The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-12-21
Atlanta's Peace Jubilee.


The signal event of the week has
been the reception of President Nc
Kinley at the peace jubilee in Atlanta.
The significant feature of this reception
was the fraternal spirit of the Presi
dents address to the Georgians and the
wild fervor of the applause his senti-
ments aroused among his southern au-
ditors. In the course of his speech be-
fore the joint assembly of the Georgia
Legislature, President Mckinley said:
EVERY soldiers grave made during our
unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to Amer
lean valor. And while when those graves
were made we differed widely about the
future OF this Government, the differences
were long ago settled by the arbitrament OF
arms, and the time has now come in the
evolution of sentiment and feeling, under
the providence Of God, when in the spirit of
fraternity we should share with you in the
care OF the graves of the Confederate sol
diers."
The expression of this sentiment by
the President of the United States,
who had given practical pledge of his
sincerity in the appointment to high
civil and military office of southern
men and ex-Confederates, like Lee and
Wheeler, produced a scene possible,
probably, only in the South. The
SUMS report says:
EVERY one in the Representatives. cham
Der sprang to his feet and wild yell that
passed beyond the bounds of cheering burst
from several hundred Southern throats.
Staid members of the Georgia Legislature
who had looked at the President with q
mild air Of hostility when he began to speak
embraced each other, shook one another's
hands and encouraged one another to let
out little louder yell"
What the President said about the
Confederate graves was the talk of the
town. The pledge of fraternity in that
form had touched the Southern heart
in tender and very susceptible spot.
On next Memorial Day this assurance
of real fraternity will appear in fow-
ers strewn unfortunately above the
resting places of both those who wore
the blue and those who donned the
gray.
At the banquet that closed the fes-
tivities on the second day of the jubi-
lee similar scene was enacted when
the President rose to respond to the
greeting of Howell Clark, the editor of
the Constitution and the master of GER
emonies on that occasion. In his re-
marks the President reached the high
water mark of fervid oratory in the
passage on reunited country closing
his speech:
"Four years have gone since last met the
people of Georgia in public assembly.
Much has happened in the intervening time.
The Nation has been at war, not within its
own shores, but with foreign power a
war waged not for revenge or aggrandiZe-
ment, but for our oppressed neighbors, for
their freedom and ameloration. 1t was
short, but decisive. 1t recorded success
sion Of significant victories on land and on
sea. 1t gave new honors to American arms.
1t has brought new problems to the Re-
public, whose solution will tax the genius
of our people. United we will meet and
solve them with honor to ourselves and to
the lasting benefit of all concerned. The
war brought US together; its settlement
will keep us together. neutrality-suspicious.
realization! 1t expresses the thought of my
mind and the long-deferred consummation
! Of my hearts desire as 1 stand in this pres
ence. 1t interprets the hearty demonstra
ton here witnessed, and is the patriotic re
frain of all sections and all lovers Of the
Republic. Reunited -one country agair
and one country foreverl Proclaim it from
the press and pulpit teach it in the schools
write it across the skiesl The world seei
and feels it; it cheers every heart north and
south, and brightens the hearth of every
American home. Let nothing ever strair
1t again. At peace with all the world snt
with each other, what can stand in the path
way OF our progress and prosperity2'
Speeches were made by Gen. JOSEPH
Wheeler, and other Southern men, ant
by members of the cabinet attending
their chief, all in the same vein of pat
riotic gratitude that the "bloody chasm'
had been, not bridged, but filled up ant
all traces of it's yawning depth and gor.
banks obliterated.
Similar demonstrations of fraterna
feeling we're made at Savannah ant
other southern points the Preaiden
visited.
Who Shall Be Vice Admiral2