"When I perceive that many of those assembled here to do honor to the day we celebrate (away up in this quiet and delightful mountain retreat--the Switzerland of America, free from the noise, turmoil and fog of the city) are prominent educators of the nation's children, I find my embarrassment increased lest a misapplied word, or misplaced verb might cause my everlasting disgrace; for above all people whom I honor and whose respect and esteem I appreciate, it is those devoted men and women who give their time and their talents to the education of the young; and to whose care, fathers and mothers, in unstinted confidence, are willing to entrust their loved ones in preparing them for the battle of life. [Illustration: (The fireplace and the cabin are from paintings in oil by Mrs. Blake-Alverson) Col. Richard Parnell In 1893 the Only Survivor of the Battle of Balaklava DEER PARK CABIN, LAKE TAHOE Dedicated July 4, 1893] "When our republic was formed, the wisdom of its founders manifested itself in many ways. One in particular strikes us very forcibly in contrast with our sister republics in Europe and even on this continent. We have no legacy of royalty, no legacy of hereditary or titled aristocracy that forever menace, and threaten the peace and stability of other republics; the highest office in the gift of the people becomes the servant of the people, hence we have the stability of a government founded by the people, of the people, and for the people, and although some thirty odd years ago the aristocracy of Europe tried hard to destroy our republic, we are today stronger than ever, a united country of sixty-five millions of people, whose stalwart yeomen from Maine to Oregon and from the Lakes to the Gulf, are ready and willing to take the field at a moment's warning, against any foreign enemy whose temerity might prompt them to attack Old Glory. "I speak advisedly when I say this for the war of the rebellion was not confined, strictly speaking, to the people of the north and the people of the south alone; the people of the north were fighting, not only to maintain the unity and integrity of the United States, but, much like the war of the revolution, they had to contend against foreign foes in the moral and substantial aid given by France and England to the south in its strenuous efforts to disrupt the unity of the country founded by our forefathers, they (of the north) were contending against the intrigue of the emperor of the French, whose hostile armies had invaded the soil of our sister republic south of the Rio Grande, for the purpose of establishing a monarchy in that country, and blighting it with the titled and depraved aristocracy of the French empire, as it then existed.