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Miss Clarisse Claiborne, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fernand Claiborne, great-grand-daughter of Hon. W. C. C. Claiborne, the first American Governor of Louisiana, and niece of Hon. Charles F. Claiborne, member of the Louisiana Historical Society, and of the general committee on Centennial, took hold of the ropes that hoisted the flag of 1812, of the United States, over the State flag of Louisiana. Miss Claiborne is not only a descendant of the first governor of Louisiana, on the paternal side, but on the maternal side she is a descendant of the Honorable Jacques Villeré, who was the second American Governor of this State, from 1816 to 1820.

The school children sang "The Star Spangled Banner," at the conclusion of the flag raising.

A detachment of the Washington Artillery fired a salute of seventeen guns the national salute-and next boomed one more gun in commemoration of the fact that Louisiana was the eighteenth State to be admitted into the Union.

PRESENTATION OF PRIZE MEDAL TO MISS DINWIDDIE.

Judge A. A. Gunby of Monroe, donor of the prize medal to be competeted for by pupils of the public schools, for the best essay on "The Significance of Louisiana's Admission into the Union as a State," presented the gold medal to Miss Emily B. Dinwiddie. Judge Gunby in presenting the medal said:

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens of Louisiana:-It seems proper that I should explain the object and purpose which the Louisiana Historical Society had in view in presenting a medal on this occasion. The Society thought, and properly thought, that the purpose of the celebration should be mainly educational and, therefore, that the public schools of the State should be interested in this celebration in the most direct and efficient form. The Society offered a medal to be contested for by all the pupils of all the schools in the State embraced in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Doctor Gwinn, the distinguished Superintendent of Public Education for the city of New Orleans, was put in charge of this contest and he invited essays on the subject of "The Significance of the Admission of Louisiana to the Union," and requested the principals of the schools to make choice of all the essays presented and to send him two of the best essays chosen from the entire list. There were over a thousand essays on the subject presented, and I

am proud to say the study of Louisiana history was stimulated and encouraged more than it has ever been before by this historical contest. Doctor Gwinn states that he received seventy choice essays from the number written and that he, together with his committee, examined and weeded out those essays and selected therefrom ten of the best; but all indications from whence these assays came and by whom written were eliminated and that these essays were then submitted to a committee composed of Prof. Butler of Newcomb College, Miss Grace King and Miss Imogen Stone, and they selected from these essays one that they considered best in form and composition. This essay was written by Miss Emily B. Dinwiddie of the Newman Manual Training School of New Orleans.

I ask permission to say, before this vast audience, that the object of the Historical Society in giving the children of the State a prominent and leading part in these exercises, was a noble and wise one. Our children are the jewels of Louisiana; they are our best and most valuable product; they are the pride of the present, the hope of the future and the glory of the past. For my part, I would rather have my name connected with the children of the State than with any of the elaborate and learned orations and essays that have been submitted here on the career of Louisiana in the past and her prospects for the future.

I hope I may be also permitted to say that the history of Louisiana is the most important of any State in the Union, and, I might say, more important than the history of any other State or nation in the world. The significance of the admission of Louisiana to the Union has never been adequately treated by any historian. Time will not permit to discuss, nor even to outline the immense significance of that event in the history of our Government. The admission of Louisiana to the Union not only achieved the great things that have been outlined here on this stand; it not only made the Mississippi the greatest pathway of commerce in the world; freed for all time the navigation of the Mississippi River and made it the bond of an indissoluble union; it not only destined the City of New Orleans to become the greatest seaport in the world, as Jefferson said; it not only was the first State formed out of the foreign territory, as has been well said here, and made possible the admission of thirteen States from the territory purchased from Napoleon; not only made of the United States.

a more powerful Government, a continental Government, a world power, which no other nation dare to attack, which no other nation on earth would successfully hope to compete with in war; it not only provided the people of the United States a fine territory of rich and fertile soil which enables Louisiana, like her Pelican, to feed her own young, and in time to feed the young of all the world; but above all, and before all, the admission of Louisiana to the Union made possible and necessary the annunciation of the Monroe Doctrine by President Monroe, who had been the plenipotentiary to make the treaty with Napoleon; the annunciation. of the Monroe Doctrine, which, thanks to the Louisiana purchase, has reserved the soil of all countries in the Western Hemisphere for popular government and thus revolutionized the governments and the political ideas of the whole world. Such was the significance of the admission of Louisiana as a State in the Union.

To stimulate the study of history, to enable our children and our children's children to realize the immense significance of that commonwealth to the Union of States, was the wise and noble object of the Louisiana Historical Society. We want the children of this State to become deeply and truly versed in the history of Louisiana and that shall be the proudest memento of this great occasion. If I may be permitted, in some measure, to paraphase the words of the greatest oration every delivered on American soil, I would say that the Louisiana Historical Society wishes that you children, who stand around this stage, would go forth from this celebration and consecrate yourselves anew to the service and glory of Louisiana; that from the memories of this day there may be a new birth of freedom and a new baptism of patriotic fire in this commonwealth.

Now, Miss Dinwiddie, I take great pleasure and pride in presenting to you, as the winner among a thousand competitors, as the winner in an honorable and severe contest, as in the noblest sense, the Queen of this Celebration, I take great pleasure in congratulating you on your ambition and ability and courage, and presenting to you, as a representative of the children of the present and the children of the future, this beautiful medal, this Louisiana Centennial medal, which bears upon one of its golden sides the coat of arms of your native State, and upon the other the following

"LOUISIANA CENTENNIAL MEDAL.
For Prize Essay

Presented to Emily B. Dinwiddie,
April 30, 1912."

Miss Dinwiddie's essay that won the coveted prize, was as follows:

LOUISIANA AS A STATE.

"When Napoleon Bonaparte sold this land to the United States for fifteen million dollars, he little dreamed of its value. The people criticized Thomas Jefferson strongly for buying what they thought to be a waste land of forests, water and swamps. They, too, little thought of what value it would be in only a century, for now it is estimated to be worth at least a hundred billion dollars. It is said that the wealth of her natural resources is greater than that of any of the thirteen States forming the original body of the Union. Congress hesitated in admitting the State into the United States because it was inhabited so largely by the French and Spanish Creoles, whose ideas of liberty and government were so very different from those of the Americans. Even after she was admitted as a State there was a great difference of opinion as to whether it was a good thing or not. The American people who had moved into the purchased land were very glad, but the French inhabitants were sorry, for now they lost all hope of being restored to the French government again.

Let us look at some of the changes that have taken place since that time. In 1803 a census was taken and it was found that the inhabitants in the ceded territory were 49,000. Now in the State of Louisiana alone (and it is but a small part of the Louisiana purchase) there are more than thirty-three times as many.

New Orleans was then the largest city of the territory, and still is. The position of this city is one reason for its being large. It is a river harbor, about 100 miles from the gulf, but easily reached by ocean vessels. Shreveport and Baton Rouge (the capital) are also important commercial cities.

Many people thought that Louisiana was a great area of malarial swamps, and it is true that they take up about a third of the State, but they are now regarded as her greatest source of wealth, for they are not swamps in the usual meaning of that word,

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