PITTS GENEALOGY.

Captain Peter Pitts came to the site of Honeoye, New York, (later Pittstown, now Richmond), prior to 1789, securing the site of the city by lottery in the division of land. Pittstown, New York, Fort Pitt and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, took their names from Captain Peter Pitts. He entertained Louis Phillippe, afterwards king of France, when he visited this country. Married Abigail Richmond of Little Compton, Rhode Island. Peter Pitts was captain of minutemen at the commencement of the Revolution. He had ten children. The youngest child, Sarah Pitts, married Joseph Sears, father of David Benton Sears.

Dedication of a Boulder to Mark the Spot Where the Lincoln-Douglas Joint Debate Occurred at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DAY, CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS.

Preparations looking forward to this celebration have been in the making for a year. The idea of placing a memorial monument on the site of the Lincoln-Douglas debate originated during the session of the Charleston Chautauqua at its last assembly.

The board of directors, acting with the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, brought to a successful climax the placing of a suitable stone on the spot where the great debate took place in 1858, together with most appropriate ceremonies and program. Interest in this event spread all over Coles County and school children from rural and town schools contributed to the fund and began to look forward to July 28, 1915, when this memorial celebration should take place. The invitation went out also to all those who were present at the debate to be here the guests of the management of the chautauqua. The result was that a splendid parade of several hundreds of children, the Grand Army of the Republic and others, formed into line at the square, led by "The States," with Miss Lasca Crispin as Columbia, marched to the music of Tripp's Band, along Madison street to the fair grounds. Misses Helen Burgner and Georgia Sinsabaugh, attired in the latest riding garb, on horseback, acted as escorts, while Mrs. Lucinda Stites, garbed in "my lady's" correct habit of long ago and carrying a banner, "1858," rode with them and recalled the days of the long riding skirt, the tight fitting habit, black waist, the gentleman's derby hat and sidewise position for ladies' riding.

The procession was beautiful and recalled nothing of the tension on that day, the memory of which was being celebrated.

Charleston is the last site of that series of debates to be marked, but it was said by one present, who has seen all the other monuments over the State, that no other is quite so large or so imposing. A copper box was placed inside containing the following articles: A tag used in 1908 at the fiftieth anniversary; a metal watch chain with State seal, sent by Illinois Watch Company; a circular for public school celebration of 1908 by Mr. F. G. Blair; a picture of Dennis Hanks Dowling; newspaper clippings regarding the debate; a picture of the old Lincoln home; a typewritten list of names of 500 school children who contributed to the fund; a list of citizens contributing to same; roll of Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 271 with rules of same; chautauqua program for 1915; copy Charleston Daily Courier; the Daily News and the JournalGazette of Mattoon.

The whole audience, led by the Wolverine Quartet and Tripp's Band, sang "America," after which Rev. Charles S. Pier, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston, delivered the dedicatory address.

DEDICATORY ADDRESS.

We have met this afternoon for the purpose of dedicating this monument to the memory of an event which was of momentous importance, which occurred on these grounds some fifty-seven years ago, the great Lincoln-Douglas debate. It is a splendid act of patriotism that the Coles County Chautauqua Association, the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, the school children and teachers, and citizens of the community should mark this place with enduring stone that future generations might learn lessons of fidelity to principles and love of country.

Illinois was one of the principal battle-fields of oratory and debate in the great anti-slavery movement preceding the Civil War. This place was one of the seven places in our State where Lincoln and Douglas met upon the platform. When

these debates were being held it was a critical hour in the history of liberty in our country.

Stephen A. Douglas was born at Brandon, Vermont, in 1813. He attended school in New York and at 17 years of age entered a law office. At 20 years of age he had saved $100 and determined to journey west. One day he walked into Winchester, Illinois, a stranger, his coat upon his arm, and a little bundle of clothes slung over his shoulder. He organized a school which he taught for some years, and he studied law during the long winter evenings. He was admitted to the bar, became a member of the State Legislature, secretary of state and then a member of the State Supreme Court. At 30 years of age he was a member of Congress, and at 36 was a United States Senator. His career at Washington was a most remarkable career. It was full of right and full of wrong, full of good and full of evil. Stephen A. Douglas did things at Washington which he knew were morally wrong but which he deemed politically necessary. He was a man who was continually compromising instead of standing firm for principle.

In 1820 the North began to talk about secession because they could not endure the slavery of the South. In 1850 the South began to talk about secession because they could not endure the liberty of the North.

In 1820 a fence was built so that slavery might not pass North, and in 1850 another fence was built so that liberty might not pass South. Then Douglas began to introduce compromise measures into Congress, and among the most important of these measures was the Kansas-Nebraska bill. This bill was very unpopular among the people of the North, and especially to the people of Illinois, where Douglas immediately lost much prestige. Some of the friends of Douglas asked him to come to Chicago to explain his position and to win. back his popularity. He came, but Chicago would have none of him, and he entered the city unwelcomed. He had to hire his own hall and advertise his own meeting. Upon the day of the meeting flags were hung at half-mast and the church bells. tolled for the funeral of liberty.

And yet Douglas kept up indomitable courage. When he went to the hall in the evening he found it filled with opponents. He began by saying he wished to vindicate the KansasNebraska bill, but that statement was followed by a half-hour of tumult. He said he wished to appeal to their sense of honor and fair play. The crowd asked about his sense of honor and fair play in Washington. Douglas grew angry and called them cowards because they would not listen to an explanation. They said he was a coward not to listen to a helpless slave in fetters.

At 11 o'clock he threw up his hands and dared them to shoot because some one in the audience had brandished a pistol. They answered with eggs and said that bullets were too precious to waste on traitors. At 12 o'clock Douglas looked at his watch and said: "It's midnight; I am going home and to church and you can go to hades."

Douglas was wrong and the people were right. "You can fool all the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all the time, but you can not fool all the people all the time."

The Kansas-Nebraska bill brought on the civil war in Kansas.

And it was at this time which was such a critical hour for liberty that Abraham Lincoln entered the scene and challenged Douglas to a debate.

Both men were candidates for the Senate.

No contrast could have been greater than that of Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was tall, angular, lanky, awkward. Douglas was short, thick-set, graceful, polished, at home on the platform, and a master of debate.

Lincoln was the better thinker, but Douglas was the better orator.

Lincoln's voice was a high, dusty tenor, while Douglas had a magnificent range from the flute-like note to the deepest roar. Lincoln was a giant physically, slow, intense, profound, chief among his qualities were honesty and fairness. In childhood his three most familiar books were the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, and the Constitution of the United States.