BR ECKINRTI)GE COUNTY.



and in the days to come, some English-speaking orator will,
on that very spot, recount the sad and melting story.
  I venture to add, that the children of these pioneers have
been worthy of their sires. Buena Vista and Mexico, the
sad but glorious fields of the late unhappy war, bore im-
perishable testimony that those who fell at Kings Mountain
and conquered at Yorktown, who wrestled with Indian foe
and died at Blue Licks, were no braver men or stouter sol-
diers than their grandsons who fell with their feet to the foe
and their faces to heaven.
  And as the foundation and development of the States of
the West and the Southwest and of the Pacific slope are
told, familiar Kentucky names fall, on our pleased ears; and
the sons, like the fathers, are builders of States. My coun-
trymen, this is the peculiar destiny of our race. As I recall
all Kentucky has done for mankind and liberty, and realize
all she is to-day, my heart thrills with thanksgiving that my
lot was cast with her. But it is not because my horizon
is limited by her eastern hills or western river; nay, but
because I take in the wide sweep of my contemplation the
leadership that our race has in the world's progress, and for
my country we claim the head of that column.
  As I look once more at the universal map, and see what
part Great Britain and America bear in all that adds to the
good of man and gives glory to God; as I try to imagine
what added power will be given by another hundred years
to this English-speaking race, I rejoice that our State and
our kinsmen have done their full share in all of the past, and
are doing it in the present. A pure, yet free religion, lib-
erty regulated by law, order protected by the love of the
free, chaste homes where open Bibles and virtuous women
shed the blended radiance of heaven and earth on the
children of those who have conquered every foe who op-
posed the onward march of these lofty and pervasive ideas-
these conservative and peaceful influences, these irresistible
agencies for good-give assurance that the future of this
race will be fruitful in blessing.



39