Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-06

"
close together. Now you can travel all
over the Union in less time than it took
fifty years ago to go from Fannin
to Preside The North and the South
understand each other now; they did not
then And with this understanding
comes love and respect and admiration
that viii render another war impossible.
The man who is willing To die for princt-
pie makes a good citizen North or South.
As long as the influence OF the brave men
of the civil war shall endure the fires of
patriotism viii burn, and this nation
shall stand a monument to civil liberty.
After some routine work of minor i'm
portance the meeting adjourned, and the
scene of operations was quickly trans
ferred to the dining halls.
AFTER DINNER.
As soon as the dinner question had
been settled satisfactorily, meeting
was held at the large arbor for the pur-
pose Of hearing Ex-Governor ThTOckmor-
ton 8 speech to the grays and the blues.
There was some preliminary skirmish-
ing before the real battle began. Capt.
Veal called the meeting TO order and
made a short speech, after which he IN
troduced Curtis Green, formerly of
Georgia, who had escaped from prison
at Rome, Ga with a pair of handouts
on. He exhibited the cuffs, and told
how he made his escape.
Capt Veal then delivered q brief adj
dress, and closed by presenting eX-
Governor ThrOckmOrton.
The governor said to attempt to make
q speech or an occasion of this kind
brought up so many recOllections that he
felt too full to talk in a manner that would
be interesting and instructive to his au-
dienCa. He spoke of the different ways
in which the two armies had gone home
from AppomattoX twenty-four years
ago, and of the marvellous recuperation
OF the South from the desolatOn that
war had wrought within her Dor
ders They had come back to
ruined homes and desolated firesides,
conquered but not disgraced people.
They had gone to work to revive their
fortunes and to build up their country,
and how well they succeeded the pros
peTity OF the present could well show.
lie paid
A GLOWING TRIBUTE TO GRANT,
whose magnanimIty had prompted
him to allow the Southern
soldiers to retain their
side arms, and such other property as
their homes. The Texans were surren-
deTed many hundred miles from home.
But they returned, defeated, diseased,
ragged and distressed, but with heads
erect, and not discouraged by the dis
asters they had faced. Where lived
the man, however prophetic, who
could have fOretof& such prosperity as
twenty-four years had brought? 1t is
the garden spot OF the.continent to-day
i'll natural products, and for brave men
ana beautiful women. not equaled on
earth. The people of Texas stand to-
day the pFoudest Of the world.
The speaker referred to the causes of
the war, not, he said, to revive Old pre-
JUDGES, but to show the young people of
the country tls+' their fathers fought
not for the sake of war, but in defense
,of principles they held to be right. He
had opposed secession. While he knew
in his heart that the North had violated
the constitution and given the South just
cause for withdrawal; though he felt
that they had time and again broken
faith III the passage of fugitive
slave Nsss; while he felt aQd be-
leved az the charges that were
made against the North to be true, still
he did not think the election of Lincoln
sufficient cause for taking up arms or for
a, separation =. He did not believe wrong
could be rjghted that waSS5y MOI, did he
believe the South could maintain the
struggle.
STATES RIGHTS.
The constitution, he declared, would
never nave been adopted if a provision
had been contained in it giving a ma
toritv of the states the right to coerce
the others.
But no matter the cause, the war
came on Though he opposed secession,
vet he had decided and announced that
if Texas should go he would go with her;
that her future should be his future for
veal or Tor woe. The same feelings that
moved the revolutionary fathers implied
the secessiOnists. They fought
for what they believed to
be right. So did the people
of the North. Many of them opposed
coercion, and advised with Greedy that
the Southern sisters DE allowed to go in
peace But the first shot upon Fort
Sumpter fired their hearts, and the war
was begun, a war that had no equal in
history. 1t was brother against brother,
son agasnst father. Greek had met
Greek and the shock startled the civilized
world.
The Southern leaders did not believe
there would be q war. They thought
when the test came the North would let
the South go in peace. The speaker
thought otherwise. He did not believe
the Mississippi river could ever be made
the boundary line of two republics.
The speaker dwelt at some length on
the inequality of the struggle, and spoke
in the highest praise Of the fortitude of
the Southern men which he declared was
only surpassed by the high courage of
the women who cheered and encouraged
them. He had seen them blowing in the
fields aud going to mill while husbands,
brothers, fathers, sons were away at the
front.
WONDERFUL FIGHTING.
Figures were produced showing the
terrible fighting qualities of the Ameri-
can soldiers. At Gettysburg almost as
many men were killed as at Waterloo.
where twice the number were engaged,
and they the veterans of many wars,
fighting under the two greatest com
of the age. He also produced
other figures from the Virginia and
Maryland campaigns to the same effect.
The ferceness of the fighting, he de-