government indeed began in this room. And, since ours is today the
foremost in the free world, I look forward to a time when the Old
Senate Chamber will be recognized internationally as a shrine. As more
and more foreigners visit our shores, seeking out the significant spots of
American history, there will certainly develop an appreciation of this
quiet little room that will bring it an ever-growing fame.
How thankful should we be, therefore, that the wisdom of our
General Assembly, in years past, was invoked to preserve our Old
Senate Chamber! Without this foresighted act, which took place over
60 years ago, the living memory of the first peacetime government of
the United States would have been lost. It would have been known
only as it lay between the covers of books. Scholars alone would have
understood it. But today how is it—thanks to the care of our Maryland
legislators of 1902? Why, more than 100, 000 people come each year to
look reverently at the chamber. Steadily this number grows too, and
steadily the fame of our whole colonial capital city spreads throughout
the country and the world. What we do with this heritage of ours is
therefore of inestimable importance. It is ours. But it also belongs to
all Americans and should be known by all free peoples everywhere.
Let us not fall below the record set by our past legislators. Let us
follow on in the spirit of those who, 60 years ago, preserved the Old
Senate Chamber, realizing, as we carry on in their noble course, that
we live in an age that is different from theirs, an age in which two
great new forces are at work everywhere we turn. One of these forces
is the present universal habit of travel. The other is the unprecedented
universal interest in history. The two go hand-in-hand. People are
coming to Maryland, to Annapolis, as never before. And they are com-
ing because they want to see our historic places. Because, indeed,
they want to see a whole historic city.
This is what we have and what draws them. It has been written
of Annapolis in one of the foremost travel publications of the time—
Holiday Magazine—that, unlike Williamsburg, Virginia, it does not
have to be "restored" for the reason that, unlike Williamsburg, it never
decayed. Visitors who come to it, the writer observed, see the real
thing. And this fame spreads and spreads.
I am happy to be able to say that since its inception in 1959, our
Department of Economic Development has been on the side of preserva-
tion and through the efforts of the Tourist Division has endeavored to
inform Marylanders of the cultural, educational and economic value
of our historic building. And during the past two years our State
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