The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-06-08
FIGHTING JOE WHEELER
HIS ELOQUENT AND PATRIOTIC
SPEECH

HIS ELOQUENT AND PATRIOTIC
SPEECH
Delivered at Charleston During the
Confederate Veterans Reunion
the Armies of the South Laid Down
Their Arms but Not Their Belief In
the Truth and Justice of Their
Cause-Battle Scared Veterans are
Fast Passing Away.
The history of our country, when
compared with that of all the eras
that have preceded us, shows that
our civilization has produced the
highest class of men and the noblest
type of soldiers. The 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 un-
fathomed ocean and landed upon
these shores, confronted by wild
beasts and savage Indians that the
highest honor and greatest privilege
was to fight for country, its safety
and it's honor.
..If the people in 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 pur-
pose, thrift and perseverance pre-
dominated in the Northern character.
This may probably be so, but it is
also true that other characteristics
are more noticeable among the people
of the South"
| Gen. Wheeler declared that the
military history of the Southern peo-
| pie has been a prominent feature in
history from the first settlement of
| this country. He cited Washington
and the other Southern commanders
of the Revolution, Winfield 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 most enduring. No
greater heroes were in the legions
led by Alexander, Hannibal, Char
lemagne or Napoleon, for your
| achievements excelled all theirs.
''In the greatest battles of the Civil
war you contended with men of en-
durance, fortitude and courage, men
with the same birthright of freedom,
| imbued with the same spirit Of lib
erty, men Who were as conscientious
ly 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 | may truth
fully assert, was the most sanguinary
recorded in history, it was also the
most remarkable as in 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 malice, not from desire to shed
blood, not from ambition, simply be-
cause they felt that they led the path
OF duty.
''It was a war fought to settle
questions that for more than half a
century had been matters of the most
earnest, and | might say bitter con-
tentions, increasing in intensity
until an appeal to the God of Battles
was rendered inevitable so that no
arbitrament save that of the sword
was possible. When the South
yielded, it was to numbers, battalions,
artillery, to the unlimited resources
of the Federal Government.
The armies of the South laid
down their arms, but not one iota of
their belief in the truth and ustice 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 new civilization
and a new union, one niche in whose
temple holds figure whose name
shall be honored throughout the ages.
Lee, whose matchless skill, whose
soldierly spirit, whose wonderful en-
| durance, was only equalled by the
grandeur of soul which accepting the
| fiat of war lived out to its full close,
the noblest life recorded in all history
for the admiration of posterity.
| '.As between the soldiers on either
| side, there was no real enmity.
Mutual admiration for each other 5
| prowess is the sentiment of all brave
men, and with admiration respect
naturally increases.
The lifetime of a generation has
softened the memories of that con-
tlict, and side by side, but North and
South have stood together in battle
against a foreign foe.
I'VE meet here to cherish and in
tensify the memory of the great
struggle in which yoI were actors.
Your devotion to duty, your courage
in battle and your unmurmuring en-
durance, was your heritage from
your ancestors.
Gen. Wheeler touched upon the
question of expansion be declaring
that Southern soldiers and Southern
statesmen had ever taken proml
nent part in all movements looking
to the enlargement of our territory
'.History for all time" he said
Twill record that it was under South
ern presidents that we have wrestet
from the wild. Indians the create
part of the s22.3sS square miles
which lay between our thin lines o
settlement on the ocean and thu
Mississippi river: and under Southern
presidents that we have added t
this domain an area nine times a
great as the present area OF tn
, original thirteen States.
While the various negotiation
,varo baipu bod and onr dominion