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Souvenir booklet of the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the Lewis and Clark Monument on May 21, 1903, for the Lewis and Clark Exposition held in Portland, Oregon in 1905.
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paging af tiro (Homor-Stono
of ite
fruits and Clark lllcmtmrnt
Trmdont af llio United States
Tnrtferiri, ©rrgan
IBad 21, 1903
SOUVENIR
OF THE
LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE
OF THE
LEWIS AND CLARK MONUMENT
IN THE CITY PARK, PORTLAND, OREGON BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES THURSDAY, MAY 21st, 1903
ISSUED BY
LEWIS AND CLARK CENTENNIAL AND AMERICAN PACIFIC EXPOSITION AND ORIENTAL FAIR
PRESS AND PUBLICITY BUREAU
19 0 3
BUSHONG A CO., PORTLAND, OREGON. 72127
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY I. LEESER COHEN, PORTLAND
Mt. Hood, Oregon, from the Sandy River
't'HE laying of the corner-stone of the monument to Levois and Clark, in the City Park of Portland, Oregon, by President Pposevelt, on cMay 21, 1903, marked the formal beginning of a patriotic enterprise by the people of the Pacific chfgrthvoest to commemorate the achievements of the tvoo greatest American explorers. It voas part of the preliminaries for the celebration to take place in 1905 of the 100th anniversary of the exploration of the Oregon Country. On a commanding site overlooking the junction of the Willamette and Columbia Pivers and historic Fort Vancouver, the building of this monument voas inaugurated voith simple ceremonies. President Poosevelt delivered a brief address, deeply significant of the occasion.
President Roosevelt Returning a Salute Porland, May 21 , 1903
COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY A. F. ELLIS
THE PRESIDENT WELCOMED TO PORTLAND
The President, upon arriving in Portland, was escorted to the City Park by United States soldiers, National Guardsmen, Civil and Spanish War veterans and civic organizations formed in parade. At the City Park, Hon. George H. Williams, Mayor of Portland, delivered the address of welcome in behalf of the City. He said:
Mr. President: On behalf of the people of Portland and as their official representative, I extend to yon a cordial and hearty welcome to this city. When the Chief Magistrate of the Nation comes from the Capitol to meet and greet us at our homes we not only feel highly honored by his visit, but proud of that freedom of intercourse and spirit of equality which exists between the people and their highest representative in the Government.
Experience seems to indicate that political parties are necessary to defend the Constitution, protect the liberties of the people and uphold the rights of the states, and every Presidential election involves a struggle for supremacy in the control of the Government, but when the election is over, the votes canvassed and the successful candidate inaugurated, all parties join hands in
maintaining the dignity, honor and power of the Presidential office We are all Republicans and all Democrats when we receive the President of the United States. To see and hear one who is the successor in office of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant is to bring before our minds by association the greatest men and the greatest events of our history. To see and hear the Chief Executive of the Republic is to see and hear one who impersonates the greatness, power and glory of more than 80,000,000 of people. Our citizens in times of peace have no way of expressing their patriotism in a more significant manner than by paying their respects to the President when they are given the opportunity to meet him.
You are now, Mr. President, more than 3000 miles from your official home in Washington City, but you are still among your neighbors and friends whose numbers are only limited by the boundaries of the Republic. Whenever the President of the United States journeys through the country geographical distinctions and state differences disappear, and a new impression of our national unity is made upon the hearts of the people. Your reception here with music, banners and decorations is only a part of that continuous ovation which has accompanied you across the Continent, in which the people have not only expressed their admiration for a distinguished statesman and soldier, but their gratitude and joy
Hotel Portland Decorated in Honor of President Roosevelt's Visit
that we are one people with one flag and one President whose duty it is to defend that flag wherever it floats over the land or over the sea. This great outpouring of people sufficiently indicates that we are greatly pleased with your visit to us. Oregon is somewhat removed from the political center of the country and is not favored with as many opportunities to see those who fill the high offices of the Government as some of the older states, and therefore the greater our appreciation of such opportunities when they do occur.
