You can therefore rest assured, Mr. President, that my country will contribute to the World's Fair and enhance with its varied exhibits its universal and historical features. I am, in fact, authorized to inform you that His Majesty's Government has decided to ask for the requisite appropriation as soon as Parliament assembles. Spain will appear before you, if not in all the splendor that the requirements of her wise, economical programme now forbid, at least in the manly garb of a nation meaning to show you and to show the world that her gloriously checkered career, instead of impairing our vitality, has retempered the ever-elastic steel of our national fiber and concentrated and directed all its latent energies toward the modern conquests of progress, labor, and civilization to which the city of St. Louis is now erecting a temple worthy of the city itself and of the auspicious event we are now commemorating.
And now, Mr. President, in wishing success to your noble undertaking, in thanking you and this city for its cordial hospitality, I beg to acknowledge also my gratitude for the numerous tokens and expressions of good will toward Spain which have been uttered during this solemn celebration and which I so fully appreciate.
I beg to salute reverently in that new-born flag of your exhibition and august emblem of peace and labor, a touching appeal to fraternity among nations. In that flag are blended the past and the present with the glorious colors of the three nations representative of St. Louis's early and contemporary history. Let us welcome its appealing and eloquent symbolism like the herald of an ever-cloudless future.
Eighth. "Hallelujah Chorus" from The Messiah.
Ninth. Benediction by Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls:
Almighty God, Heavenly Father, whose all-wise Providence did lead our fathers across the seas to this land, and Who hath given their children a goodly heritage, let Thy blessing rest upon their children. Let Thy blessings rest upon all the nations represented here to-day and upon the representatives. May we continue in the bonds of peace for all time. May the grace of God, mercy, and peace be with us. Amen.
Tenth. Centennial salute of 100 guns.
PROGRAMME
STATE DAY, MAY 2, 1903.
The civic parade assembled at 10.30 a.m. under direction of Col. Eugene J. Spencer, marshal of the day, and moved from the junction of Grand avenue and Lindell boulevard through Forest Park to the exposition grounds, where the parade was reviewed by the governors of the States.