Repoet of Board of General Managers. 13 



creation, its magnitude, its location, its architecture, and its striking and 

 enduring features v/ill be American. The city in which it is held, taking 

 rank among the first cities in the world after an existence of only fifty 

 years, is American. The great inland fresh water sea whose waves will 

 dash against the shores of Jackson Park is American. The prairie 

 extending westward with its thousands of square miles of land, a half 

 century ago a wilderness but to-day gridironed with railroads, spanned 

 with webs of electric wires, rich in prosperous farms, growing villages, 

 ambitious cities, and an energetic, educated and progressive people, is 

 purely American. 



The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 celebrated the first one hundred 

 years of the independence of the republic of the United States. The 

 Columbian Exposition celebrates the discovery of a continent which has 

 become the home of peoples of every race, the refuge of those persecuted 

 on accjount of their devotion to civil and religious liberty, and the revolu- 

 tionary factor in the affairs of the earth, a discovery which has accom- 

 plished more for humanity in its material, its intellectual, and its spiritual 

 aspects than all other events since the advent of Christ. 



Introduced by Mr. Depew, Hon. John Boyd Thacher spoke as 

 follows : 



Our nation is charged with the celebration of the Columbian dis- 

 covery because we have best enjoyed its heritage. That discovery was 

 meant for mankind. Two events first catch our eye in the 400 years of 

 authentic history made in the New World. The one is the planting of 

 the cross on Watlings Island in 1492. The other is the planting of the 

 standard of American liberty in Philadelphia in I'TVG. The two events 

 were remote from each other in time and distant in scene. The actors 

 were of different blood. The first not only made the second possible but 

 determined its action. 



It is with the chief actor in the first event that we have to do just 

 now. What manner of man is this our Columbus ? We have of him 

 four and forty distinct portraits. Each is a type. No two of these 

 resemble each other. He is in mail and in silken hose ; he is mild and he 

 is fierce ; he is freckled like a country lad, and he is bearded like the 

 pard ; he has the bewildered look of one who never had a compass, and 

 he has the eye through which alone destiny looks. You and 1 can draw 

 him as we like. If your Columbus is only a searcher after shining gold 

 he is a splendid wretch. If your Columbus is only a capturer of harmless 

 heathens to drag them after the car of religion he is a pious trifler. A 

 man is no better than he makes his heroes. The God who makes mers 



