454 Presidential Addresses 



Ohio, which was crossed by a military force carry- 

 ing the American flag for the first time when a 

 son of Virginia, George Rogers Clark, led his little 

 band of backwoods riflemen to conquer what is now 

 the heart of this Republic, and that in the middle 

 of the Revolutionary War. Then I crossed the 

 Mississippi and went through that great region of 

 prairie, plain, and mountain, now dotted with cities, 

 each filled with the fruits of our material civ- 

 ilization, cities placed upon spots which were un- 

 known to any map maker but a century ago; thence 

 to the Pacific Ocean, I went through the regions 

 which mark the two greatest territorial expansions of 

 this Nation ; the greatest of which,, by the fact of its 

 acquisition, is in itself a tribute most to that man 

 who founded this University President Thomas 

 Jefferson and which was explored by two Vir- 

 ginians born not far from this neighborhood 

 Lewis and Clark. When I got south of the limits 

 of the old Louisiana Purchase I came into that region 

 acquired as the result of the Mexican War the 

 region in territorial extent next to the Louisiana 

 Purchase; and in that war the two foremost figures 

 were men likewise born in Virginia Zachary Tay- 

 lor and Winfield Scott. 



Virginia has always rightly prided herself upon 

 the character of the men whom she has sent into 

 public life. No more wonderful example of govern- 

 mental ability, ability in statecraft and public admin- 

 istration, has ever been given than by the history of 

 Virginia's sons in public life. I feel that this Uni- 



