The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1888-03-01
THE SOCTH'S TRIBUTE TO
THE PRESIDENT.

THE PRESIDENT.
President Cleveland visited Florida
last week, to attend the grand Tropi
cal Exposition now in progress at Jack
sonville, and he was rec2ived with ova
tons wherever he stopped. This demon
strstion in his behalf was not the spon-
taneoIs outburst of admiration for Mr..
Cleveland and his beautiful and &C
comp'ished wife, more than the respect
the people have for the CONSTITUTIONS
and the high Office he occupies. No
where in this broad land Of ours is there
more loyal and peaceable citizens
than those of the old slave holding
States, the assertions of John Sher-
man TO the contrary Notwithstanding.
The He7ps- Obser0e,- says on this sub
ject:
The Presidents trip through the
South both going to and returning
from Florida has been marked by
blaze of glorious enthusiasm. Every
where the people of all classes, ages.
races and conditions have turned out
to do him honor, indicating thus the
respect in which the chief magistracy
of the country is held throughout this
section. The towns through which
the presidential train has passed have
been Illuminated, the flowers of the
South, already in bloom, have been
offered in such prolllSion to the fair
mistress of the White House that her
car has been kept a very bower of
fresh beauty. The homage paid the
holder of the highest Office within
reach of the citizen of our great re-
public has been universal, unstudied,
prompt and earnest. 1t has shown
the devotion of the people of the coun-
try to our political system, the rever-
ence for constitutional government
which they take in with their mothers
milk. 1t has made a triumphal march
of the progress of the chief executive
of the greatest country the sun has
ever shone upon, And yet it has
come from % ex~rebels," so-called by
the partisan press of the Republican
party at the North Who would have
believed 1t? In what striking con
trast has the demonstration been to
the waving Of the bloody shirt beyond
the Potomac, the dwelling on the pas
sions of the war now twenty years and
more in the past, the stirring up and
renewal by every means possible Of
sectional animosity, which every pa
triot would see buried forever beyond
the hope of resurrection. 1t has been
splendid exemplification of the pur-
pose of the southern people to make
the restored union in all respects what
the founders Of the union intended the
work of their hands should be. AS
Wade Hampton said at recent din
ner of the Maryland Line Association
in Baltimore every other true south
erner will say:
:" have no apology TO make foi
the part we took in the war and wish
my tongue may cleave to the roof o.
, my mouth before l would say my dear
brothers were traitors. We tried Il
do our duty bravely. When we failed
another duty was before us. 1t va
evident that the fate of war had de
/ cided against us. We then had bu
one country, and al! had been brough
together. said then, and say now
1t is the daty Of every patriot, ever.
surviving Cosfedsyate, to Try to max
c that country fit for feemen to live il
2 for all time to come"
r And as New York's Mayor Hewitt
said before the Southern Socisty of h
: city recently: "In future the creates
friend and supporter of Constitution;
L Union will be the South" Let OF
f brethren at the North make 4 note {
thic