e name of the Commonwealth
whose Governor had authorized the expedition.

"Five years later occurred an event of mighty significance, and of
far-reaching consequence--one that in very truth marks the genesis
of Illinois history. I refer to the cession by Virginia of the
vast area stretching to the Mississippi--of which the spot upon
which we are now assembled is a part--to the general Government.
To the deed of cession, by which Illinois became a part of the
United States, as commissioners upon the part of Virginia, were
signed the now historic names of Arthur Lee, James Monroe, and
Thomas Jefferson.

"The next milestone of Illinois upon the pathway to statehood
was what is so well known in our political history as the Ordinance
of 1787. Not inaptly has it been called 'the second Magna Charta,'
'a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night,' in the settlement
and government of the Northwestern States. Two provisions of
the great ordinance possessed a value that cannot be measured by
words: One, that the States to be formed out of said territory
were to remain forever parts of the United States of America;
the other, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should
exist therein, otherwise than for crime whereof the party should
have been duly convicted.

"The value of the great Ordinance to millions who have since found
homes within the limits of the vast area embraced within its
provision cannot be overstated. Our eyes behold to-day the marvellous
results of the far-seeing statesmanship in which it was conceived.

"Momentous events now followed in rapid succession: the disastrous
defeat of General St. Clair, first Governor of the Northwest
Territory, near the old Miami village; the appointment of General Wayne,
hero of Stony Point, to the command of the Western army; his crushing
defeat of the Indian foe at the Maumee Rapids, and the treaty of
Greenville, which for the time gave protection to the frontiersmen
against the savage; the attempt of the French minister, Genet,
to create discord in the western country, and in fact to establish
a Government in the Mississippi Valley, independent of that of the
United States; and the threatened conflict with Spain regarding
the free navigation of the Mississippi--all possess an interest to
Illinoisans which time cannot abate.

"All apprehension, however, was for the time removed by the treaty
between our Government and Spain, by which it was provided that
th