Music . . . Innes Band.
Invocation . . . Rev. John McQuoid
Address . . . . President Gurdon W. Wattles
Address . . . . President William McKinley
Music . . . Innes Band
Address . . . . Post Master General
Charles Emory Smith
Music . . . Innes Band.
SPEECHES
"Our hearts are filled with gratitude and thanksgiving today because of the welcome return of peace to our nation. We meet to celebrate the victories of our arms and to rejoice that the clouds of war have passed and that the sunbeams of peace again bathe our beloved land I voice the sentiment of all the inhabitants of our country in expressions of welcome and heartfelt greetings to our beloved President, our honored guest today. If I could gather from the hearts of our people the love and adoration they feel for him, and present it, like sweet flowers in tangible form, I might in a faint degree offer a welcome worthy of the occasion. Words fail to express and language cannot convey the joy and gratitude we feel that the President of this great nation, accompanied by members of his cabinet, by representatives of foreign countries, by great generals of the army and navy, and by many others distinguished in the councils of the nations, have come to join with us in this celebration.
At no more fitting place, than here in the center of our territory surrounded by such magnificent evidences of the arts of peace, could this celebration be held. No better illustration of the greatness and power of our people can be found than the demonstration here made. During the progress of our recent war we have been celebrating here the triumphs and achievements of our people on the peaceful pursuits of the principal industries of the nation.
Aided by generous legislation of Congress the departments of state and the functions of our government have been illustrated in the beautiful building which adorns the Court of Honor of this exposition. By the same beneficent legislation a congress of the Indian tribes, which once inhabited this region, has been assembled on these grounds. These representatives of a fast-fading race, which for many years contested by war and massacre the westward march of civilization, now dwell in peace and contentment and daily celebrate their rites and victories, surrounded by the triumphs of civilization.
The people of the North and the South have mingled here and have pledged anew the patriotism and love which now binds with bonds of steel all sections of their common country. With the inspiring music of "Dixie" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" they have celebrated together under the stars and stripes of the united nation each victory of her arms on land and sea.
With peace, prosperity, happiness and contentment throughout the land we meet to rejoice and celebrate the triumphs of our arms in a war waged for humanity. All honor to our soldiers and sailors, who, with bravery and valor unknown to history, defeated with signal victories our foreign foe. All praise to their gallant commanders, who led the way and planted the stars and stripes on distant isles as a symbol of liberty and love, which will forever guarantee the blessings of freedom of God. All Hail to the chief, who inspired by God of pity, love and justice, proclaimed that cruelty and oppression could no longer be tolerated and must forever be banished from the isles along our shores. All Hail to the chief who sent to a suffering people the aid of a mighty nation. All Hail to our President, our guest and our ruler. Hail! Hail!
President McKinley spoke as follows:
It is with genuine pleasure that I meet once more the people of Omaha, whose wealth of welcome is not altogether unfamiliar to me and whose warm hearts have before touched and moved me. For this renewed manifestation of your regard and for the cordial reception of today my heart responds with profound gratitude and a deep appreciation which I cannot conceal, and which the language of compliment is inadequate to convey. My greeting is not alone to your city and the state of Nebraska but to the people of all the states of the transmississippi group participating here, and I cannot withhold congratulations on the evidences of their prosperity furnished by this great exposition. If testimony were needed to establish the fact that their pluck has not deserted them and that prosperity is again with them it is found here. This picture dispels all doubt.
In an age of expositions they have added yet another magnificent example. The historical celebrations at Philadelphia and Chicago, and the splendid exhibits at New Orleans, Atlanta, and Nashville, are now a part of the past, and yet in influence they still live, and their beneficent results are closely interwoven with our national development. Similar rewards will honor the authors and patrons of the Transmississippi and International Exposition. Their contribution will mark another epoch in the nation's material advancement.
One of the great laws of life is progress, and nowhere have the principles of this law been so strikingly illustrated as in the United States. A century and a decade of our national life have turned doubt into conviction; changed experiment into demonstration; revolutionized old methods and won new triumphs which have challenged the attention of the world. This is true not only of the accumulation of material wealth and advance in education, science, invention and manufactures, but above all in the opportunities to the people for their own elevation which have been secured by wise free government.
Hitherto, in peace and in war, with additions to our territory and slight changes in our laws, we have steadily enforced the spirit of the constitution secured to us by the noble self-sacrifice and far-seeing sagacity of our ancestors. We have avoided the temptations of conquest in the spirit of gain. With an increasing love for our institutions and an abiding faith in their stability, we have made the triumphs of our system of government in the progress and the prosperity of our people an inspiration to the whole human race. Confronted at this moment by new and grave problems, we must recognize that their solution will affect not ourselves alone but others of the family of nations.
In this age of frequent interchange and mutual dependency, we cannot shirk our international responsibilities if we would; they must be met with courage and wisdom and we must follow duty even if desire opposes. No deliberation can be too mature, or self-control too constant, in this solemn hour of our history. We must avoid the temptation of undue aggression, and aim to secure only such results as will promote our own and the general good.
