sts, workmen and citizens innumerable, all bent
upon consecrating by their presence and homage the work done
during the hundred years. Good work indeed; nay, stupendous.

Sanguine as he was, Senator Jackson would, I think, scarcely
believe his eyes and ears if he saw the matchless sight we
presently behold, and the preparation for the pending exhibition
of the produce, all the discoveries, all the art of the wide
earth.

He would scarcely believe his ears if he heard that we came in
twenty-seven hours from the place where he had delivered his
prophecy and which had become only two years before the seat of
Government. No less would be his surprise, if he learned that
the supposed "howling wilderness" had been turned into an
immense garden, dotted with wealthy towns; that all the land
called in his days Louisiana produces yearly now millions of
bushels of various kinds of grain, and that the private
belongings of the successors of the scattered settlers of his
time are valued in ours at many millions of dollars.

But he would not be surprised if he learned that the federal tie
has not been loosened; that the number of States has increased,
their wealth, too, the number of their inhabitants, their
importance in every respect, and that they consider as more and
more sacred the bond which unites them to the older part of the
community. Such are the effects of liberty and just laws.

In this triumphal day, amid the shouts of joy, the reports of
the guns and ringing of the bells, considering the splendid
results, it is only natural that we carry our look backward to
the past and have a thought for the lonely pioneers of long ago,
who came one by one to this then unknown land, and who tried
among incredible difficulties to make it less unknown, to make
it more productive and easier to reclaim for you, their distant
inheritors. No one, I am sure, will think it amiss that I, a
compatriot of theirs and a representative of their country,
shall recall at this day their efforts, and express to-day's
gratitude for yesterday's work. For they were hardy men, those
children of distant France; they were plucky, enterprising, and
courageous; they led strenuous lives indeed; all qualities for
which you ever had a special regard. To say that they did not
fear danger is to slander them; t