This poem was delivered in Phoenix, Arizona, February 14th, 1912, at a public reception tendered to Hon. George W. P. Hunt, who that day took the oath of office as Governor immediately after receiving the dispatch from Washington that President Taft had officially proclaimed the admission unto the Union of the new state of Arizona.
WE salute Arizona, the State--our cheers are exultant and loud!
The dawning has come and the sunburst, the sunburst that follows the cloud.
The road to her triumph seemed endless, the path has been rough for her feet;
It led through a desolate Edom, a desert-place throbbing with heat.
Yet she is no tearful Dolores to yield to a womanish whim,
But strong and unbending in purpose and supple in body and limb.
Her baffled traducers have vanished, the last of her foes have gone down,
And Law and Authority vest her today with the scepter and crown.
Her dower is regal and splendid, 'tis rich as the gold of her mines;
Her spirit is lofty and buoyant and fresh as the green of her pines.
As long as she keeps her ideal as high as the hope of the race,
Her rule shall be ever benignant, as the smile that illumines her face.
With leagues of gray, sand-covered desert, her realm is a wonderland rare--
High mountains, grand canyons, green valleys immersed in a life-giving air.
The seeker is ever rewarded--there are gems, there are fruits, there are flowers,
And a climate Italian in mildness. What fortune so goodly as ours!
We know that the Toltecs and Aztecs were here when the old world was new,
Though the dust of the sepulchred ages has buried them deep from our view;
For ruins are left to remind us what manner of people they were--
Soil-tillers, home-builders, and weavers--the rest of the record a blur.
So the race that reclaims and repeoples the land of the arid Southwest
Shall, in virtue and knowledge and culture, take rank with the highest and best.
Many stars gem the blue of Old Glory, their rays on the multitude fall,
But the Forty-Eighth star shall be counted the fairest and brightest of all.
Forget not the men who came early, the vanguard of brave pioneers,
Who blazed out the pathway for others back there in the strenuous years;
Who fought with the cruel Apaches, baptizing the land with their blood;
Who conquered the treacherous desert, and harnessed the recreant flood;
Who harried the mountains for treasure, outside of the settlement's hem--
The men who have made this occasion a surety--give honor to them!
For they are as truly state-builders as any the commonwealth knows--
They struggled unselfishly always with little reward or repose.
What means this endowment of statehood that meets with such happy acclaim?
Is it merely investing the chosen with dignities, honors and fame?
It means higher civic achievement, more wholesome, more pertinent laws;
And the state shall herself be a helper and leader in every good cause.
Safeguarding the rights of the people, conserving the freedom of all,
No danger that fronts her shall daunt her, no fear of disaster appall.
Keeping step to the newer world-music, her banner of Progress unfurled,
Her glory shall brighten and broaden, her fame shall be wide as the world!
