Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1901-04-28
TRIBUTE TO GRANT
BY SON OF SOUTH
Great Chieftain's Campaign
For Peace.
AN ELOQUENT GRAFTON

ument Association.
NEW YORK, April 27.-At the annual
banquet of the Grant Monument asso-
citation, held at the Waldorf Astoria
hotel in this city tonight, Hon. Clark
Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitu'
ton, responded to the toast, Grant as
| follows:
q am not unmindrul Mr.. Chairman,
| that i'm pa wing tribute to the man in honor
of whose memory we are assembled here
| tonight | am environed by circumstances
that. under some conditions, would en-
barrass the frank utterances of my own
sentiments and clothe my words with
| import not their own
4 come to speak with you of the lessons
learned from the life OF a leader-and l
am of the peop.e against whom his le-
gions were led to victory and around
whom the whitening embrace OF his iron
arm was closed in the grip of war. There
is scarce a valley In the southern states
that does not shelter in its bruised bosom
reluctant monuments to the triumph Of
that great soldier-General Grant.
But | have not come to speak of the
accomplishments of war. which have
| rightly placed his name among those of
the great warriors of the world. l am not
here to paint a picture of the mighty
tide that swept on and on under his mas
terful direction until all who opposed
were overwhelmed in the culminat ting
flood at Appomattox. 1t would i'll become
me to exuIt in the memory of his trium-
phant leadership of victorious hosts as
they returned to joyous homes under the
streaming banners of victory.
1T is natural and proper, Mr.. Chair
man. that those who shared his sympa-
thies and dangers, that those anl the sons
of those who followed his famous lead
in we'll fought battles. should keep for
ever bright the luster of his military
fame. and should keep forever living the
memories and incidents of his war re-
noWn.
Those who offered their bullet-ridden
bodies as buwarks in the vain effort to
stem the conquering tide of his cohorts
bore testimony to his genius and his
courage. There is not today in the frag-
mentary ranks of the beaten heroes
who once wore the gray a single soldier
who would raise his arm to still the
cheers those victories have won. But
above the din of successful arms. be-
meath the garlands of glorious victories
beyond the glad nuzzas of a preserved
nation welcoming it's martial heroes
home. the dirge of those homeless heroes
who. after surrender, buried their aban-
doned hopes with a cause forever lost
bids me turn from this phases of that
momentous life to another that is not
trumpeted by the raucous blast of war
but which is sounded in the sweet and
soothing songs of peace. There is no
one familiar with the history of our coun-
try who is not aware of the mighty part
played by General Grant in the epoch
of the civil war; but there are few even
among his own neople who realize the
n fGFOC fVNE /,
epoch of peace. There is not school
boy in knee-breeches who cannot tell YOU
what General Grant did to prevent the
successful dissolution of the union; there
are few statesmen who can tell you how
much he did to procure it's peaceful
restoration.
mo service this great chieftain ever
rendered our common country in his
most brilliant military achievements can
equal the great good accomplished by
him in his consistent campaigns for ~rac-
tical peace. If there was genius in the
pen that wrote the terms of uncondi-
tional surrender to the failing garrison
at Fort DOnelson there was greater ge-
MUS still exemplified In the letter that
made possible the peace conference at
Hampton Roads. If there was grandeur
in the scorching sword that swept Vir-
gtnia a sea of flame, vet grander still
the hand too generous to take the Strick-
ened sword of a great but vanquished
foe! If there was glory in the thunder
of the voice that threw the columns
of mighty army into the shock of war
far greater was the glory of the tongue
that framed the message, born of love
crying to discovered people, Let us
have peacer
In the living reality of practical ne
union and of perfect peace, no man can
measure the mighty power that fra
HCp e1 -
destiny of country then emerging from
the chaos and confusion of civil war
1t spoke the patriot spirit of American
union Without it a union of states
welded in the forge of war and held to-
gether only by the sword! An empty
mockery of union in all save namei A
union without sympathy of sentiment;
without unity of heart; without a COM
mon inspiration. The north a Russia
and the south her Poland. England in
the northern heart, and Ireland in ours
ITO those who are familiar with the
people of, the south and with the condi-
tions leading to the four years war it
is unnecessary to protest that the van
qu1shed south could never have played
Carthage to a eonquering Rome. Her
people had breathed the inspiration Of in
dependence from the hills that Graded
Washington and Jefferson and Patrick
Henry. Jealous in the preservation of
"AI0S AllCS DCliCNCu COHSlllQt1OU2l ana
hereditary rights. they were prodiCal in
all that was required to maintain those
rights.
These southern ancestors of mine had
much of the spirit now better known as
northern enterprise and thrift Finding
that the genial climate of the southern
slope was better suited to the successful
adaptation of negro s}avery-an institu-
ton inaugurated by their northern breth-
ren-they did not hesitate to adopt the
uaft1c. nor to utilize on southern planta-
tions the slaves who had proved unprufit-
able property in northern fields.
Nor were the statesmen of the south
less slow to profit by the political ex-
ample established by their contemporaries
| of the northern states They witnessed
with observant eve the birth of the doc
trine of secession as it sprung from the
| liens Of New England and first claimed
| life in Hartford the Charleston of the
first secession. They listened with grave
attention when Quincy. of Massachusetts,
in the Eal,s OF congress fifty wears prior
to the southern secess' on. made the first
| FORMAL oeciaratlon o. TIE right of seces-
| sion In opposition to the admission Of
! louisiana and west Florida as states.
| that Ii this bill passes it is virtually a
| dissolution of this union; it will free the
| states from their moral obligations and
| as II viii be the right Of all so il will be
| the Cutv of some definitely to prepare for
| q secez zslon-aIri csab!y. if they can vfo-
| lently. if they must
| ! mention these events Mr. Chairman.
ir no so Fit Of de that the south had no
| corner on me accession market, and in no
spirit of regret for the failure OF the prin-
| ciDles once advocated by the round-heads
who were rocked in the cradle of the
revolution and which principles were
many years afterwards adopted by the
| cavalier convention of Charleston. l cite
| them merely as incidents that played
| their part in shaping the convictions OF
| the southern people concerning state
rights and the right of secession-issues
| then Offering ample room for honest diff
| ference but which have been settled for
4 ali time to come by the covenant of the
/ cannon sealed by the nations blood.
'It was the spirit of fraternity, em-
/ hodied in the immortal message of Grant