The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-05-11
WHEELER SETS EN- WILD.
Hero of Two Wars Addresses Confed-
crate Veterans.

resolutions were appointed, one mem
| Der being selected by each state.
The following letter from Gen. Fitz-
hugh Lee was read:
Il am obliged for your kind and COM
plimentary letter. 1 do not know of
anything that would give me greater
pleasure than to be at the reunion in
Charleston, but my duties are so press
ing that l fear l will not be able to
| leave if only for few days. Then too,
L think the quarantine regulations
would prevent me from getting to
Charleston, or any other southern port
in May. You see after these quarantine
laws are in force we CubanS are sup
posed to have yellow fever, smallpox,
and all other diseases and we are set
down as not being proper persons for
anybody to associate with until the
gray frosts overspread the land.
Yours very truly.
''FITZHUGH LEE"
General Gordon then introduced Gen.
Joseph Wheeler. 81 need not tell you
said Gen. Gordon, that here is one of
the widest of confederate wizards. L
need not tell you of that day in San
tiago when he saw the Spaniards flying
before him and when in the wild en-
thusiasm of the moment, he forgot
where he was and called upon his men
Forward boys, the Yankees are run
ning'-if L should tell you any of these
things 1 would strike a chord in every
heart, but 1 am not going to do it. [
am going to strike every chord at a sin
gle stroke at once by calling the name
of Joe Wheeler"
The audience applauded wildly. Every
sentence of Gen. Wheeler's speech
brought shouts of applause and stirred
the veterans to a frenzy of enthusiasm.
At times it was impossible for the
speaker to proceed.
Gen. Wheeler said in part:
The history of our country, when
compared with all the eras that have
preceded US, shows that our civilization
has produced the highest class of men
nOhlRSf soldiers
very idea of liberty nerves the soul and
fires the heart. Defeat but exasperates,
adding desperation to Vigor and energy
to determined resolve.
1T was the teaching of fathers and
mothers who fled from the oppression
of caste and class, braved the unfath-
omed ocean and landed upon these
shores, confronted by wild beasts and
savage Indians, that the highest honor
and greatest privilege was to fight for
their country, it's safety and it's honor.
IF the people of the north excel in
some qualities, it is also true that those
of the south excel in others. 1t has been
said that tenacity of purpose, thrift and
perseverance predominant in the north
ern character. This may probably be
so, but it is also true that other char
acteristics are more noticeable among
the people of the SOUTH
Gen. Wheeler declared that the mill
tary history of the southern people has
been a prominent feature in history from
the first settlement of this country. He
ern commanders of the revolution, Win
field Scott and Andrew Jackson and the
other heroes of the war with Mexico,
and then passing to the war between the
states he said:
The battle-scarred veterans, who
during four years of bloody warfare
dazzled the world with the splendor of
their heroism, are fast passing away.
The few who remain gather annually
to renew the friendship which, formed
among such scenes, is the warmest and
-
in the legions led by Alexander, Hanni-
bal, Charlemagne, or Napoleon, for your
achievements excelled all theirs.
In the greatest battles of the civil
war you contended with men of endur-
ance, fortitude and courage; men with
the same birthright of freedom, imbued
with the same spirit of liberty; men
who were as conscientiously contending
for what they deemed the right of the
federal government as you for what
you just as firmly held to be your
rights.
while our civil war, I may truth
fully assert, was the most sanguinary
recorded in our history, it was also the
most remarkable, IS in it there was no
element of personal hostility, and the
soldiers, as individuals, could not, in
the nature of things, have entertained
feelings of hatred for each other. They
fought not from revenge, not from NAL
ice not from desire to shed blood, not
from ambition, but simply because they
felt that there lay the path of duty.
1T was a war fought to settle ques
lions that for more than halt a century
had been matters of the most earnest,
and 1 might say bitter contentious, in
creasing in intensity until an appeal to
the God of battles was rendered inevita-
BILE, so that no arbitrament save that
of the sword was possible. When the
south yielded, it was to numbers, bat
talions, artillery. to the unlimited re-
sources of the federal-government,
THE armies of the south laid down
I1niIs ny h11f ~ nj nf
belief in the truth and justice of their
cause did they surrender. With energy
and determination they met the new
problems confronting them.
above the carnage, above the wall
of widows and the cry of orphans, above
the desolated homes, above the fields
oVergrown with new forests, there arose
a new civilization and a new union, one
niche in whose temple holds a figure
whose name shall be honored through
out the ages. Lee, whose matchless
skill, whose soldierly spirit, whose Won
derful endurance, was only equaled by
the grandeur of soul which, accepting
the fiat of war, lived out to it's full close
the noblest life recorded in all history
for the admiration of posterity.
LAS between the soldiers on either
side there was real enmity Mutual
admiration for each others prowess is
the sentiment of all brave men, and,
with admiration, respect naturally in
creases.
1.-The lifetime of a generation has
softened the memories of that conflict,
and, side by side, both north and south
have stood together in battle against a
foreign foe.
I'VE meet here to cherish and inten-
sify the memory of the great struggle
in which you were actors. Your deVo-
ton to duty, your courage in battle, and
your unmurmuring endurance, was
your heritage from your ancestors"
Gen. Wheeler touched upon the ques-
ton of expansion by declaring that
southern soldiers and southern states
men had ever taken prominent part
in all movements looking to the en-
largement of our territory.
History for all time" he said, will