The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-02-06
"THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES"
Mr.. Robert J. Travis Tribute to
Georgia as One of Them.

Mr.. Robert j. Travis Tribute to
Georgia as One of Them.
TIL response to the toast, 1.-THE Thir-
teen Original States" was made by Mr..
Robert j. Travis. Mr.. Travis con-
cluded a speech eloquent with patriotic
love for every state in the Union and
pulsing with feeling and strength. as
follows:
THE noble course of those original
states ever affords food to inspiration
and dignity to craftsmanship. Web
ster could nowhere touch the multitude
as when at the base of Bunker Hill
monument, the exponent of an achieve
ment more significant to humanity than
Thermopylae, or Trafalgar, or Hast
ings, or Waterloo, he hailed in the name
of the the nation. the venerable men
who had come down to US from a
former generation veterans Of a revo-
luton that had had TRANSPORTED a few
struggling colonists into undying he
,roes, converted dependencies into self
governing states, and redeemed the
continent as a homestead for freemen;
whose valor secured for themselves, as
their example shall transmit to the lat
est generation, the blessings of a free
government
'As the flight of time lends dignity
to their history. our hearts should ever
turn with deeper love to those states
which fought our battles bravely and
we'll, gave to ourselves and to our pos
terity our constitution. and left to us
so glorious a heritage of freedom and
honor. The very soil of those historic
states is sacred. 1t often seems to me
that every clod and stone and blade
of grass of our native hills has been
stained with patriots blood and infused
with sacred meaning.
mo one of the glorious thirteen or
iginal states has spots more sacred
than our own state, ever dear to its
sons.
The red old hills of Georgia!
My heart is on them now,
Where, fed from golden streamlets,
Oconee's waters fowl
There bravery and kindness
For aye go hand in hand,
Upon your washed and naked hills,
My own, my native land!
mo community in our native state
has spots more holy from association
that our own beloved city. But few
blocks away, in old Tondee's Tavern,
were wont to gather the Sons of Lib
| erty. Yonder, near the foot of Liberty
street, fell the gallant PulaSKl, ana
there Jasper poured out his life's blood
for liberty. Yonder lies the crumbling
hand of Greene, which was once wont
to lift aloft the sword as he sum-
moned his patriot followers into bat
tie.
Nor has her soil been made Grim
son with the blood of revolutionary pa
triots alone The unchronicled story of
the misery of Georgia during the last
years of the Revolutionary War, when
her sons often fought under the black
flag to defend their homes, comes down
TO us from the distant past with less
force than does the story of the suffer
ings of your own fathers in the late
conflict. OF their course 1 need not
speak If you would have evidence OF
| their bravery, go with me to yonder
cemetery, or any one of thousand
others that lie scattered DER the hills
of our Southland. look upon those long
lines of simple slabs, the resting place
of your Confederate dead, and bid
those stones to speak to you. The sor-
rows of our fathers and their shed
| blood has added a new luster to those
stars which shine to the names of the
thirteen original states, to whose honor
we now drink"