The Portland daily press., 1896-01-30
FOR "FIGHTING JOE"
EncOniums ON Hooker at the Massa-
chusetts State House.

Ex-Gov. Boutwell, Told What Sec. Stanton
Said of Him-Under Him the Army
Reached Its Highest Point of Dis
cipline.
Boston, January 29.-The committees
on State House and Military Affairs,
sitting Jointly, gave hearing this morn
ing on the resolve accompanying the Pc
tition of Col. Henry S. Russell and others
for statue of Major General Joseph
Hooker, to be erected on the State House
grounds. When Chairman Niles opened
the hearing, the old House Chamber,
where the session was held, contained
fair gathering of we'll known gentlemen.
Among them were Col. Russell himself
ex-Goy. Boutwell,, Charles Carleton
Coffin, Gen. Andrews, Lieut.. Col. Tuck
er Of the 25th, Capt. Gragg, Gen. Francis
A. Walker and others. Fighting Joe'
was honored and eulogized by those
present at Massachusetts represen tative
general during the late war, and the only
Massachusetts man who commanded the
Army of the Potomac.
Col. Russell opened with briaf state
ment. s'We do not claim here today that
Gen. Hooker was q military genius,
he said, "but we say that he was the
representative general from the old Bay
State in the late war, and that he shed
honor on this commonwealth"
Charles Carlton Coffin referred to
Hooker's movement up the Peninsula af-
tier the evacuation of Yorktown, comment
ing that he was the first to overtake the
enemy and the last to leave Yorktown.
He brought on and maintained the bat
tie of Williamsburg. and had he been sup
ported would have won all the laurels Of
that victory.
Touching his great qualities as COM
mander, Mr.. Carleton said that Hooker's s
strategy in getting at Chan cellorsyille
was only surpassed by the strategy of
Grant at Vicksburg. The speaker then
recounted the other exploits of Gen.
Hooker, and el ngly referred TO the will
ingness of tbs latter toward the close of
the war to yield his command and take
a subordinate position under Meade.
he may have had weak points, 2 he
continued, s'buG he also had strong ones
that make him the grand representative
of this commonwealth in the great war. "
In reference to the proposed statue,
he said: "There is need of such statue
for it's influence on the generations that
are to come. The great war was war
of the people, and 1T teaches that it cost
something to preserve this great nation.
l would have this statue stand in our
State House yard, that the generations
to come may point to it and say, This
was one Of the men who shed honor on
this commonwealth
Ex-Gov Boutwell,, the next speaker
was received with warm applause. He
said that he first met Hooker at the
rooms Of Senator Sumner in Washing
ton in the spring of 1861. Hooker had
come to get the Senator'S S aid in securing
the command of Massachusetts regi.
ilent Shortly after he was commissioned
brigadier general through the War De-
partment, probably at the instance of Mr.
Sumner. The Governor said that he had
seen great deal of Gen. Hooker, par
ticularly after the latter was wounded at
Antietam.
'tNo man could remain with Gen.
Hooker for five minutes" Gov. Boutwell,
continued, without feeling the influence
of his enthusiastic patriotism.
"If monuments are to be erected to
anybody they should be erected to those
who impress not merely the living gen.
erations, but to those who have i'm
pressed, or done something to impress,
the ages. This great war is to exist as
long as our language and the men who
took part in it pass on through the ages
and centuries, teaching the great lessons
of patriotism and the necessity of per-
petrating that which has cost so muc h to
maintain, in its integrity. A monument
with no other inscription than Fighting
Joe upon it would inspire the learn ed
and teach the unlearned great lesson of
loyalty and patriotism"