The Sifted Grain and the Grain Sifters 2 1 1 here than in Rome and Great Britain, is the only safe rock of empire. The race thus educated and endowed is the masterful race, — the master of its own destiny, it is master of the destiny of others ; and of that crowning republican quality, Wisconsin, during our period of national trial, showed herself markedly possessed. While individ- uals were not exceptional, the averag'e was unmistakably high. And this I hold to be the highest tribute which can be paid to a political community. It implies all else. Unless I greatly err, this characteristic has, in the case of Wisconsin, a profound and scientific significance of the most far-reaching character ; and so I find myself brought back to my text. As I have already more than once said, others are in every way better qualified than I to speak intelligently of the Wisconsin stock, — of the elements which enter into the brain and bone and sinew of the race now holding as its abiding-place and breeding-ground the region lying between Lake Michigan and the waters of the upper Mississippi, — between the state of Illinois on the south and Lake Superior on the north. I speak chiefly from im- pression, and always subject to correction ; but my understanding is that this region was in the main peopled by men and women repre- senting in their persons what there was of the more enterprising^ adventurous and energetic of three of the most thoroughly virile and, withal, moral and intellectual branches of the human family, — I refer to the Anglo-Saxon of New England descent, and to the Teutonic and the Scandinavian families. Tough of fibre and tena- cious of principle, the mixed descendants from those races were well calculated to illustrate the operation of a natural law ; and I have quite failed in my purpose if I have not improved this occasion to point out how in the outset of their political life as a community they illustrated the force of Stoughton's utterance and the truth of Darwin's remarkable generalization. By their attitude and action, at once intelligent and decided, they left their imprint on that par- ticular phase of human evolution which then presented itself They, in so doing, assigned to Wisconsin its special place and work in the great scheme of development, and forecast its mission in the future. I have propounded an historical theory ; it is for others, better advised, having passed upon it, to confirm or reject. There are many other topics which might here and now be dis- cussed, perhaps advantageously, — topics closely connected with this edifice and with the occasion, — topics relating to libraries, the accu- mulation of historical material, and methods of work in connection with it ; but space and time alike forbid. A selection must be
