The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-18
LESSONS OF THE WAR.
Secretary Ager ExhOrts The VOIun-
teers to Be Patient Yet Awhile.

az nc Ct NV
Secretary of War Alger's, speech was
happily received and was followed with
the keenest interest by all.
In introducing The Secretary of War
Gen. w. w. Gordon said
Mr.. President: Gentlemen of the Board
of Trade and associated citizens of Sa-
vannah: Your committee invited me TO
return home and unite with you In this
celebration of the visit of the President
and members of his cabinet and distin
guished officers of the army.
1 appreciate very highly your calling
me from distance and thus giving me an
opportunity of contributing TO the volume
of thanks 10 those who are with us to-
night.
l am especially gratified with this OPP
portunity of uniting with my fellow-ciu
zens in doing honor 10 those who have, an
the recent past made me the recipient of
their confidence.
As a merchant, l am familiar with and
could speak more readily of my native
town as commercial city, with its thOus-
ands of miles of railroads due entirely
to the enterprise and almost entirely to
the financial contributions of its citizens;
with its miles of wharves and shipping
facilities; with the deep water in its river
so, call attention TO the fact that the saw
ing in ocean freights each and every year
returns to the producers of Georgia, Flor
ida, Alabama and South Carolina sum
equal to the total appropriations made by
Congress for the improvement of this river
for the past thirty years; but your COM
mittee has assigned to me a more honor
able and distinguished part.
Nearly two hundred years ago philan-
in nj a f.
tlement south of the Savannah river for
the purpose of clearing the jails of men
imprisoned for debt and giving them
fresh chance in a new world.
The colonsts had scarcely landed before
1t became apparent that the colony would
have to act as protector of the frontier
from the Indians and Spaniards in Flor
ida.
The city was laid out as a quasi mill
tary camp.
The numerous little parks which our
visitors have seen in driving through the
city were left not for ornament nor for
health. but to provide open spaces as cor
rails for cattle in case of invasion.
Every abe-bodied man was trained to
arms, and the condition of his grant OF
land was that he must respond to every
call for military duty. Every farmer was
entitled to be billeted upon the occupant
Of the city lot whose number coTresponded
with his farm lot.
In addition to public Notifications, out
lying private houses were built for de-
fense as well as residence, and tradition
tells US of one such fortified dwelling (the
ruins of which are still to be seen near
the city, which the wife and her house
hold successfully defended for three weeks
an attack of Indians and Spaniards, while
her husband was absent with Gen. Ogle-
thorpe in an expedition against the Span
lards at St. Augustine.
Spain at that time was in the zenith
of her power. Proximity to territory oc-
cupied or claimed by her was equivalent
to constant warfare, whether Spain and
England were at war or at peace. The
safety and continual existence of the
colony was due to the military skill and
incessant efforts of its leader, Oglethorpe.
In the midst of wars and alarms, the
infant colony grew slowly in wealth and
population, but the military spirit remain
ed, and when the revolutionary war COM
menced one of the first vessels taken was
an English sloop-of-war, captured in the
Savannah river by the "Sons of Liberty
of Georgia. Tradition tells us that the
powder taken from this vessel was wagon
ed to Cambridge, Mass, and was part of
the powder burnt at Bunker Hill.
Every one who visits Savannah drives
through Bonaventure Cemetery, and is i'm
pressed by the avenues of live oaks, draped
with moss, and arranged so as to form A
monogram of the first letters of the name
of the family whose home included this
cemetery, and one is reminded that that
home was the birthplace of the grand old
American naval officer, Josiah Tattnali,
who, in defiance of international law al
lowed his tug boat and sailors to save
the English fleet from disaster on the Pei
Ho river in China, and justified the act
with the memorable words, Blood is
thicker than water"
That was the first call of the reveille