Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-01
AT LINCOLN'S TOMB.
The Pau.American Delegates Visit the
Grave of the Great PafriOt-One Of
Them Makes Feeling Response
to Gov. OEIesby's Speech.

to Gov. OElesby's Speech.
SPRINGFIELD, ILL, October 31.-Tht
Pan-American excursion arrived here to
day. After lunch the party went to Lin.
cola's tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. There
was among the Southern delegates q spirit
almost of reverence as they ascended the
steps to the terrace about the shaft. AS wa.
remarked by one of the Southern delegates
Lincoln s tomb seemed to him like Mecca
and the present pilgrimage could not have
been complete without having led thither.
As with a common impulse heads were
barred as the party walked about the monu.
ment.
At length the party was gathered at the
front of the monument upon a spot upon
which the statue of Lincoln bent his gaze,
and Senator Cullom introduced Ex-Governor
Richard j. Oglesby, who said that the Wis.
itors might be indulgent toward the people
OF Illinois for giving expression upon almost
all occasions to their deep sense of admiration
and love for the great patriot, the great
emancipator whose memory they honored
to-day.
While Ex-Governor Oglesby was speaking
of LipeOln's life Bolet Peraza, who was to
respond, stood within reach of his hand,
and frequently his face paled and his eyes
we're dimmed by emotion aroused, and
when the Ex-Governor fervently asked,
"Why should we not be frlends?' Signor
Peraza and others lifted their faces with ex-
pressions of approval and applauded
warmly. General Bolet Peraza is son-in-
law Of General Jose Gregorio Monagas, who
was President of Venezuela in 1884 and
made the slaves free at that time, and this
fact was stated by Senator Cullom, who
introduced him to the audience. General
Peraza said:
Gentlemen, do not be surprised by the con-
trast which my colleagues present to you at
orator to praise the greatest man of your coun-
try in the present century. They have not
sought the merits of eloQuence, but the circum-
stances of opportunity. They have excused my
deficiencies and only thought Of my family
associations with one of the liberated of our
America, who, like you here, made slaves free
and deserved the glory Of martyrdom. It is
not, then my voice which speaks at this mo-
ment. 1t Is the echo of q noble soul, who
shares with your great man the i'm
mortality bestowed by the God of Justice
on the defenders of mankind. Fifteen free
American nations join in this sanctuary to pay
their homage to this tomb. which contains
nothing but handful of dust all that in Abra-
ham Lincoln belongs to DEATH as his real mau-
soleum is in the heart of men. Our visit to
this sacred monument is not a mere individual
tribute, but significant pilgrimage of sover-
eign sister nations. which come here in the
name of liberty, equality and fraternity, to
satisfy their firm purpose OF continuing the
work of this great Northern leveler, unifying
the interests of the entire America and con-
solidafing her aspirations to the future. tear
ing down the traditional walls which rise in the
natural way OF her industrial convenlences
leaving standing only the frontiers of the re-
spective sovereignties built by natural respect