CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.



   It is, indeed, an enchanting story of human skill and
 fortitude, of brave endeavor and crafty maneuver, of re-
 lentless attack and fierce retort, of ceaseless vigilance and
 endless danger-all mellowed by the golden sheen of wifely
 love and womanly devotion, and glorified by the noble
 destinies involved.
   It has been told over and over to unwearied ears. It has
 never lost its fresh attraction and never will.
   I have chosen a theme less attractive than the deeds of
 war and scout. I have come to draw other pictures than
 the fierce contests in brake and forest between Boone and
 Kenton and Logan and Hardin and Todd and their com-
 rades, and the brave and skillful though cruel Indian. To
 other and more eloquent tongues I resign this delightful
 labor.
   The task allotted to me is to re-state somewhat of the
debt that good order and free government owe to these
brave fighters of the forest, who were builders more than
warriors, and that which they builded were STATES. Like
those who re-builded Jerusalem after the captivity, they
were warriors only because they could not otherwise build.
Wall and city and temple must be builded, even if they
which builded on the wall, and they that bore burdens with
those that laded, every one had with one of his hands to
labor, and with the other hold a weapon. It is as builders
that I desire this day to honor these fathers, and as we
renew our love for that edifice, whose foundations they laid,
we give new utterance to our grateful admiration of them.
  The American Revolution did not open suddenly nor
unexpectedly. The beginnings of that revolt were years
before, and the mutterings of the storm were heard by
thoughtful observers long before the cloud appeared on the
horizon. As early as 1763 the King desired to limit the
-growth of the Colonies west of the Alleghanies, and to con-
fine the increase to the narrow scope between the moun-
rtain range and the sea-coast, most of which was accessible