And State Papers 419 



FROM ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE 

 CORNERSTONE OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK 

 MEMORIAL, PORTLAND, ORE., MAY 21, 1903 



Mr. Mayor, and you, my Fellow-Citizens: 



We come here to-day to lay a cornerstone of a 

 monument that is to call to mind the greatest sin- 

 gle pioneering feat on this continent, the voyage 

 across the continent by Lewis and Clark, which 

 rounded out the ripe statesmanship of Jefferson and 

 his fellows by giving to the United States all of the 

 domain between the Mississippi and the Pacific. Fol- 

 lowing their advent came the reign of the fur trade ; 

 and then some sixty years ago those entered in 

 whose children and children's children were to pos- 

 sess the land. Across the continent in the early 40*5 

 came the ox-drawn white-topped wagons bearing the 

 pioneers, the stalwart, sturdy, sunburned men, with 

 their wives and their little ones, who entered into 

 this country to possess it. You have built up here 

 this wonderful commonwealth, a commonwealth 

 great in its past, and infinitely greater in its future. 

 It was a pleasure to me to-day to have as part of 

 my escort the men of the Second Oregon, who car- 

 ried on the expansion of our people beyond the 

 Pacific as your fathers had carried it on to the Pa- 

 cific. Speaking to you here I do not have to ask 

 you to face the future high of heart and confident of 

 soul. You could not assume any other attitude and 

 be true to your blood, true to the position in which 

 you find yourselves on this continent. I speak to 



