Dedication Address by Justice William A Riner

It is very fitting that the ceremonies concerning this memorial should be held on this day - the day, eleven years past when the guns on the Western Front were silenced and the longed-for peace spread once more over a war torn world.   Robert Burns was in large measure one who wrote of peacetime scenes - the home and hearthstone, the joys and pleasures of farm life and the brotherly relations of mankind.

The great poet was born January 25, 1759.  Only thirty seven years elapsed and he passed from this earth.   His brief sojourn in this life resembled that of Chatterton, Keats and Shelley; and like them , too, he left the magic imprint of his genius upon the literature of his homeland.   The merits of Robert Burns were never so freely admitted as now.   The common consent of the literary world has never placed him so high or uttered his praises with so little attempt at detraction.   We of this generation recognise him to be the poet of homely human nature, not half so homely or prosaic as it often seems.  The forces which live in his poetry and by which it lives are the controlling passions of human nature.

Purified and enobled by Burns, the songs of Scotland embody emotion and feeling in their most condensed and sweetest essence.   They appeal to all ranks, they touch all ages, they cheer toil-worn men under every clime.   Wherever the English tongue is heard - beneath the suns of far-off India, amid the scorching glare of African deserts, here with us on the heights of the American continent, there in the wilds of the frozen North - wherever men of English and Scottish ancestry are wont to foregather and would give vent to their deepest, kindliest, most genial feelings, it is to the songs of Burns they forthwith turn.   In them they find at once a perfect utterance and new ties of loyal brotherhood.   This is the golden link in that chain which binds the poet to enduring gratitude of ages still to come.

Who has ever written like him? What poem descriptive of the old farmstead life in its primeval simplicity and dignity, clings to our memories and lives in our breasts like his Cotter's Saturday Night?   From the beginning of time to the day when Burn's pen struck off the stanzas, there was nothing written in the vein of his Mountain Daisy.  What song addresses itself so movingly to our love of old friends and our happy recall of days past and gone as his Auld Lang Syne or to the blissful ties of the hearthstone so powerfully as his John Anderson My Jo?

Those here present who have lived in Cheyenne for many decades past, will recall with pleasure and delight the gatherings summoned each year by Mrs Gilchrist to remind us of the anniversary of the poet's birth.   They were a social event in the community and it was a great privilege to be permitted to attend them.  As time slipped away, it became no longer possible to continue these assemblages.   Now we find that Mrs Gilchrist has caused to be erected in this place this beautiful statue of the illustrious poet.  It is a permanent memorial.    As the tides of traffic in the city ebb and flow near its base day by day, season after season and year following year it will remind us and our children's children of the wonderful genius of the poet, Robert Burns.   It will remind us too of the donor and the kindly thoughtfulness and generous impulse which prompted her to present this magnificent gift to the city of Cheyenne.  Finally it will remind us always of the courage, the loyalty and the splendid spirit spirit of sacrifice manifested by the men and women of Scottish ancestry and birth in the upbuilding of this our loved commonwealth of Wyoming.- the men and women whose national traits and virtues have been so gloriously illuminated in the verses of the poet to whom this statue does such signal honour.   

Address by Frank C Emerson - State Governor of Wyoming

Mrs. Gilchrist and Folks of Cheyenne and Wyoming.

I consider it a real privilege as Governor of Wyoming, to say a few words on this occasion in appreciation of the man in whose honour this statue is unveiled today and also of the fine Scottish lady who has provided this memorial as a gift to us.

It is noted in the wording on the base of the monument that the gift is to the "City of Cheyenne" but in giving it to our capital city I am sure the gift is also in a large way to our State.   It is fitting that it should be so for the Scottish people have had an important part in the building of Wyoming.   Especially among our flockmasters do we find the thrifty Scots in leading place. In business and professional circles and in many other places of importance we also find the countrymen of Robert Burns as real leaders.   It is pleasing to know that Andrew and Mary Gilchrist have been among the staunchest of these.

These facts cause us to especially honour Mrs. Gilchrist for her gift and to express tribute to the man she in turn honours by this fine figure which rears itself as a worthy addition to the attractions of Cheyenne.  It is my understanding that this statue was the last work of the brilliant Scottish sculptor Henry S, Gamley and that only his lamented death prevented him from to us for this dedication.   I am told that almost his last words were those uttered to his wife in comment upon the subject of this memorial when he said "Robert Burns has the form of a countryman and the face of a gentleman", and thus referred to the virile strength of body and fine attainments of the mind of the beloved poet of Scotland.

The life of Robert Burns was seemingly filled with adverse circumstances and his career an almost continuous fight against discouraging worldly odds.  Nevertheless Robert Burns gave to the world a precious gift of immortal song, for even in his writings there ran the strain of music.  To his own people this great poet was known as "Bobby Burns" and the conversion of name seems to me a token of the love and esteem in which he is held by his countrymen of both high and low estate. Born of humble parentage he became the toast and honoured guest  of those high in affairs, while at the same time he translated so truly the heart throbs of the common people.   His prevailing characteristic was that of absolute sincerity.  The world needed more of the genius of Robert Burns and his death at the early age of 37 is to be lamented.  To me the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes in tribute to Robert Burns so well convey, in brief form, his circumstances of life:

"Till through the cloud of fortune's wrong

He soared of glory:

But left his land her sweetest song,

And earth her saddest story."

To Mrs. Mary Gilchrist we owe a real debt for her gift to the city and state of this fine memorial.   In honouring her distinguished countryman she honours all of us in America.  We can all rejoice with her in still being among us and having had the bodily strength to make a recent trip to the native land so dear to her.   I am proud, myself, to wear today the tie of Scottish plaid which this fine lady brought to me from her travels.   For her we all wish the best for time to come.

Again may I express my pleasure in taking part, as Governor of Wyoming, in this pleasant ceremony.