Honors for Amundsen 



6 9 



Dr McGee outlined the objects of the 

 Commission, and referred to the fact that 

 the present agitation to make our rivers 

 more useful to the country is the third 

 waterway movement in our history ; the 

 second, directed by Albert Gallatin and 

 encouraged by Thomas Jefferson (then 

 Secretary of State and President, respec- 

 tively) 99 years ago, unhappily came to 

 naught ; but the first agitation, started by 

 George Washington on the Potomac 

 River, led directly to the Annapolis Con- 

 ference of 1786, and thence to the Con- 

 stitutional Convention of 120 years ago, 

 in which the Nation found being. 



The toastmaster then introduced Mr 

 Goulder as follows : 



Some years ago a young man living in 

 the Lake region conceived the idea that 

 he would like to study for the profession 

 of the law. Did he enter a law school? 

 No. He shipped before the mast. He 

 sailed for two years on a sailing vessel, 

 learning every rope and part of its mech- 

 anism. From stoker to captain he learned 

 all the various duties of navigating a 

 great steamship, and then he began the 

 study of law, and in course of time be- 

 came the great admiralty lawyer of the 

 Lake region. He knows all the sailing 

 courses ; he knows every port and harbor 

 in the Great Lake region, no matter how 

 small, and is himself interested in vessel 

 properties. I shall ask the Hon. Harvey 

 Goulder, of Cleveland, to respond to the 

 toast of the "Five Inland Seas." 



THE FIVE INLAND SEAS. BY HON. HARVEY 

 GOULDER 



You have given me a topic, fit subject 

 for a volume, embracing as it does the 

 grandest industrial help to a nation and 

 to the world which history presents. No 

 man may contemplate the use of the Great 

 Lakes, the five inland seas, and their far- 

 reaching effect, without being inspired 

 with greater courage for the future of 

 his own environment. 



Geographically speaking, these five 

 great inland seas, with their river con- 



TPIE HEAD OF AN ESKIMO ElSHING SPEAR 



The fisherman thrusts the weapon across the 

 fish's body, which is held by the three 

 prongs. 



nections and outlet, constitute the St. 

 Lawrence system. With the exception 

 of Lake Michigan they mark or line the 

 boundary between us and our friendly 

 and vigorous neighbor for some 1,800 

 miles. 



In 1836 the state of Ohio and the ter- 

 ritory of Michigan nearly came to blows 

 about the dividing line between them and 

 in the proposed compromise Michigan re- 

 jected the upper peninsula as worthless, 

 but she afterwards accepted it. In 1840, 

 when on application of Michigan a bill 

 was before Congress for a land grant 

 to aid the building of a lock to overcome 

 the 19 foot drop in water level at Sault 

 Ste. Marie, Henry Clay said in a speech, 

 which defeated the particular bill, "it is 

 a work quite beyond the remotest settle- 

 ment of the United States, if not in the 

 moon." 



It was in 1871, when application was 

 made for a land grant to aid a railroad 

 from the twin cities at the head of the 

 Mississippi, to the head of Lake Superior, 



