As American citizens you are proud of the grand traditions and heroic memories that crowd your country's history; and nowhere else on this continent could your feet tread on ground more hallowed by historic memories than here. I think before you leave us you will acknowledge that if the immortal names and deeds that this locality suggests should be stricken from the annals of time, most of the present school books of our country would be valueless and our national history itself would be as the play of Hamlet, with Hamlet left out. The school boys and girls of our whole country are familiar with the story of Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas, and history records that right here Captain John Smith battled with and repulsed the Indians. So we may fairly claim, without the exercise of poetic license, that the struggle of the Anglo-Saxon race, to establish its civilization and supremacy on this continent, commenced on this spot in 1608, just one year after Jamestown was settled. If we should draw a circle around this ancient city, with a radius of less than fifty miles, we should find within that narrow compass the birthplace of George Washington, of Thomas Jefferson, of James Madison, of James Monroe, of Zachary Taylor, of Chief-Justice John Marshall, of the Lees of the Revolution, of Patrick Henry, of Henry Clay, of Matthew Maury and of Robert E. Lee. If we should extend the circle but a very, very little, it would also embrace the birthplace of William Henry Harrison, of John Tyler, of Winfield Scott, and likewise the birthplace of this Republic at Yorktown. [Illustration: A Tombstone in St. George's Churchyard, remarkable for its date. (See page 246)] [Illustration: Confederate Monument in Confederate Cemetery. (See page 189)] Is there any other similar segment of space on the habitable globe so resplendent with stars of the first magnitude! Seven Presidents of the United States and three of the greatest military leaders of modern times were born within two hours' ride of this city, estimated according to the most improved modern methods of travel! That meteoric Mars of naval warfare, John Paul Jones, lived and kept store in this town, and went from here to take command of a ship of our colonial navy. He was the first man who ever raised our flag upon a national ship, and he struck terror to the heart of the British navy by his marvellous naval exploits during the Revolution. It was right here that Washington's boyhood and youth were spent, and that he was trained and disciplined for his transcendent career, and it was to the unpretending home of his mother, still standing here--which you will visit--that Washington and Lafayette came when the war closed, to lay their laurels at her feet; and her ashes repose here, under a beautiful monument, erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution.