282 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



$8,000 which the queen realized upon her jewels and 

 loaned to the poor discoverer. The fruit of the $8,000 

 investment was the greatest yield that man has ever 

 known. The exposition to commemorate the event cost 

 more than $30,000,000. When Spain was in the zenith of 

 her power under Philip her annual revenues were only 

 $20,000,000. The Chicago exposition cost a year and a 

 half's income of Spain in the days of the Armada. Queen 

 Elizabeth's income was only $4,000,000, or one-fourth 

 that of Spain. 



On an occasion of this kind the soldiers and sailors liv- 

 ing or dead of our country always take an important 

 place. From 1776 the veterans of Valley Forge and 

 Yorktown handed down the torch of liberty and patriot- 

 ism to those of 1812. The soldiers of the Indian wars 

 passed it on to the heroes of the Mexican War and they 

 in their turn to our country's defenders in 1861. We had 

 begun to wonder if the spirit of the past had died out 

 when the war of 1898 gave the opportunity to show that 

 the boys of today are worthy sons of their patriotic sires. 



In our past history there was one great blight which 

 brought to our people more misery than any other thing 

 in our history, and that was the institution of human 

 slavery. When Kosciusko made his will he gave all his 

 salary as an officer in the American army as a trust fund 

 to be used in the purchase and granting of freedom to 

 American negro slaves. But Colonel Coddington, an 

 English philanthropist, took another view of the subject. 

 He devised a plantation in Jamaica with all its slaves in 

 trust as a permanent fund, the slaves to be worked by 

 suitable overseers and the proceeds of this enforced la- 

 bor expended on the spread of Christianity. 



But now this institution so strongly intrenched in so 

 many lands has practically disappeared. Brazil has freed 

 her slaves and Russia has abandoned her ancient policy 