Eastern people who depend upon what they read and hear for information have an inadequate idea of the territorial breadth and extent of our country, and no one can form a correct opinion upon that subject who has not traveled as you have from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. There is a special and far-reaching significance in your present visit to Portland. Now and here the President of the United States lays the corner-stone of a monument to one of the most eventful and romantic features of American history. This monument, when erected, will not only commemorate the exploration of the Oregon country by Lewis and Clark in 1805, but it will also commemorate the fact that Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, laid its chief corner-stone in 1903.
All our surroundings befit this imposing ceremony. Spread out at your feet is a prosperous and beautiful city of more than 100,000 people, with a river like a silver ribbon running through
its heart; beyond are the dark forests and green fields, and farther on the snow-covered mountains, all clad in the royal robes of Spring, as if to embellish the people's welcome to the people's President. Notwithstanding we are today surrounded by all the activities of a strenuous civilization, this occasion reminds us of a time, comparatively a few years ago, when this country was described as a far-distant, dreamy land of solitude, "Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound save his own dashings."
Permit me to say, Mr. President, that our young state is rapidly rising into an influential position in the family of states. Streams of population are pouring into her borders. Our diversified resources and commercial advantages, and especially the uniform temperature and mildness of our climate, are going to make Oregon one of the most popular states in the Union. That those who make and execute our laws should have some personal knowledge of our situation is most desirable, for then they can judge better of our needs and our claims upon the consideration of the Government.
May we hope, Mr. President, that among the reminiscences of your journey to the Pacific Coast you may recall your visit to our state with pleasant impressions, among which you can reckon the high regard in which the people of Oregon hold the experience and events of your personal history, and especially the characteristic courage and energy of your administration of the General Government.
Private Dining Room of the[HoteI Portland Decorated for the Banquet to President Roosevelt
Evening of May 21, 1903
PURPOSES OF THE EXPOSITION
Mr. H. W. Scott, President of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition Company, spoke as follows:
For the Lewis and Clark Centennial Celebration and Exposition I will speak but briefly:
It was prophecy aforetime; later it was action, energy, achievement; now it is fulfillment and history.
It was prophecy when the plan of extention of our National boundaries across the continent to the Pacific took form in the mind of the third President of the United States, our cheif of expansionists.
It was action, energy and achievement when the explorers by land followed |the discoverers by sea, and when the pioneers of occupation and settlement followed the discoverers and the explorers.
It is fulfillment now, as the century that has passed since the exploration falls into its place in history, when the twenty sixth President of the United States appears on this spot to lay the cor-rier-stone of a monument to be erected in commemoration of the services and fame of the two daring explorers, who were chief agents through whom the boundaries of the United States were extended from the middle of the continent to the tides of the Pacific,
greatest of oceans, and in celebration of the expansion for which their names will forever stand.
"Jefferson," says the most painstaking of the historians of this great movement, in an address to the people of the West, "Jefferson gave you the country. Lewis and Clark showed you the way. The rest is your own course of empire."
It was here on the Columbia, greatest of the rivers of Pacific America, that the flag of the United States was first unfurled ps the symbol of authority and dominion of our country on the Western shore of the continent. The discovery preceded the acquisition of the great Mississippi region known as the Louisiana territory. The idea of exploring the region, afterwards known as "The Oregon Country," was conceived by President Jefferson long before his purchase of Louisiana. His first proposal and attempt of exploration failed, but coincidently with the purchase of Louisiana it was revived on a larger plan, and even before the acquisition of Louisiana was fully assured. President Jefferson had prepared a draft of instructions to Captain Lewis for his expedition to the West. Already we had the claim of discovery, and the President hastened to confirm it by exploration and possession. Hence the Lewis and Clark expedition.
It is just 100 years since the organization of this expedition began. Two years hence a century will have elapsed since the
SITE OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION IN THE NORTHWESTEF
Photographed
PART OF PORTLAND, SHOWING MT. ST. HELENS IN THE DISTANCE jne 15, 1903
COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY TOLLMAN
expedition reached the Pacific. We are preparing for the celebration of that centennial. Preliminary to it, yet part of it, is the erection of this monument to the explorers. The President of the United States, whom we have the happiness to greet today, is a man who has taken unusual interest in following the historical development of our country. As a writer of the history of its expansion, he holds high and worthy place. His books on the subject are both history and literature. We may hope yet to have from him, and, indeed, we have the promise of it when he shall have leisure again, an additional volume to "The Winning of the West," devoted to the Oregon country.
