Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-04-10

ssssss soldiers fir m
a 'sgzs isls;sezAI1as1 70 and cadets
tx1s .E1SS ssf5szW * from two mill
tary academies. The President
reviewed the troops from the
platform near the auditorium
at the exposition grounds. A salute of
twenty-one guns was fired by the Ger
man artillery on the entrance of the
President into the exposition grounds.
At noon the President proceeded
from the reviewing stand into the au.
ditorium where the formal ceremonies
occurred. Addresses were made by
Captain F. w. Wagner, president of
the exposition company, Governor Nc
Sweeney, of South Carolina; Governor
Aycock, of North Carolina; Mayor
Smyth, of Charleston, and the Presi-
dent of the United States.
Presidents Address.
The President in part said:
ut is to me a peculiar privilege to
speak herein your beautiful city. My
mothers people were from Georgia,
but before they came to Georgia, be-
fore the revolution, in the days of colo
NAL rule, they dwelt for nearly a cen
fury in South Carolina; and therefore
can claim your state as mine by in
heritance no less than by the stronger
and nobler right which makes each
foot of American soil in a sense the
property of all Americans.
Charleston is not only typical
southern city; it is also a city whose
history teens with events which link
themselves to American history as a
whole In the early colonial days
Charleston was the outpost of our
people against the Spaniard in the
south. In the days of the revolution
there occurred here some of the
events which vitality affected the out
come of the struggle for independence
and which impressed themselves most
deeply upon the popular mind. 1t
was here that the tremendous, terrible
drama Of the Civil war opened.
with delicate and thoughtful cour-
tesy you originally asked me to come
to this exposition on the birthday of
Abraham Lincoln. The invitation not
only showed a fine generosity and
manliness in you, my hosts, but it also
emphasized what hardly anything else
could have emphasized how complete
ly we are now united people. The
wounds left by the Civil war, incom-
parably the greatest war of modern
times, have healed; and its memories
are now priceless heritages Of honor
alike to the north and to the south
The devotion, the self-sacrfice, the
steadfast resolution and lofty daring.
the high devotion to the right as each
man saw it, whether northerner or
southerner-aI these qualities of the
men and women of the early sixties
now shine luminous and brilliant be-
fore our eyes, while the mists of anger
and hatred that once dimmend them
have passed away forever.
"All of us, north and south, can
glory alike in the valor of the men
who wore the blue and of the men who
wore the gray. Those were iron times,
and only iron men could fighttoits ter
rlble finish the giant struggle between
the hosts of Grant and Lee. To us of
the present day and to our children
and children's children, the valiant
Deeds the high endeavor and abnega-
ton OF self--shown in that struggle
by those who took part therein will
remain for evermore to mark the level
to which we in our turn must rise
whenever the hour of the nations
need may come.
When four years ago this nation
was compelled to face foreign foe,
the completeness of the reunion be-
came instantly and Strikingly evident.
The war was not one which called for
the exercise of more than an insignifi.
cant fraction of our strength, and the
strain put upon us was slight indeed
compared with the results But it was
satisfactory thing to see the way in
which the sons of the soldier of the
Union and the soldier of the confeder.
ate army leaped eagerly forward, emu
lous to show in brotherly rivalry the
qualities which had won renown for
their fathers, the men of the great war.
1t was my good fortune to serve under
an ex-Confederate general, gallant old
Joe Wheeler, who commanded the cav.
airy division at Santiago.
"A few months ago, owing to the en-
forced absence of the governor of the
Philippines, it became necessary to
nominate vice-governor to take his
place-one of the more important
places in our government at this time.
l nominated as vice-governor an ex-
Confederate who now stands as the ex-
ponent of this government and this
people in that great group of islands
in the eastern seas over which the
American flag floats. General Wright
has taken a leading part in the work
of steadily bringing order and peace
out the bloody chaos in which we
found the islands. He is now taking a
leading part, not merely upholding the
honor of the flag. by making it respect.
ed as the symbol of our power, but
still more in unfolding its honor by un-