shall be able to add, that have set forth her This will cap the young as she was, she gave the first great example of the AMERICAN THEORY, by furnishing a systematic code of statute law, he will highest claim to imperishable renown. climax of her internal improvements, in the best sense of these words. And what is there to hinder so desirable a consummation? Already the ice of ancient prejudice has been broken. Already the strong holds of prescription have been undermined. Already have we innovated boldly, yet cautiously, upon the maxims of other times, because they do not suit our times and circumstances. And shall we stop midway in the grand enterprise? I trust that we shall not. I feel almost sure, that ere another half century closes upon our history, our legislation, now so meagre and imperfect, will be our proudest boast; that we may tell him who would appreciate the general mind of Ohio, to seek it in her code; and that he who shall then stand where I now do, may congratulate the people of Ohio upon having their subordinate rights as distinctly ascertained by written laws, as their fundamental rights now are, by a written constitution. "While the vain titles of the victories of Justinian are crumbled into dust, the name of the LEGISLATOR is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument!" Thus Gibbon speaks of the Roman legislator, and thus may our historian then be able to speak of our legislators. Then sovereign law, the collected and uttered will of our people, will for the first time rise and sit enthroned, triumphant over discretionary power; and the only uncertainty respecting our rights, will be that which belongs to the imperfection of all human things. There they will stand recorded, in a luminous and comprehensive code, where all who wish may study them, and all who know, will respect and guard them. But I may not further indulge in anticipations like these. We came here to consider, not what may be done, but what has been done-not to forestall the future, but to reckon with the past. And we have, however imperfectly, surveyed our past- our brief, but crowded past-crowded with facts which prophecy would not have ventured to predict— prolific in events over which patriotism may rationally exult. I commenced this retrospect with the strong assertion, that never, in the annals of time, has philosophy instructed mankind by more useful examples, than the history of Chio holds up to. the world. I trust that I have now made it good. And I would close by reiterating it, if possible, still more emphatically. I was once asked by a citizen of a neighboring state, when speaking of our achievements, why we did not brag more? Perhaps strangers might think I have now bragged too much. But you, who hear me, know that the half has scarcely been told. I have been compelled to deal in superlatives, in order to approach the truth. For if there be one half century in the history of any people, upon which the mind may dwell, with scarcely a wish that it had been different, such I regard the first half century of our history. It does not, indeed, embrace the hallowed recollections of the revolution; for, upon that grand drama the curtain had fallen, while Nature yet reigned here on her throne of solitude. But it does comprehend that more wonderful series of events, by which our present glorious Union was created out of the crumbling fragments of the first confederacy. The ordinance of 1787 was adopted two months prior to the signing of the federal constitution; and while that sacred instrument was undergoing its ordeal in the conventions of the states, the forests of Ohio were falling beneath the axe of the pioneer; so that when Washington assumed the presidential chair, his name was gratefully and reverently uttered, by his far-off children of the west. But in a still more gratifying sense, is our era, the era of the formation of the Union; since, as already seen, our very soil was the subject of a concession, without which that Union could not have been formed. The ancients would have erected magnificent temples in honor of events like this. And so in fact have we-but not of cold and lifeless marble. Our temples of concord, are the new states added and adding to the Union. Already they equal the OLD THIRTEEN in number, and will soon exceed them in population. Already the centre of American power has crossed the Alleghany ridge, and, while the Union endures, must be still moving westward. Already the soil which was originally given up for the sake of the Union, has become its great central support; and thus the prediction of Berkley, made with reference to the whole American continent, has been almost literally verified in the United States: "Westward the Star of Empire takes its way, The four first acts already past, The fifth shall close the drama with the day; Meantime at the head of the NEW THIRTEEN, our own Ohio proudly stands; and the experience of the past, justifies bright hopes of the future. Great she is already, but greater still by the all-hail hereafter." Her promises far exceed what she has yet performed; and refer us eagerly "to the coming on of time." Looking forward as far as we now look backward, who shall fix limits to what Ohio may become, at the end of her first century? Few of us can hope, then, to be here; but our doings will then be matters of history. We are to prepare that future for another generation, though our eyes be not permitted to behold it. And we shall have lived to little purpose, if we do not carry our state onward in her thus far wonderful career. It was the proud boast of a Roman emperor, that he found Rome brick, and left it marble. The fathers of Ohio did more. They left civilization, where they found barbarism-affluence, where they found penury -blooming gardens, where they found a cheerless waste fair cities, where they found only wigwams-a palmy state, where they found only desolation. And if we would prove worthy sons of such worthy sires; if we would transmit the great legacy they have left us, not only unimpaired, but improved, no easy task is before us. Let us not be contented with merely preserving the materials of our past history, but remember, also, that we are to make materials for future history. Either for imitation or warning, for our glory or our shame, the example we set, will be recorded by our successors, who will compare what we leave, with what we found. And thrice happy will be our lot, if they, who may look back to us, as we have now looked back to our predecessors, shall be able to pronounce over us, that true, hearty, and emphatic WELL DONE, which the fathers of Ohio claim at our hands. A DISCOURSE ON THE ABORIGINES OF THE VALLEY OF THE OHIOBY WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. GENTLEMEN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY:-No opinion has been more generally entertained in every civilised community, than that which asserts the importance of the study of history, as a branch of education. And although there are few, if any, who would controvert this proposition, it will scarcely be denied, that there is no study at this day, so much neglected. We everywhere meet with men possessed of much intelligence, great scientific attainments, high standing in those professions which require profound study and deep research, who have neglected to inform themselves, not only of the circumstances which influenced the rise and progress, the decline and fall of the most celebrated nations of antiquity, but who are extremely deficient in the knowledge of the history of their own country. If we search for the causes which have produced this state of things, one, perhaps the most efficient, will be found in the great increase of works of fiction, and the fascinating character with which they have been clothed, by the great geniuses who have been employed upon them. It is the perusal of these, which occupies the attention of the wealthy, and fills the leisure moments of the man of business. I am loathe to give another reason for this decline in the taste for historical reading, because it indicates, also, a decline in patriotism. I allude to the inordinate desire for the accumulation of riches, which has so rapidly increased in our country, and which, if not arrested, will ere long effect a deplorable change in the character of our countrymen. This basest of passions, this "meanest of amors," could not |