Across the stretch of this first century we connect the two periods of our history today. Here is William Hancock Clark,
grandson of William Clark, the explorer. He has come to honor this occasion by his presence and to bear living testimony to his ancestor's achievement. The accoutrements of his grandfather in the famous expedition are in his possession and are shown to visitors from Oregon at his home in the City of Washington, and we shall have them here by his permission as momentoes of the exploration and as curiosities of our Exposition.
But I must be brief. Mr. President, I offer you this implement of the ceremony today; and, fellow-citizens, the President of the United States will now perform the function he does us the honor to undertake at the laying of the corner-stone of the monument to the explorers who showed us the way to the * Western shores of the American Continent.
A Corner in the City Park, Portland
THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
President Roosevelt said:
We come here today to lay a corner-stone that is to call to mind the greatest single pioneering feat on this continent, the voyage across the continent by Lewis and Clark, which rounded out the ripe statesmanship of Jefferson and his fellows by giving to the United States all of the domain between the Mississippi and the Pacific. Following their advent came the reign of the fur trader, and then some 60 years ago those entered in whose children and children's children were to possess the land. Across the continent in the early '40s came the ox-drawn, white-topped wagon bearing the pioneers, the stalwart, sturdy, sunburned men, with their wives and their little ones, who entered into this country to possess it. You have built up here this wonderful commonwealth, a commonwealth great in its past, and infinitely greater in its future. (Applause.)
It was a pleasure to me today to have as part of my escort the men of the Second Oregon, who carried on the expansion of our people beyond the Pacific, as your fathers had carried it on to the Pacific. Speaking to you here I do not have to ask you to face the future high of heart and confident of soul. You could not assume any other attitude and be true to your blood, true to the position in which you find yourselves on this continent. I speak to the men of the Pacific Slope, to the men whose
predecessors gave us this region because they were not afraid, because they did not seek the life of ease and safety, because their life training was not to shrink from obstacles but to meet and overcome them; and now I ask that this Nation go forward as it has gone forward in the past; I ask that it shape its life in accordance with the highest ideals; I ask that we govern the Philippines primarily in the interest of the people of the the islands (^applause), and just so long as men like Taft and Luke Wright are there they will be so governed; I ask that our name be a synonym for truthful and fair dealing with all the nations of the world; and I ask two things in connection with our foreign policy—that we never wrong the weak and that we never flinch from the strong.
Base is the man who inflicts wrong, and base is the man who suffers a wrong to be done him.
I was greeted here today by men of the Grand Army of the Republic, by the men who wear the button which shows that in the times that tried men's souls they were willing to prove their truth on war's red touchstone. In those days we won because the men who responded to the call of Abraham Lincoln had iron in the blood, because in addition to having a lofty ideal, in addition to being resolute that theres hould indeed be freedom and unity within the borders of the Republic founded by the men of
Herd of Elk in the City Park, Portland
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY GEO. M. WEISTER, PORTLAND
'76, they had the courage, the hardihood and the strength to make them realize their ideal in war, in battle. I ask of the men of today that they do their duty as the men of yesterday did theirs. Remember this, if we only pay homage to their deeds in words, we show ourselves unworthy to be their successors. We can pay homage to them only by behaving in time of trial as they behaved in their time of trial. In 1861 if our men had confined themselves to glorifying the acts of the men of 1776, we would not have anything to glorify now, the President of this Republic is able to travel across the Pacific Slope and still be just as much in his country as on the Atlantic Slope, because you of '61 dared and did and died at need, but triumphed in the end.
