ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 305 



missionary of the thought of those with whom he has so 

 intimately associated in early life. 



The career of President Roosevelt is an illustration of 

 the effect of such training as Harvard affords. Though 

 of Dutch ancestry, our President had the environment of 

 New England at the formative period of his life. We 

 can say of him in the language of the breezy West, ''He 

 is as straight as a gun-barrel and clean as a hound's 

 tooth." 



The Pilgrims landed in 1620 and only seventeen years 

 thereafter, in 1637, Harvard College was founded. They 

 did not wait. They recognized at once the value of seats 

 of learning. These ancestors of yours builded better 

 than they knew. 



In the early days there were many conflicting claims to 

 the great West. Virginia asserted title to the Northwest 

 Territory and Massachusetts and Connecticut laid claim 

 to everything west of them to the setting sun. Most of 

 Michigan was in Massachusetts, and the present site of 

 Chicago was in Connecticut. 



The subsequent compromises in regard to the public 

 domain relieved the future Chicago and Connecticut of 

 much trouble. I am not sure whether Chicago would 

 have been in Connecticut or Connecticut in Chicago. With 

 characteristic thrift Connecticut saved out of her claims 

 the Western Reserve in Ohio, so that William McKinley 

 and William B. Allison were born on what has been Con- 

 necticut soil. 



The anti-slavery crusade in New England changed the 

 history of this nation. 



It is hard to realize that only forty-six years ago old 

 John Brown was captured at Harper's Ferry by the 

 United States forces under Captain Robert E. Lee and by 

 Virginia troops under Stonewall Jackson. Death and im- 

 mortality had an appointment of martyrdom for John 