It has been said by some one that the normal condition of nations is war. That is not true of the United States. We never enter upon war until every effort for peace without it has been exhausted. Ours has never been a military government. Peace, with whose blessings we have been so singularly favored, is the national desire, and the goal of every American aspiration.
On the 25th of April, for the first time for more than a generation, the United States sounded the call to arms. The banners of war were unfurled; the best and bravest from every section responded; a mighty army was enrolled; the north and the south vied with each other in patriotic devotion; science was invoked to furnish its most effective weapons; factories were rushed to supply equipment; the youth and the veteran joined in freely offering their services to their country; volunteers and regulars and all the people rallied to the support of the republic. There was no break in the line, no halt in the march, no fear in the heart. No resistance to the patriotic impulse at home, no successful resistance to the patriotic spirit of the troops fighting in distant waters or on a foreign shore!
What a wonderful experience it has been from the standpoint of patriotism and achievement! The storm broke so suddenly that it was here almost before we realized it. Our navy was too small, though forceful with its modern equipment and most fortunate in its trained officers and sailors. Our army had years ago been reduced to a peace footing. We had only 19,000 available troops when the war was declared, but the account which officers and men gave of themselves on the battlefields has never been surpassed. The manhood was there and everywhere. American patriotism was there and its resources were limitless. The courageous and invincible spirit of the people proved glorious, and those who a little more than a third of a third of a century ago were divided and at war with each other were again united under the holy standard of liberty. Patriotism banished party feeling; $50,000,000 for the national defense was appropriated without debate or division, as a matter of course, and as only a mere indication of our mighty reserve power.
But if this is true of the beginning of the war, what shall we say of it now, with hostilities suspended, and peace near at hand, as we fervently hope? Matchless in its results! Unequaled in its completeness and the quick succession with which victory follow victory! Attained earlier than it was believed to be possible; so comprehensive in its sweep that every thoughtful man feels the weight of responsibility which has been so suddenly thrust upon us. And above all and beyond all, the valor of the American army and the bravery of the American navy and the majesty of the American name stand forth in unsullied glory, while the humanity of our purposes and the magnanimity of our conduct have given to war, always horrible, touches of noble generosity, Christian sympathy and charity, and examples of human grandeur which can never be lost to mankind. Passion and bitterness formed no part of our impelling motive, and it is gratifying to feel that humanity triumphed at every step of the war's progress.
The heroes of Manila and Santiago and Porto Rico have made immortal history. They are worthy successors and descendants of Washington, and Greene; of Paul Jones, Decatur and Hull, and of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Logan; of Farragut, Porter and Cushing, and of Lee, Jackson and Longstreet.
New names stand out on the honor roll of the nation's great men and with them unnamed stand the heroes of the trenches and the forecastle, invincible in battle and uncomplaining in death. The intelligent, loyal, indomitable soldier and sailor and marine regular and volunteer, are entitled to equal praise as having done their whole duty whether at home or under the baptism of foreign fire.
Who will dim the splendor of their achievements? Who will withhold from them their well-earned distinction! Who will intrude detraction at this time to belittle the manly spirit of the American youth and impair the usefulness of the American army? Who will embarrass the government by sowing deeds of dissatisfaction among the brave men who stand ready to serve and die, if need be, for their country! Who will darken the counsels of the republic in this hour requiring the united wisdom of all!
Shall we deny to ourselves what the rest of the world so freely and so justly accord to us? The men who endured in the short but decisive struggle its hardships, its privations, whether in field or camp, on ship or in the siege, and planned and achieved its victories, will never tolerate impeachment, either direct or indirect, of those who won a peace whose great gain to civilization is yet unknown and unwritten.
The faith of a Christian nation recognizes the hand of Almighty God in the ordeal through which we have passed. Divine favor seemed manifest everywhere. In fighting for humanity's sake we have been signally blessed. We did not seek war. To avoid it if this could be done in justice and honor to the rights of our neighbors and ourselves was our constant prayer. The war was no more invited by us than were the questions which are laid at our door by its results. Now, as then, we will do our duty. The problems will not be solved in a day. patience will be required; patience combined with sincerity of purpose and unshaken resolution to do right, seeking only the highest good of the nation and recognizing no other obligation, pursuing no other path but that of duty.
Right action follows right purpose. We may not at all times be able to divine the future, the way may not always seem clear; but if our aims are high and unselfish, somehow and in some way the right end will be reached. The genius of the nation, its freedom, its wisdom, its humanity, its courage, its justice, favored by Divine Providence, will make it equal to every task and the master of every emergency." [SR]
L. S. Gates of Iowa drops dead while giving speech at Expo. Mr. Gates stopped part way through his speech saying, "I'll have to quit", and slumped into his chair. It was thought he had fainted, but he had been stricken with apoplexy and died 15 minutes later. [EB]