Today the Secretary of the Navy spoke of the great pride we take in the feats of the mighty battleship which bears the name of this state—the Oregon. (Cheers and applause.) It is a good thing to cheer her, but it is a better thing to see that we keep on building other ships like her, but even better. That is the right way to cheer the Oregon; to see to it that our Senators and Representatives in Congress go on with the building up of the United States Navy. Whether we wish it or not we have to be a great power; we have to play a great part. All we can decide is whether we will play that part well or ill, and if I know my countrymen, there is scant doubt as to how the decision will come out. We can glory now in the deeds of Manila and of Santiago, because for the dozen years before our people were building up the Navy. The Navy which won in '98 won because for a dozen years before our people had been building ships and seeing that the officers and men were trained in their use. It is too late to improvise a Navy when the need comes. Not one ship which counted effectually in the war of '98 was built that year, or
even the year before. They were all built from two to 15 years in advance, and the men of Manila and Santiago, do you think they learned their trade after it became evident that war could not be averted? Not a bit of it. They were trained through years of practice to handle the ships, and the guns, and the engines, and we won with such small loss of life and so decisively because we had men who, when they shot, hit. And to hit in time of war it means you have to spend money for powder in time of peace. I ask that you show your appreciation of -what the Navy did in '98, that yon show your appreciation of what was done in the past by the pioneers who won this land, by making ready for the future. If we do not, then our children when they look back for cause of pride in our history will have to skip our generation. I ask that we, the inheritors of the glory of the men who founded the Republic under Washington, of the men who saved it under Lincoln, in our turn play our part and do aright the lesser tasks of today.
We have met to commemorate a mighty pioneer feat, a feat of the old days, when men needed to call upon every ounce of courage and hardihood and manliness they possessed in order to make good our claim to this continent. Let us in our turn with equal courage, equal hardihood and manliness carry on the task that our forefathers have intrusted to our hands; and let us resolve that we shall leave to our children and our children's children an even mightier heritage than we received in our turn. I ask it, and I am sure that it will be granted. I know you men and women of Oregon, men and women of the United States; and because I know you I am confident that before this Rebuplic there lies a future so brilliant that even the deeds of the past will seem dim by comparsion.
Moonlight View of a Portion of the Lewis and Clark Exposition Site
WILL BE UNVEILED IN 1905
The Lewis and Clark monument will be unveiled in 1905, at the opening of the International Exposition, preparations for which are now actively under way. In this Exposition the people of the West Coast, particularly the northern portion, will demonstrate to the world the remarkable progress of the states west of the Mississippi in the past 100 years. The erection of a beautiful granite column to the famous explorers is an expression of a small part of that enthusiastic esteem in which the people of the trans-Rocky Mountain country hold the pathfinders whom Jefferson sent to the shores of the Pacific. Their fidelity to duty and sturdy citizenship established American sovereignty over these Western shores.
Ninety-seven years ago the Lewis and Clark expedition, returning from the mouth of the Columbia where the winter of 1805-6 had been spent, discovered
the Willamette River. It was early in April, 1*06, that Captain Clark visited the site of Portland. It was a wilderness of rich verdure, the woods and the streams teeming with game and fish and the only human beings a rapidly diminishing tribe of Indians. History scarcely reveals so great a period of commercial advancement and upbuilding as that which followed the exploration and settlement of old Oregon—the mother of five great states, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and a part of Montana and Wyoming.
The Centennial Exposition will cover 3S5 acres of land and natural lake. The site possesses great natural scenic charm. It lies on a gentle slope from Willamette Heights to the Willamette River in the northwest part of the City of Portland. Work on the grounds is under way. A million dollars has been made available for the Exposition—half by the State of Oregon and half by an
incorporated company which numbers among its stockholders many of the leading citizens of the State. Appropriations by trans-Mississippi states for this fair have been liberal and these will be increased in the next two years. All the countries of the Pacific, including our new possessions, will be fully represented. The view from the fair grounds commands four great snow peaks, the harbor of Portland at whose wharves fronting the exposition grounds vessels of war and trade from all nations touch, the Willamette and Columbia valleys and the flourishing city which has grown in less than 50 years to a population of 125,000 people.
