nformation of what I owe to Ohio. I stood upon
the ruins of vanquished greatness in Asia, where tidings from young
America are so seldom heard that indeed I was not acquainted with the
fact. Still, I loved Ohio before I knew what I had yet to hear. Now I
will love her with the affection and tenderness of a child, knowing what
part she took in my restoration to liberty and life.

Sir, permit me to decline those praises which you have been pleased to
bestow on me personally. I know of no _merit_--I know only the word
_duty_, and you are acquainted with the beautiful lines of the
Irish poet--

"Far dearer the grave or the prison,
Illumed by a patriot's name,
Than the glories of all who have risen,
On liberty's ruins, to fame."

I was glad to hear that you are familiar with the history of our
struggles, and of our achievements, and of our aims. This dispenses me
from speaking much,--and that is a great benefit to me, because indeed I
have spoken very much.

Sir, entering the young state of Ohio--though my mind is constantly
filled with homeward thoughts and homeward sorrows, still my sorrows
relax while I look around me in astonishment, and rub my eyes to
ascertain that it is not the magic of a dream, which makes your bold,
mighty, and flourishing commonwealth rich with all the marks of
civilization and of life, here, where almost yesterday was nothing but a
vast wilderness, silent and dumb like the elements of the world on
creation's eve. And here I stand in Columbus, which, though ten years
younger than I am, is still the capital of that mighty commonwealth,
which--again in its turn,--ten years before I was born, nursed but three
thousand daring men, scattered over the vast wilderness, fighting for
their lives with scalping Indians; but now numbers two millions of happy
freemen, who, generous because free, are conscious of their power, and
weigh mightily in the scale of mankind's destiny.

How wonderful that an exile from a distant European nation of Asiatic
origin, which, amidst the raging waves of centuries that swept away
empires, stood for a thousand years like a rock, and protected
Christendom and civilization against barbarism--how wonderful that the
exiled governor of that nation was destined to come to this land, where
a mighty nation has grown up, as it were, over night, out of the very
earth, and found this nation protecting the rights of humanity, when
offended in his person,--found that you