if we do not discover some method by which the public functions of these organizations may be brought into full subordination to the public, and that too without violence, and without unjust interference with the rights of private individuals. It will be unworthy of our age and of us, if we make the discussion of this subject a mere warfare against men. For in these great industrial enterprises have been, and still are, engaged some of the noblest and worthiest men of our time. It is the system, its tendencies and its dangers, which society itself has produced, that we are now to confront. And these industries must not be crippled, but promoted. The evils complained of are mainly of our own making. States and communities have willingly and thoughtlessly conferred these great powers upon railways, and they must seek to rectify their own errors without injury to the industries they have encouraged.

Already methods are being suggested. Massachusetts is discussing the proposal to purchase and operate a portion of her railroad system, and thus bring the rest into competition with the State as the representative of the people. It is claimed that the success of this plan has been proved by the experience of Belgium. Another proposition is that the State purchase the roads and open them, like other highways, to the free use of the public, subject to such regulations and toll as the safety of transportation and the maintenance of the system may require. This, it is claimed, would remove the stocks and bonds from the gambling operations of the markets, and place the levying of the transportation tax in the hands of the State, and under the control of those who pay. Others, again, insist that the system has overgrown the limits and the powers of the separate States, and must be taken in hand by the national government, under that provision of the national Constitution which empowers Congress to regulate commerce among the several States. When it is objected that this would be a great and dangerous step towards political centralization, which many think has already been pushed too far, it is responded that, as the railway is the greatest centralizing force of modern times, nothing but a kindred force can control it; and it is better to rule it than to be ruled by it. Other solutions have been proposed; but these are sufficient to show how strongly the current of public thought is setting towards the subject. Indications are not wanting that the discussion will be attended by passion, and

by a full exhibition of that low, political cunning which plays with the passions and prejudices of men, and measures success by results, and not by the character of the means employed. I have ventured to criticise the judicial application of the Dartmouth College case; and I venture the further opinion, that some features of that decision, as applied to the railway and similar corporations, must give way, under the new elements which time has added to the problem. But this must be done, not by denouncing judges who faithfully administer the law, but by such prudent changes in the law, and perhaps in our constitutions, as will guide the courts in future adjudications.1

It depends upon the wisdom, the culture, the self-control of our people, to determine how wisely and how well this question shall be settled. But that it will be solved, and solved in the interest of liberty and justice, I do not doubt. And its solution will open the way to a solution of a whole chapter of similar questions that relate to the conflict between capital and labor. The gloomy views of socialistic writers on this question would have more force, if the dangers here discussed had grown up in spite of our efforts to prevent them. But the fact is they have grown by our help, while we were unconscious of the fact that they were dangers.

The intelligence and national spirit of our people exhibit their capacity for dealing with difficult problems. Those who saw the terrible elements of destruction that burst upon us twelve years ago, in the fury of civil war, would have been called dreamers and enthusiasts had they predicted that 1873 would witness the conflict ended, its cause annihilated, the bitterness. and hatred it had occasioned nearly gone, and the nation, with union and unity restored, smiling again over the turf of half a million soldiers' graves.

Finally, our great hope for the future our great safeguard against danger is to be found in the general and thorough education of our people, and in the virtue which accompanies. such education. And all these elements depend in a large

1 One member of the court, Mr. Justice Duvall, dissented from the opinion of the Court in the Dartmouth College case. Even Chief Justice Marshall, in pronouncing the opinion of the court, used expressions which would not at all apply to our railway companies. He said, "These eleemosynary institutions do not fill the place which would otherwise be occupied by the government, but that which would otherwise remain vacant." (4 Wheaton, 647.) There has been a growing dissent against the enlarged application of this principle.

measure upon the intellectual and moral culture of the young men who go out from our higher institutions of learning. From the standpoint of this general culture we may trustfully encounter the perils that assail us. Secure against dangers from abroad; united at home by the strongest ties of common interest and patriotic pride; holding and unifying our vast territory by the most potent forces of civilization; relying upon the intelligent strength and responsibility of each citizen, and most of all upon the power of truth, without undue arrogance, we may hope that, in the centuries to come, our republic will continue to live and hold its high place among the nations, as

... the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time."