The world is just in front of the Pacific Coast. The Columbia River is the natural gateway to the Orient; the road to Asia is opening; the Orient is just awakening from its long night. Greater than anything that has yet been will be the riches of Alaska; not half is known of the immense treasure house of Artie land. Oregon itself has unreckoned power of resources and untouched wealth and homes for thousands. Within
the next decade the greatest industrial movement will be on the Pacific slope.
The 1905 Exposition, after Lewis and Clark, will mark a milestone in human progress and endeavor, signalizing a period of probably the most important westward movement of people that has ever taken place. The Great West, in population and people, will be the glorious strength of the Nation. Seventy-five per cent of the Nation's gross area, including Alaska Territory, is in the West. The expansion of the United States and the trade relations of the western half of the continent with the countries beyond the Pacific will be illustrated in the 1905 fair.
World-wide in its influence and results was the daring expedition of Lewis and Clark, with a mere handful of men. In honoring the explorers with a monument, Oregon honors the father of American expansion, Thomas Jefferson. It has been aptly said of Lewis and Clark that 1 'theirs was a new Xenophon march to an unknown sea."
MIGHTY ACHIEVEMENT OF LEWIS AND CLARK
How the Hardy Explorers Performed Their Wonderful Task of Penetrating a New Country
(Reprinted from the Oregonian, January 1, 1903.)
LEWIS AND CLARK EXPLORATION.—It is a subject for gratitude and grateful remembrance.
The foresight of the great commoner, Thomas Jefferson, in planning for and securing to the United States, to the American people and to coming generations that magnificent stretch of country reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, through the Louisiana Purchase and by right of discovery of the Columbia and its tributaries by Captain Gray, was remarkable. Foreseeing the great advantages to be derived by an early exploration of the unknown country lately acquired, he took upon himself the responsibility of fitting out an expedition of men fitted to the great labor and sacrifices awaiting the hardy explorers that should undertake this herculean task through an untried wilderness. Like all great works and duties to be preformed in the early days of the Republic, and ordained by Providence, Lewis and Clark came to his aid, willing to undertake the task With scant provisions and little money and less clothing and a few trinkets with which to trade with and pacify the Indian tribes, they started on their perilous journey, determined to succeed and conquer. With the spirit of determination that where there was a will there was a way, they took their lives in their hands. With hos-
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY A. F. ELLIS
Multnomah Falls, Oregon
These falls are a few hours ride by rail or boat from the Exposition Grounds
Sylvan Glade on Balch Creek
This stream empties into Guild's Lake, which is part of the Exposition site
tile savages besetting their way, they traversed and explored this great country of ours with little to cover them at night and on much of their way living on roots and dog flesh, fish when they could get them and a promise of salt when they reached the Pacific Ocean. Heroic devotion to their country inspired them to complete the task set for them to do. They well performed the task. A grateful people remember them, and especially the pioneers, who know and have tasted suffering on their long, wearisome march to the Oregon country. They now await with impatience the memorial day, the centennial of the great event that marks us as a grateful people.
Let us quicken our patriotic memories of the past and do justice to those who so earnestly devoted themselves and risked their lives for the future welfare of their countrymen. Who can now deny to the pioneers of the Northwest the privilege of paying, while it is yet time, their last tribute of respect to these pioneer explorers? When the multitude of visitors come to this centennial, to Oregon and the Northwest, in 1905, and sail upon our beautiful rivers and traverse our lovely valleys and behold the grandeur of our mountain scenery, will they wonder that we remember with grateful hearts the men who have marked the way to this beautiful land? When they behold the substantial products and the business with which the land abounds, they will wonder anew why this land has been so long overlooked—where blasts of Winter do not freeze nor the torrid Summer heat prevail, but gentle breezes and mild, equable climate prevails throughout the year.
The revelations that meet the eye of the newcomer will cause him to tarry in our midst and seek a home in this unparalleled country of ours. Let Oregon and the Northwest do honor to the great explorers in making this centennial anniversary a marked event in the history of our country.
H. W. CORBETT.
y tmm mocmon of portiamd, ok
Extent
- 22 pages
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Public domain (this work is believed to be free of known copyright restrictions under copyright law)
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- Jwpic_001065
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May 21, 1903
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