinguished George Washington, but our present
Chief Executive as well, and has made Woodrow Wilson a great leader amongst
great leaders during the present momentous conferences in Paris.

Of the living we may not speak too freely, but every act and sentiment
of him "who by his unwearied exertions in the cabinet and in the field achieved
for us the glorious revolution" is ours for contemplation and comment. In a
society having for its purpose the study of the great cause which he so nobly
led, it is peculiarly fitting that we should study his life and celebrate his
natal day.

The late Senator John W. Daniels of Virginia once said, "Alone in its
grandeur stands forth the character of Washington in history; alone like some
peak that has no fellow in the mountain range of greatness."

"Washington," says Guizot, "did the two greatest things which in politics
it is permitted to man to attempt. He maintained by peace the independence
of his country which he had conquered by war. He founded a free government
in the name of the principles of order and by re-establishing their sway. ' '

Washington did indeed do these things. But he did more. Out of dis-
connected fragments he molded a whole and made it a country. He achieved
his country's independence by the sword. He maintained that independence
by peace as by war. He finally established both his country and its freedom
in an enduring frame of constitutional government, fashioned to make Liberty
and Union one and inseparable.

These four things together constitute fthe unexampled achievement of
Washington. The world has ratified the remark of Fisher Ames that "he
changed man's ideas of political greatness."

It has approved the opinion of Edward Everett, that "he was the greatest
of good men and the best of great men."

It is a matter of fact today, as when General Hamilton, announcing his
death to the army, said, "The voice of praise would in vain endeavor to exalt
a name unrivaled in the lists of true glory."

America still proclaims him as did Colonel Henry Lee, on the floor of the
House of Representatives, the man "first in war, first in peace, first in the
hearts of his countrymen."

Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays both come in the month of February
and are both legal holidays. Never since the creation of man were two human
beings so unlike, so nearly extremes or opposed to each other as Washington and
Lincoln. The one an aristocrat by birth, by breeding and association; the
other in every sense and by every surrounding a Democrat. As the richest
man in America, a large slave holder, the possessor of an enormous landed
estate and the leader and representative of the property and the culture and

the colleges of the Colonial period, Washington stood for the conservation and
preservation of law and order. He could be a revolutionist and pledge his life
and fortune and honor for the principles which in his judgment safeguarded
the rights and liberties of his country. But in the construction of the Republic
and in the formation of its institutions, and in the critical period of experiment
until they could get in working order, he gave to them and implanted in them
conservative elements which are found in no other system of government. And
yet, millionaire, slave holder and aristocrat in its best sense, that he was all his
life ; so at any time he would have died for the immortal principle put by the
Puritans in their charter adopted in the cabin of the "Mayflower" and re-
enacted in the Declaration of Independence, of the equality of all men before
the law, and of the equal opportunity for all to rise.

Lincoln, on the other hand, was born in a cabin among that class known
as poor whites in slaveholding times, wTho held and could hold no position, and
whose condition was so hopeless as to paralyze ambition and effort. His situa-
tion, so far as his surroundings were concerned, had considerable mental, but
no moral improvement by the removal to Indiana, and subsequently to Illinois.
Airywhere in Europe a man born amid such an environment and teachings, and
possessed of unconquerable energy, eloquence and constructive statesmanship,
would have been a socialist, and the leader of a social revolt. He might
have been an anarchist such as Lenine, Trotsky, Liebnich or Rosa Luxem-
burg. His one ambition would have been, as is theirs, to break the crust above
him and shatter it to pieces. He would see otherwise no opportunity for him-
self and his fellows in social or political or professional life. But Lincoln
attained from the log cabin of the poor white in the wilderness the same posi-
tion which Washington reached from his palatial mansion and baronial estate
on the Potomac. He made the same fight, unselfishly, patriotically and grandly
for the preservation of the Republic that Washington had made for its creation
and foundation.

Widely as they were separated, these two heroes of the two first great
crisis of our national life stand together in representing solvent powers, in-
spiring processes and the hopeful opportunities of American liberty. The one
coming from the top and the other from the bottom to the presidency of the
United States, the leadership of the people, the building up of government and
the reconstruction of States; they superbly illustrate the fact that under our
institutions there is neither place nor time for Bolshevism, Socialism or Anarch-
ism in America; but there is a place and a time always, notwithstanding the
discouragement of origin or of youth, for grit, pluck, ambition, honesty and
brains.

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