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY:

SETTLEMENT OF THE WESTERN RESERVE.

ADDRESS DELIVERED AT BURTON, OHIO, BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GEAUGA COUNTY,

SEPTEMBER 16, 1873.

IN furnishing the Geauga County Historical Society with the manuscript of the following address, Mr. Garfield sent a letter, dated Washington, D. C., December 13, 1873, in which he stated the sources from which he had drawn his historical data. The most valuable part of the letter was a lengthy extract from his remarks of February 18, 1873, made on the following paragraph of the Miscellaneous Appropriation Bill then pending: "To enable the Joint Committee on the Library to purchase and print a series of unpublished historical documents relating to the early French discoveries in the Northwest, and on the Mississippi, $10,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, the printing of the same to be under the direction of the said committee."

Mr. Garfield's remarks on that question in full were as follows:

"Mr. Chairman, We appropriate every year considerable sums of money for the purpose of increasing the library of Congress. We propose here to designate a particular kind of purchase which we desire to have made. It is just as much a part of our discretion and right as any appropriation that we can make.

"And now what is it for which we seek to provide? For the period of two whole centuries the French were exploring a great part of this continent, and from 1669 to 1750 they occupied a great portion of the valley west of the Alleghany Mountains. Under the direction of their government, learned men, army officers, men interested in science, were sent out to make explorations along the great rivers of the Northwest, along all our Great Lakes, and through the Rocky Mountains, long before a man of the Anglo-Saxon race, or a man speaking the English language, had ever trodden any of these wilds. They made full reports to the government at Paris, but in those days such reports were buried in the archives of the government, and were considered secret papers. They

have never seen the light. The archivist of the navy department of France, Pierre Margry, has had possession of these documents for years, and has with great pains transcribed them. I have received a letter from the greatest of our recent historians, Mr. Francis Parkman, in which he says: 'I have known about this collection many years, and have several times seen it, and examined it sufficiently to get a clear idea of its contents. Many of the most important documents composing it have been in my hands. I can testify in the strongest terms to its rare value for the history of the West. To the best of my belief, none of these documents which M. Margry now proposes to print have ever been in print before.'

"M. Margry has prepared for publication matter that will make nine volumes, according to the testimony before the committee. Three volumes relate to the discoveries of La Salle and his companions, Joutel, Tonty, Galinier, and Dollier de Casson; one, to La Mothe Cadillac, and the settlement of Detroit; two, to discoveries and explorations in the Rocky Mountains, in 1752, by De Niseville and the brothers La Vérandrye; one, to Fort Du Quesne and Natchitoches; two, to the settlement of Louisiana. The volumes will be published by M. Margry, under his own direction, if he can be assured of a subscription to a certain number of copies in advance, to be paid for only when the volumes are delivered. "Now a book of this sort will be little popular in France, as it relates to so distant a country; but, here at home, and especially in the great Northwest, it will be of vital interest, as adding to our knowledge of our ancient history; and we propose, in putting this $10,000 into the hands of the Committee on the Library, that, instead of placing on our shelves a great number of the worthless books that always find their way there, they shall put in this work of inestimable historical value, which cannot be duplicated elsewhere, which cannot be published except by the government, and which may be lost, and was so near being lost in the late war of the Commune. It seems to me that no wiser or more appropriate use could be made of any amount which we may devote to the library." This appropriation was made. In 1881, the fourth volume of the Margry Papers was published.

R. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, - When I ac

MR. cepted the invitation to address you on this interesting

occasion, I did not assume that I could contribute anything in the way of original materials to the history of this portion of the Western Reserve. I hoped, however, that I might be able to point out some of the resources from which these materials may be drawn, and to express my interest in the effort you are