GOLDEN GATE DISTRICT FAIR ASSOCIATION. 195 



scarce an alteration — with none that affected the spirit and character 

 of that immortal instrument, and with but few that changed in the 

 slightest degree its verbal construction — they published that exposi- 

 tion of human rights to the world as their declaration of American 

 independence, pledging to each other their lives, their fortunes, and 

 their sacred honor, in support of the truths it proclaims. This was 

 the grandest, the most important experiment ever undertaken in the 

 history of man. But they that entered upon it were not afraid of 

 new experiments, if founded on immutable principles of right, and 

 approved by the sober conviction of reason. There were not wanting 

 then — there are not wanting now — pale counselors to fear, who would 

 have withheld them from the course they were pursuing, because it 

 tended in a direction hitherto untried. But they were not to be 

 directed by the shadowy doubts and timid suggestions of craven 

 spirits, content to be lashed forever round the same circle of misera- 

 ble expedients, perpetually trying anew the exploded shifts which 

 had always proved lamentably inadequate before. 



To such men the very name of experiment is a sound of terror. It 

 is a spell which conjures up gorgeous hydras, chimeras dire. 



They seem to know all that is valuable in life — that the acquisi- 

 tions of learning, the discoveries of science, and the refinements of 

 art — are the results of experiment. It was experiment that bestowed 

 on Cadmus those keys of knowledge with which he unlocked the 

 treasure houses of the immortal mind. It was experiment that 

 taught Bacon the fertility of the Grecian philosophy, and led him to 

 that heaven-scaling method of investigation and analysis on which 

 science has safely climbed to that proud eminence where she now 

 sits, dispensing her blessings on mankind. It was experiment that 

 lifted Newton above the clouds and darkness of this visible and diur- 

 nal sphere, enabling him to explore the sublime mechanism of the 

 stars, and weigh the planets in the palm of his hand. It was experi- 

 ment that nerved the hand of Franklin to snatch the thunderbolt 

 from the armory of heaven, and decoy the lightning into an old- 

 fashioned whisky bottle, and shut the door and tame it so that it 

 was at the command of science. It was experiment that gave this 

 hemisphere to the world. It was experiment that gave these United 

 ♦States to freedom. 



And it will be experiment that will bring twenty million acres of 

 land in California, now considered worthless, under a high state of 

 cultivation, which will give one hundred and sixty acres to each one 

 hundred and twenty-five thousand honest farmers, who are now 

 houseless and landless, and manifesting signs of discontent because 

 of the wolf smelling around their doors, and the cries of their chil- 

 dren, at the setting of the sun and his first coming in the morning. I 

 say with a few 7 hundred thousand dollars judiciously expended, vast 

 areas of land can be made happy homes for the landless and the 

 poor. And nothing in my opinion will ever consummate this laudable 

 enterprise, save the constant agitation of appeals for the poor man 

 through our system of District Fairs. In order to accomplish this 

 there must be a concert of action. And how else can you devise it 

 only through our State and District Fairs? 



I recognize the sovereignty of man capable of accomplishing great 

 results. The dominion is a noble, 'it is a vast, it is a varied one. 

 Here in this pavilion are proofs of man's sovereignty over mind and 



