Thou hast preserved to us, and which forms the basis of all our domestic, social, and civil happiness. Preserve, we beseech Thee, to our country the blessings of peace, and secure them to all the people of the earth. Bless Thy servant, the Presdent of the United States, the Governor of this State, and all others in authority, and so rule their hearts and strengthen their hands, that they may punish wickedness and vice, and maintain Thy true religion and virtue. Look with favor, we beseech Thee, upon the services of this day. May the CornerStone, now to be laid in Thy fear, remind us of Thy watchful care over us, call forth continued thankfulness for Thy mercies, and excite us to a grateful and ready obedience to Thy will. May no unholy strife and contentions be found within these walls,-may truth and justice be always found therein, and may they long stand as a fitting monument of grateful and happy people, whose God is the Lord. Protect and guard all who are engaged in this work, from accident and danger. And finally, Merciful Father, when all the material temples of earth shall crumble and decay, may we be found fitted to dwell forever in that temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. All which we humbly ask, for the sake of our blessed Lord and Saviour. AMEN.

NATIONAL HYMN.

Tune "AMERICA."

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing :

Land where my fathers died,-
Land of the pilgrims' pride,-
From every mountain's side
Let freedom ring.

My native country, thee,

Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love :

I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills,-

My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Our Father, God, to Thee,

Author of Liberty,—

To Thee we sing :

Long may our land be bright
With Freedom's holy light;

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God our King.

ORATION

BY

Hon. William A. Howard.

Your Excellency, Members of the Legislature, Ladies and Gentlemen— Citizens of Michigan:

What is the lesson of the passing hour? What means this pageant? Whence this multitude? Who are they? What brings them here? Why these upturned faces? Why this eagerness to catch every word? Why this all-absorbing interest in these ceremonies?

We are indeed citizens of a great commonwealth. Here is to arise a structure of vast proportions and beautiful designs, at great expense, and all to be paid for from the earnings of the people. It might have cost twice as much, and exceeded in architectural beauty the finest model of modern or ancient times, and yet excited little of the interest shown here to-day. We are not attracted by the magnificence of the proposed structure, nor do we come to pay homage to any architectural design, however beautiful. Why then this absorbing interest? It is because the structure here to arise is associated in our minds with that government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," which we call our public. It is because this edifice is to be dedicated to the enactment and administration of such equal laws as will tend "to establish justice,

and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" for all time. That liberty, regulated by, and under the reign of, just and equal laws, laws that restrain the mere license of all, and thus secure the freedom of each to move in his or her own path of duty and of pleasure. As the planets, each in its own proper orbit, instead of flying athwart the heavens in every direction, producing confusion and chaos, contributes to steady all the rest; so every citizen of a well regulated State, by enjoying his own liberty, under the wholesome restraint of equal and just laws, aids in securing to others the like precious boon.

Our interest then centers, not in the magnificence of structure or beauty of design, but in the uses to which it is to be devoted. In short, we here erect the house of a great and free State. This raises the question, what is a State? When is a State truly great? When really free? Is Michigan such a State in its present condition or future prospects? It may be said a State cannot exist without a given amount of territory, with metes and bounds fixed with greater or less certainty. But the land or territory is far from being the State. We have found our 56,000 square miles of land, with fixed boundaries, a very good place in which to erect a State; but the land, with all its productive power, with its waving forests and mineral wealth, is far from being the State. With this territory, as a place to put a State, we are more than satisfied. The State of Michigan is not two score years old,--its territory was before Christopher Columbus.

For many years this peninsula remained terra incognita; in the apprehension of many, a myth—a horrid place, abounding in swamps and marshes, and the very home of diseases dire,

uninhabited and uninhabitable. To penetrate it, you must take a canoe, and work your way through lagoons, soon to be stopped by disease, perchance death. To collect and rehearse the fabulous stories told, and sometimes believed, might, at this day, afford amusement, but after all would be a thriftless employment. Passing over the common gossip and fabulous canards of those early times, I content myself by citing such official action on the part of the government, as was believed to establish the worthlessness of what was then known as Michigan. On the 6th of May, 1812, Congress passed an act requiring that 2,000,000 acres of land should be surveyed in the then Territory of Louisiana, and a like quantity in the Territory of Illinois, north of the Illinois river, and the same quantity in the Territory of Michigan, in all 6,000,000 acres, to be set apart for the soldiers in the war with Great Britain. Each soldier was to have 160 acres of land fit for cultivation. The lands were surveyed and appropriated under this law in Louisiana and Illinois, but the surveyors reported that there were no lands in Michigan fit for cultivation. Accordingly, on the 29th of April, 1816, Congress passed an act repealing so much of the law of the 6th of May, 1812, as related to Michigan, and provided for taking 1,500,000 acres in Illinois, north of the Illinois river, and 500,000 acres in the Territory of Missouri, in lieu of the 2,000,000 acres which could not be found in Michigan. This would seem to be decisive. And yet, in 1830, fourteen years later, Michigan was found to have 31,698 inhabitants, of whom 3,688 lived in that portion of the then Territory, lying the west side of Lake Michigan; and in 1834, only eighteen years after the act of Congress referred to, this worthless territory was found to contain 87,273 inhab