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I can not resist the gratification which this opportunity affords of publicly testifying the strong sentiments of esteem and veneration which, individually, I entertain for your character and services, and expressing an earnest hope that the evening of your long life may be as peaceful and happy as it has been active and useful.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient and faithful servant,
ANDREW STEVENSON,

Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States.

It was his happy lot to see the Government that he had helped to found grow in strength and influence; to see his country expand in territory and wealth, and to be inspired with the faith that the future held in store for it only continued and progressive advances.

CHARLES CARROLL'S title to enduring fame rests upon the fact that he was a lover of and a successful worker in the cause of human liberty.

A great American orator once said, in speaking about

statues:

The honors we grant mark how high we stand, and they educate the future. The men we honor and the maxims we lay down in measuring our favorites show the level and morals of the time.

Mr. Speaker, we may safely abide admeasurement by this standard when we introduce into our American Pantheon CHARLES CARROLL of Carrollton.

Could some miracle for the time being breathe the breath of life into the figures that adorn our Statuary Hall, CARroll would need no introduction to that company, nor would that company need introduction to him. The one touch of nature that makes the whole world kin would be found in the common love of liberty, in the common devotion to its principles, and in the common life service in its cause. It would be a goodly company, in which there could be no rivalry as between its members, except rivalry as to extreme devotion to country and to fellow-man; a company that includes soldiers and statesmen, diplomats, and men who have been potent factors in the advancement of civilization; such a soldier as the chivalric and knightly Kearny; such a diplomat

as Livingston, who gave to us our empire west of the Mississippi; such an agent of civilization as Robert Fulton, creator of commerce; such a statesman as Webster, expounder of the Constitution; and, peerless in the world's history among the champions of liberty, the immortal Washington. [Loud applause.]

ADDRESS OF MR. SCHIRM, OF MARYLAND.

Mr. SPEAKER: To commemorate her great men and to perpetuate the glory of their deeds by public ceremonies and in lasting works of art are the fitting acts of a great nation. They inspire veneration for the past and infuse hope for the future. Love of country is thereby stimulated in the bosoms of both young and old, and the spirit of sacrifice wins the devotion of the heart for future crises. A country without monuments is a living death-she throws no beam of light upon the untrodden path of the future. To her humanity looks in vain for a guiding star, but a country that molds in bronze and stone her tributes to greatness ever lives, and tells the story of her achievements to the recurring centuries with charming eloquence. Sensible of these facts, the law of our land has provided that each State might send the effigies of two of her chosen sons to be placed permanently in the National Statuary Hall.

It pleases the fancy to reflect that in that Hall the House of Representatives held its meetings until the completion of this magnificent Chamber, and the imagination, Pygmalion-like, conjures into living form the statues of those patriots who, by their oratory in the forum of the House or by their heroism upon the fields of battle, won laurels for themselves and shed luster upon the pages of American history.

The State of Maryland has now availed itself of its privilege and erected among those silent witnesses of great events and the doers of great deeds the effigies of two of her illustrious sons, CHARLES CARROLL of Carrollton and JOHN HANSON.

My worthy and eloquent colleague has already portrayed the character and achievements of CHARLES CARROLL of Carrollton, and the pleasant duty has been assigned me of performing a similar office in honor of JOHN HANSON.

The little colony of Maryland played an important part in

the gigantic drama which closed with the independence of the United States; and it is from this period that Maryland has made both of her selections. So many able and brilliant men have graced the history of our State that much embarrassment was encountered in choosing but two upon whom to confer this distinction, for fear that thereby injustice might seem to have been intentionally done to others. Had we been privileged we could easily have filled all available space with effigies of renowed Marylanders and yet have felt dissatisfied that others equally worthy could not be added.

Among jurists, the name of Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Bench of the United States, suggests itself; among statesmen, Samuel Chase; among orators, William Pinkney and Henry Winter Davis; among soldiers, Col. John Eager Howard, who with the Maryland Line saved the day at Cowpens; Gen. Otho H. Williams, whose genius was displayed on many fields, and Lieut. Col. Tench Tilghman, who was an aid on the staff of General Washington; as a promoter of religious freedom, Cæcilius Calvert; as a writer of national anthems, Francis Scott Key, who gave to our country the Star Spangled Banner, when he saw by the dawn's early light that our flag was still floating over the ramparts of Fort McHenry.

TO JOHN HANSON, however, belongs the distinction of having held the highest Federal office ever conferred upon a Marylander, that of President of the United States in Congress assembled, and of having done more than any other one man in the colony to destroy the supremacy of Great Britain. JOHN HANSON was born at Mulberry Grove, Charles County, Md., on April 3, 1721. The Hanson family was a large one, and many of them found their way into the public service. His grandfather, Colonel Hanson, fell at Lützen for the cause of religious liberty; his oldest brother, Judge Walter Hanson, was commissary for Charles County; his brother Samuel was a patriot, and presented to General Washington 800 sterling to provide shoes for his barefoot soldiers; William, his youngest

brother, was examiner-general of Maryland; his son, Alexander Contee, was a patriot and intimate with Washington. He was one of the first judges of the general court and chancellor of the State; he was an elector for Washington, and compiled the laws of Maryland; his son, Samuel, was a surgeon in the Life Guards of Washington, and his son, Peter Contee, of the Maryland Line, was wounded at Fort Washington.

The first mention of JOHN HANSON in public life is as a delegate from Charles County to the lower house of assembly, in which he served nine terms. The disputes which arose between the two houses of assembly upon the burning questions of the day brought to the lower house, composed of the representatives of the people in the province, the ablest men in Maryland. He carried to that body a matured mind, which was there trained for the higher and more important responsibilities that awaited him in a broader field. At the close of the French and Indian war the tide of immigration turned to the fertile regions of Frederick County, and thither, in 1773, JOHN HANSON followed the long train of sturdy home builders. In his new environment his personal magnetism was soon felt; his sound judgment and honesty of character won for him the respect and confidence of the people. His advice was eagerly sought in those times of growing dissatisfaction, and, through his efforts, the citizens of Frederick County became devoted to the principles of the Revolution and firm in their resistance to the oppressions of the mother country.

His influence constantly increased and he was the leading spirit among a band of determined patriots during the transition of Maryland from a dependent, proprietary province into a sovereign State. During this period of transition there. gradually grew up side by side with the proprietary government another government—a government of the people. latter was an outgrowth of the restless desire for freedom, and its formidable character was not suspected until it became too

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