it is to a great extent a mere record of facts, is with a view both to interest and instruct the growing mind of the State-young persons passing into manhood and womanhood; for the thoughts embodied in the poems, addresses, orations, sermons, etc., in connection with the record of commemorative exercises of the Centennial year, will make the work a valuable political text-book and manual. It was with this view that the orations that form the first chapter of Part III are published. The liberal extracts therein given from the able oration of Rev. Dr. Storrs, are from a pamphlet edition by A. D. F. Randolph & Co., of New York. one, It is not presumed that the record of local celebrations of the Centennial Fourth which forms the third chapter of Part II, will have any especial literary value. Those observances necessarily partook of the same general characteristics, and hence a necessary sameness in their description. Their essential value consists in the record that is here perpetuated of the manner and extent of the commemoration, and of the persons participating. The extracts from Michigan orations that are presented under that head, are representative, and entitled to the place that they occupy. They were prepared by their authors as voluntary contributions to the commemoration of the Centennial Fourth, without reference to preservation or publication. Only a limited space could be given to each but the collection, taken as a whole, will form a valuable record of the popular thought of the time. In the collection of sermons that forms the concluding chapter of Part III, the object was to present representative thought in the religious world. The fact that the same denomination is in one or two cases represented by more than one discourse, while others are not represented at all, is unavoidable rather than intentional. The wish and the effort was to represent all. All denominations from which responses were received in season, are given representation, while with the manuscripts furnished, the delicate duty of selection and abridgment has been performed under the many, and in some cases conflicting, considerations and influences that surround such a work, but in which prejudice or preference as between denominations has formed no part. I take this occasion to extend my acknowledgments and thanks to the reverend gentlemen by whose favor this valuable feature ist made a part of the work. None of the discourses were written with the view of publication in this volume. There is no part of the work that has afforded so much personal pleasure and satisfaction in its compilation as that portion descriptive of the ladies' library associations. The erasive pencil was passed but lightly over the abstracts that I was called to revise, and always regretfully where the necessity of abridgment compelled its use. There is no part of our State representation at the Centennial Exhibition that, in the years to come, will reflect more clearly the quiet and unobtrusive, but refining, elevating and chastening currents of our social life, than this modest record of the ladies' library associations of Michigan, their methods and workings. The poem that introduces the work is a contribution by Mr. B. Hathaway, of Little Prairie Ronde. It was originally written under the inspiration of a visit to the Centennial Exhibition, the last three stanzas having since been added to give it a specific application to this work It is a voluntary offering to this volume by Mr. Hathaway, but will appear in a volume which he has in press, entitled, "Art-Life, and Other Poems." Among the contributors to the work who are not named in immediate connection with matter furnished by them, are: Mr. Wm. N. Hudson, who contributes the first chapter of Part I, and the greater portion of the first chapter of Part II; Mr. H. M. Utley, as compiler of the third and fourth chapters of Part II; Mr. Bronson Howard, who contributes the second and third chapters of Part IV; and Mr. Henry S. Clubb, who prepared the greater portion of the material for Part V, except the first and the last chapters. To the newspaper press of the State, I wish both heartily and feelingly to express my obligations for notices, not simply favorable and complimentary, but highly commendatory, without, to my knowledge, a single exception where expression has been given. I do not forget, however, that the expression thus far has had reference to the plan only. The execution and details of the work are yet to pass the critical examination of a class of gentlemen specially fitted by their calling to judge of its merits. Holding, myself, a cherished professional relationship to these gentlemen, the work is submitted to their judgment, in full confidence that it will be expressed with equal candor and courtesy. I am under many obligations to the members of the State Centennial Board, and to the Secretary, Mr. F. W. Noble, for personal and official favors. The publication of the work has been delayed considerably beyond what was expected, and though bearing the date of the Centennial year, its final completion has extended so far into the year 1877, that notice is incidentally taken of some things occurring during the first months of that year. S. B. MCCRACKEN. DETROIT, April, 1877. INTRODUCTORY POEM. CENTENNIAL. I. Turn backward-turn the horoscope of Time O year sublime! Lo! by the sea, Anxious and bowed in tears, Tearful but not forlorn, Columbia, sitting by the cradled form Of one but newly born; Sitting with mother-breast all full and warm, II. Now in her matron pride she sees Thee stand Unto full stature grown; From strand to strand, Wide leagues away Still on-and all Thine own, Stretches Thy fair estate; From Isles of Palm to belts of Northern Pine From where the Golden Gate Looks on the sea, to the Atlantic brine; III. A hundred years! O who so wise to know What work divine Our hands through Thee have wrought? By Thee inspired to toil We builded-building better than we planned; Before our thought embodied full and grand, We stand abashed,-knowing the work is Thine. IV. To-day Thy commerce spreads her snowy sail And many a vale Where wakes the sound Of forge, and loom, and plane- Faith lights her altars, Art her temple rears Where homes fond hearts entwine Where harvests yield their wealth of golden ears Was at Thy birth a wilderness profound. V. Through mountain reach, by hill, and moor, and mead, We stretch the iron way, On which the steed That never tires, Treads with exultant neigh; The plowman, turning o'er The farthest glebe, a joyful tremor feels; The woodman from his door Hears from afar the sound of rolling wheels ;— VI. And here to-day, where Thou didst wake to birth Life from the Life Divine !— Owning Thy worth, A mighty throng Come-pilgrims to Thy shrine, Than armed host more grand! Never before such sound of hurrying feet Was heard in all the land; And still they come,-bearing an homage meet; And still, and twice a hundred thousand strong! VII. And hither from across the stormy main Have the far nations brought, And not in vain, To honor Thee, Works that their hands have wrought; |