National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-11-19
FAITHFUL "PAPv THOMAS.

Loyal Virginia is to be resurrected to-day
in the memorial services attendant upon the
dedication of a statue in honor of one of the
noblest, bravest and most patriotic of her
dead cons SO long as this statue shall stand
to perpetuate his memory so long will there
exist invincible proof to every intelligent
mind that the Old Dominion was not wholly
given over to treason, and that the South
has always enjoyed redeeming leaven of
fact that GEORGE III. THOMAS was LOYAL in
the midst of rank sedition; that he faltered
not in his allegiance when those around him,
friends and kinsmen, were turning traitors
under the alurements of sectional pride
and the incentives of political prejudices or
personal ambitions, is evoked now to glorify
his ashes and sanctiiy his name. No incl
dent OF his eventful career nor integral act
of his successful life, is worthy of a millionth
part the note which attaches to this illus
tration of his sturdy fealty. 1t made him
Hero long before the world knew him rs the
man of Nashville and of Chattanooga. 1t
made him Conqueror in the more exalted
sense of the term, even before he had drawn
his sword against the enemy he afterward
aided in subduing. For this, when history
shall be written free from the infection of
the partisan surroundings of the present,
his name will stand recorded on it's bright
est page his example win be held up to
the emulation of patriots, and the chill
dren of patriots, for ages TO come ;
and his memory will be blessed by the lips
of thousands yet unborn, who will learn to
love and admire him us one whose intrepid
devotion to the cause of freedom sustained
him in the sacrifice of all the associations
and promptings of his earlier life.
To tho casual witness of to-day's cere-
monies these reflections may not suggest
themselves but to his comrades and former
followers, comrades all, they will appeal,
and not in vain, for warm, honest and
earnest approval. To those brave men the
deft handwork of the sculptor will not
represent mere artistic outline Of bronze /;
but rather the very embodiment of dutiful,
unhestating and enthusiastic loyalty. 1t
will recall to them his many noble qualities,
the qualities of leadership, ofcompanionship
and of kind-hearted sympathy, which were
combined in him to make his character as
whole that of complete and finished
ideal soldier and commander for he was
soldier in all that could be required of him
by his fellow-soldiers in tho rank and file OF
in the line, and commander likewise, in
all that could bs required of him IN those
attributes which secure and deserve success
That he was Statesman, as well, and one
who penetrated with a deeper insight into
the currents of political affairs than many OF
his laudators among the Demo- Confeds OF
to-day imagine, is fully evidenced by the
following extract from report rendered by
| him to the War Department, October /
1868, three and a-half years after General
LEES surrender. The report related to the
existence Of the Ku KluX disorders in Ken
lucky and Tennessee, which States were
then embraced in the military department
under General THOMAS command:
The controlling cause of the unsettled con
dition of affairs in the Department is that thu
greatest efforts made by tho defeated insnr
| gents since tile close OF the war have been tC
promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty
justice, humanity, equality and all the calen
dar of tho virtues of freedom, suffered vic
lenCe and wrong when the effort for Southern
independence failed. This is, of course, In
tended rs species Of political cant, whereby
the crime of treason might be covered with
counterfeit vanish Of patriotism, 80 that th'
prccipitators of ths Rebellion might go dOwr
in history hand in hand with the defenders o
the Government, thus wiping out with theil
/ own hands their own stains a species of self
forgiveness amazing in lls effrontery, when Il
is considered that life and property Justly
! forfeited by tho laws of the country, OF wai