riment. It
is a proud reflection to-day that time has proved the true arbiter,
and that the capacity of a free and intelligent people to govern
themselves by written constitution and laws, of their own making, is
no longer an experiment. The crucial test of a century of
unparalleled material prosperity has been safely endured.

"In 1793 there was no city west of the Alleghanies. To-day a single
city on Lake Michigan contains a population of a little less
than one-half of the Republic at the time of the first inauguration
of Washington. States have been carved out of the wilderness, and
our great rivers, whose silence met no break on their pathway to
the sea, are now the arteries of our interior trade, and bear upon
their bosoms a commerce which surpasses a hundred-fold that of the
entire country a century ago.

"From fifteen States and four millions of people, we have grown to
fifty States and Territories, and sixty-seven millions of people; from
an area of eight hundred and five thousand, to an area of three
million, six hundred thousand square miles; from a narrow strip
along the Atlantic seaboard, to an unbroken possession from ocean to
ocean. How marvellous the increase in our national wealth! In
1793, our imports amounted to thirty-one million, and our exports to
twenty-six million dollars. Now our imports are eight hundred and
forty-seven million, and our exports one billion and thirty million
dollars. Thirty-three million tons of freight are carried on
our Great Lakes, whose only burden then was the Indian's canoe.
Then our national wealth was inconsiderable; now our assessed
valuation amounts to the enormous sum of twenty-four billion,
six hundred and fifty million dollars. Then trade and travel were
dependent upon beasts of burden and on sailing vessels; now steam and
electricity do our bidding, railroads cover the land, boats burden
the waters, the telegraph reaches every city and hamlet; distance
is annihilated, and

"'Civilization, on her luminous wings,
Soars, Phoenix-like, to Jove.'

"In the presence of this wondrous fulfillment of predicted greatness,
prophecy looks out upon the future and stands dumb.

"When this corner-stone was laid, France, then in the throes of
a revolution, had just declared war against Great Britain--a war
in which all Europe eventually became involved. Within a century of
that hour, in the capital of France, there convened an international
court, its presidin