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MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE The following document is provided by the LAW AND LEGISLATIVE DIGITAL LIBRARY at the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library http://legislature.maine.gov/lawlib Reproduced from scanned originals with text recognition applied (searchable text may contain some errors and/or omissions) Public Documents of Maine : BEING TBS ANNUAL REPORTS Cll!' TD VABIOVS PUBLIC OFFICERS AND INSTITUTIONS tl'OB TBB T:JU.• 1877. VOLUME I .. AUGUSTA: SPRAGUE, OWEN & NASH, PRINTERS 'l'O THE STATB. 18U MAINE: HER PLACE IN HISTORY. ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, Nov. 4, 1876, AND IN CONVENTION, OF THE Legislature of Maine, February 6, 1877, BY JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN; WITH A COMMUNICATION FROM THE GOVERNOR~ AND Trull REPORT OF THE CENTENNIAL COMMISSION.. Published by order of the Legislature of Maine, of February 17, 1877. AUGUSTA: SPRAGUE, OWEN & NASH, PRINTERS TO THE STA.TE. 1877. STATE OF MAINE. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, }· Augusta, February 6, 1877. ; To the Senate and House of Representatives: I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of the United States Centennial Commissioners for this _State, who, in conjunction with the Directors appointed by the Governor, constituted the State Board of Cen­ tennial Managers. The success of the International Exhibition in cele­ bration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Independence of the United States, is universally conceded, and amply justifies the pride and gratifica­ tion with which the whole country regards its gran<l. commemorative holiday season. Viewed as a National Celebration, the Exhibition tended to strengthen the bonds of amity by which our country seeks to be connected with all the nations of the earth, to revive and confirm the sentiment of nationality among our own people, and to mitigate the effects of recent estrangement. As a display of the samples of their material wealth and of the best results of their iv GOVERNOR CONNOR'S COM~IDNIC.ATION. labor and art presented by the various countries of the world, it was a rare means of instruction and a prolific source of the highest enjoyment to the multitudes, that thronged to it from all parts of the land. The stimu­ lating and suggestive influence which it exercised upon the business and industrial energies of the country, is already plainly felt and cannot fail to lead to the most beneficial results to its material prosperity. New mar­ kets were disclosed which before were thought to be out of the reach of our competition, and the attention A • • •t il . • 11 ;:! . fLf ~1--l.mencan 1ngenu1 y an~~ enterprise waR 0-a .. fl:,. to n0.w ;T'\,;:J,,d+,,..~AO' n,.-.._,'""l~r.nl,.lr., -4-r,,. r...,,~ r:i...:·Hr:i.-.-,.~-r-'14-..-.. ........,..,...,..,......,,.... r... ...,...,J ---'"'-1-1.:.... .L.l.LU..U.PlJ.L.J.\.;P u,t't'.1..1.\..IU,IJ.1.V I.JV VU.l. v.1..1.vUJ.J..U::H,U,J.J.\..it:;i::, il.UU vil.PilU.... tJ of prosecution on our own soil. The detailed statement of exhibits and awards con­ tained in the Commissioners' Report, shows that the contributions made by this State were many and im­ portant, and served to indicate the natural resources of the State, the variety and extent of its industries, and the character of its public schools. · Creditable as the part taken by the State in the Exhibition manifestly was, it is evident that, had the importance of the Exhibition and the advantages to be derived from a participation in it been more gener­ ally comprehended and foreseen, there would have been a far more liberal response to the appeals and efforts of the Board of Managers, and the products of our soil and manufactories would have had a greatly enlarged representation. CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. v .Acting upon the request of the Centennial Commis­ sion that some person be designated by me to deliver an Historical and Descriptive Address upon the sub­ ject of the State of Maine, at some time during the Exhibition, I invited Ex-Governor J. L. Chamberlain to perform that office, and an address was accordingly delivered by him in November, near the close of the Exhibition. I ·respectfully recommend that the address be re­ quested of the author, and that provision be made for giving it the wide distribution deserved by its interest t•nd value;. SELDEN CONNOR. R rr .A.. T E O F M A IN E. IN SENATE, February 7, 1877. Read and sent down. S. W. LANE, Secretary. In HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,} February 7, 1877. Read in concurrence. ORAMANDAL SMI'l'H, Clerk. MAIN,E· HER PLACE IN HISTORY. ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION, PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER 4, 1876, AND IN CONVENTION OF THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE, FEBRUARY 6, 1877, BY JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN. MAINE. Two conspicuous headlands strike the attention of the European voyager approaching the North .Atlantic coast. Reaching out boldly seaward they serve to mark the general direction of the shore, yet between them a vast expanse of water stretches to the north a day's sail beyond sight. These headlands are Cape Sable and Cape Cod, 1 whose outer lights range with each other about east-north-east and west-south­ west, and are distant in a right line about 250 miles. Facing this line, at an average distance of 125 miles, lies the coast of Maine ; fronted right and left by these two capes-great salients lying out like couchant lions guarding its broad approach. For, on their range a perpendicular from Cape Sable passes very near Eastport, the ~asternmost town of Maine ; while a perpendicular from N auset light, passing between Cape .Ann and the Isles of Shoals, strikes not far from the city of Portsmouth on the Piscataqua river, which forms part of the western boundary of Maine. 2 These lines would enclose an almost regular rectangular parallelo­ gram ,3 with a breadth one-half its length, but the figure is extended by two deep pockets, the Bay of Fundy on one 1 One can hardly help regretting that thiR name given by Gosnold (1602) has survived the more fitting designation given by Champlain and De Monts (1605),-Cap Blanc, White Cape,-a striking contrast with Cape Sable opposite. The Dutch also called it Witte Hoeck, White Hook. The Northmen had named it, six hundred years before, Kialarness, Ship­ nose. (Thorwald, Erik's son, 1002). 2 U. S. Coast Survey charts. Atlantic, sheet No. 1. 3 lt was not this, but the Gulf of St. Lawrence probably, which Gomara. (Hist. de las Indias) calls Golfo Quadrado, the Square Gulf. On the early charts this Gulf is represented as semi-circular, or the flat segment of an ellipse. 4 MAINE : HER PLACE IN HISTORY. side, and Cape Cod Bay on the other,-at the bottorµ of one, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and opposite, New Hamp­ shire and Massachusetts. This considerable body of water, well deserving to be called a gulf, has in recent times received an appropriate name from the land whose limits lie so exactly opposite its great entrance capes, and is called the Gulf of Maine. 1 This shoreland is also remarkable, being so battered and frayed by sea and storm, and worn perhaps by arctic currents and glacier beds,2 that its natural front of some 250 miles is multiplied to an extent of not less than 2,500 miles of salt water line ; while at an average distance of about three miles from the main land, stretches a chain of outposts consisting of more than three hundred islands3 -fragments of the main­ striking in their diversity ,-on the west, iow, ·\"vooded and and grassy to the water's edge, and rising eastward through bolder types to the crowns and cliffs of Mt. Desert and Quoddy Head,-an advancing series from beauty to sub­ limiLy ;4 arnl Lehirnl all these are ueep basins and broad river­ mouths, affording convenient and spacious harbors, in many of which the navies of nations might safely ride at anchor. s There is no doubt that the adventurous spirits of the 1 Edinburg Encyc., 1832, vol. XVIII. The name was .first applied by Prof. J. E. Hilgard, of the U. S. Coast Survey office, and through his efforts it is likely to become permanent. 2 Fiord valleys. Dana's Geology, 533. 3 'rhis portion of the coast may always be known on the rudest early charts by the dash of islands with which the explorers somewhat careless­ ly record their observations. 4 "Advancing" only in the effect on human emotions; for in true rank I suppose the beautiful must be higher than the sublime, being the perfeo­ tion and peace, where all the parts are obedient to the central law or soul of a thing; while the sublime overweighs the law and limit of perfection. and shows a power ready to pass out from the peace of its own being, and to threaten and destroy. Peace is higher than war. 5 Somes's Sound is probably the most commodious and strategically advantageous position for a Naval Station for the United States on the whole Atlantic Coast. An effort was made to draw the attention of the Government to this in 1869. CENTENNIAL ADDRESS. 5 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were greatly drawn to these waters and shores, all the natural products of which offered themselves with primeval prodigality. One needs only to glance at tho early charts,1 or the wonderful stories of the voyagers of the times to perceive the romantic interest that centered here, and be prepared to understand why the great minds of that period attached such importance to the posses­ sion of this gulf, as if they foresaw that it must become the key to the Continent.

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