The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-12-28
Our" President.

Mr.. Mckinley" says the Green
vile News, you have found the
straight way to the hearts Of the South
ern people. Few Of US voted for you
and we did not help to make you presi-
dent; but your speech in Atlanta has
made US feel that you are our presi-
dent, that we have place in your
thought and heart. We feel closer to
you than we have to any man who has
occupied your Office in forty years.
When you spoke kindly and generously
of those poor ragged boys of ours who
fill so many lonely graves on so many
hillsides and plains and in so many val
leys you touched the core of our afec-
tions. We call them our boys. Some
of them were little beyond ciiiluho61F5
and went from their mothers knees to
do mans deadliest and most desperate
work. Others were grizzled men who
left wives and children of their own.
Some of them went from stately old
homes where wealth abounded; some
trudged from humble cabins in the
mountains or among the cotton fields.
They were all ocrs-bone Of our bone,
flesh of our flesh, heart of our heart;
and they went out and died for princl-
pies We believed in and a cause we
loved in land where We we're dream
ing splendid dreams. In more than
thirty years We have learned much.
Some of US have learned to know that
We made some serious mistakes, to be-
lie7e that the war might have been
avoided, to feel that if the people of the
sections had understood each other bet
ter and respected each others honest
beliefs more than they did events
might have taken different course.
All Of us have learned to believe m and
to love this mighty union Of free peo-
pie. Yet in all this time cur love for
our boys in their scattered graves has
remained strong and tender. Maybe il
we could have done more for them
while they were in the field or camp We.
might love them less. But We can not
forget what some of us knew by obser-
yation and some by tradition-how
bravely and patiently they endured suf-
fering and privation, summer heat and
winter cold, scanty rations or none,
poor equipment and care, long, hard
marches and fierce fighting. They
never complained or faltered. They
fought without pay or the hope Of it.
They believed in and loved their cause,
which was our cause. It is becauae
they were ragged, unpaid, half-fed, be-
cause when they were wounded they
lacked the common comforts the poor
est have in happier times and now that
they are dead we have been unable to
gather even their remains and give
them comely and fitting resting places,
that We love them and the memory Of
tn, m so deeply. Therefore when the
president Of this republic, who fought :
gallantly against us, tells us that he
feels with us, that he shares our adj
miration for those dead of ours, he
speaks straight to the Southern heart,
thrilling it to quick response. The
whole South, Mr.. President, echoes in
it's heart the cheers that greeted you at
Atlanta. We all thank you. We all
feel, as we have never felt before. that
the gallant officer and kindly gentle
man who was chosen as the ruler of our
country is our president as he is the
president Of cur fellow citizens. You
have wen for yourself an abiding place
in Southern hearts"