The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-21
ADDRESSED BY BOER ENYOYS
AN ENTHUSIAS1IC MEETING HELD
 IN WASHINGTON.
Some Thirty Senators and COngreesmen sented-Box Reserved for the Presl- dent-Remarks of the EMvoys-$S0O Collected for Boer Widows and Or- nhons

1 dent-RemaTks of the Envoys-$s0C l Collected for Boer Widows and Or. phans.
 Washington, May 2O.-An audience
 remarkable for its size, sympathy and
 enthusiasm greeted the Boer envoys at | the reception given in their honor to-
 day at the Grand Opera house under | the auspices of the congressional and | citizens committee. Long before the l time for the meeting to open the house
 was crowded to suffocation and many | were turned away, unable to gain ad- ately decorated with the national tri- coors of both the United States and the Transvaal While official Washington was not represented in any manner there were probably thirty members of
 the senate and the house occupying seats in the auditorium and on the stage. Speaker Henderson was in one
 of the boxes and others present were Senators Daniel of Virginia, Teller, Tillman, Pettigrew, Mason and Yelling ton, Representatives Shafroth, Atwater, Slayden, Glynn Ruppert, Gaines Lati- mer Lentz, SulZer Landis, Ryan, Greene, Henry of Massachusetts, Hay, De Armond, Clark of Missouri Meters, Rhea of Kentucky. One of the boxes, it was stated, had been reserved for the
 president, committee having been sent to the white house with tickets of ad-
 mittance to the opera house, but no rep
 resentative of the presidents household
 was on hand. Chairman Sulzer of the
 reception committee presided and
 number of addresses, all of them pa-
 triotic in character and earnestly SUD-
 porting the cause of the Boers, were
 made, the speakers including Messrs.
 Fischer, Wolmarans and Vessels, the
 Boer envoys Senator Wellington, Hon.
 Bourke Cochran of New York and MT.
 Sulzer. The invocation was pronounce
 ed by the Rev. Father Maxim of this
 city.
 Chairman Sulzer was the first speak
 CT. After welcoming the envoys and em-
 phatically stating that the occasion was
 non-partisan and non-political in char
 acter he said: Tn my judgment, nine
 tenths of the American people are
 against England in this bloody war of
 conquest for sordid gain and in sym
 pathy with the Boers. The best thought
 of England condemns the conflict and
 the awakening conscience of the Brit
 ish empire demands peace with honor
 in the name of humanity, Christianity
 and civilization. In 1776 the patriot
 fathers of this republic fought England
 to gain their independence. The South African patriots are to-day fighting the
 same country to maintain their inde-
 pendence. That is the only difference.
 "We sympathized with Poland, with
 Hungary, with Greece, with all the
 South American republics, with Ar menia and with Cuba in their struggles for freedom. Many we helped. Why. I ask, in the name of all that is just and honorable. in the name of our glorious past should we now refuse to lend our moral support, our sympathy and our aid to the patriots of South Africa? Is American sentiment dead? England is now and always has been, the ag- gressor against the Boers and compelled the Boers to strike first.
 "The Boers will never surrender their love of liberty, They can only be con- quered by being exterminated and Eng land must not be permitted to exter- minate them and steal their homes Her criminal devastation must and will. be checked. God grant that the Eng fish army may never reach Pretoria"
 i,,fr i,, turn by Mir. Sulzer and each of them was given a cordial reception. Their were listened to with close at tention. The audience gave a standing greeting to Commissioner Fischer, who told his hearers why the envoys had come to this country and what they hoped to accomplish. His remarks were very much in keeping with what he al ready has said in published interviews. l We have come across the seas from | two different republics" he said, "to see whether here fin the hearts of a great | sister republic the spirit of more than a | lundred years ago is still alive, whether | the sentiment that caused it's people to | take up arms to defend it's freedom is strong enough to recognize the feeling | by us. We come to you as a great liberty loving people in whom the | sense of justice and fair play is strong, | md look to you to find practical ! scheme to obtain peace with justice. I 'annot dilate on the causes which have ed to the trouble which now exists as I | would like to. We come to appeal to 5our people and speak to you as brother 'epublicans and to ask for hearing md hope to obtain it. The receptions which we have been given have been most gratifying to us ever since we nave set foot on your shores. There is 10 doubt from assurances received from III parts of the country that the sym )athy of the people is with us. We ook to you to help us if possible, and, whether We get assistance or not, we ppreciate the kindly feeling which has 'een manifested for us"
 Commissioner Vessels speech was q ivid picture of the Boers in their con- est for their rights, of the charity and evotion which characterized their man. er and of the patriotism with which hey all went in to fight their battles fe felt sure that the audience would dmit that the Boer had many good characteristics and was not as black as e had been painted. The English na- ion apparently wished to act as judge nd jury. He asked the audience wheth- d the Boer nation had not the right to laim the liberty and sympathy of the