Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-11-20
MEMP HIS en- FETE,

| lMEMp Hl0 En Fiji,
| CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE)
service in any position. 1t makes all of
us a little better Americans; makes us
i feel spurred to do a little better work as
/ citizens, each in his own sphere of ac-
( tivity.''
| At the conclusion of the Presidents
remarks, the entire audience of more
| than 800 united In singing God Be
| With You TIL We Meet Again
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS.
| 1t is a real and great pleasure to come
| to this typical city of the Southern Mis-
sissipp Valley in order to greet "a typica
American citizen Of Tennessee Tenn h; VINO
but from the entire country-General
Luke E. Wright. We have a right to
expect a high standard of manhood from
| States created west of the Allegheny
Mountains. and it was in this State thai
| the first self-governing community Of
! American freemen was established upon
OF Tennessee were among the earliest II
+! that great westward march which
| thrust the nations border across the
! Continent to the Pacific, and it is emf
!
should now play so prominent part, in
the further movement of expansion be-
yond the Pacific. There have been Pres,
! dents of the United States for but ll3
| Tennesseeans sat in the White House.
+, Hardihood. and daring, and iron resolu-
! ton are of right to be expected among
, the sons of a State which nurtured An
drew Jackson and Sam Houston; which
sent into the American navy one of the
! most famous fighting admirals of all
time, Farragut.
REUNION OF COUNTRY.
There is another reason why our coun.
try should be glad that it was General
eral Wright fought with distinguished
gallantry among the gallant men. who
served in the armies of the Contederacy
! during the civil war. We need no proof
a people. When the war with Spain came
the sons of the men who wore the blue
and the sons of the men who wore the
gray WED with one another IN the Ell
fort to get into the ranks and face a
! foreign foe under the old flag that had
been carried in triumph under Winfield
Scott and Zachary Taylor anu Andrew
Jackson. It was my own good fortune &C
serve under that fearless fighter. oid
+ Joe Wheeler. memory of which shall.
always be proud. But if we needed any
proof of the unity of our interest
would have been afforded this very yea'
/
in his administration as acting governor
of the Philippine Islands. Upon MIN d'1-
ring. the months of summer rested
heavier burden Of 1 responsioll1ty t mar
particular time; and not the least OF
his titles to our regard Is the Way IN
which he was able to work IN terms ct
cordial good will with the head OF TIC
army himself man VINO had nonored
the blue uniform as Wright had honor
ed the gray.
wRIGHT'S WORK.
General Wright's work has been az
difficult as it was important. Inc events
of the last four. years have definitely de.
cided that whether we wish 20 Or nc
we must hereafter play d great part IN
the world. We cannot escape facing til :
duties We may shirk them if We are
built of poor stuff, or we may take hold
sires-but face them we must whether
we will or not Our duty in the Philip
pine Islands has simply been ore of the
duties that thus have come upon u.s.. We
down our flag and abandon the islands
than we could now abandon Alaska
Whether we are glad or sorry that events
forced us to go there is aside from the
question:: the point is that. as the inevi
table result of the. war with Spain. wt
found ourselves in the, Philippines. end
that we could not leave the Islands with
out discredit. The islanders We're wholly
had left there would have beef, brief
period of bloody chaos, and t!lc1 some
other nation would have stepped N te
do the work which we had sirked i
cannot be too often repeated that there
was no question that the work had to
be done, All the question Was. whether
we would do it well DRILL: and: thanks
to the choice of men like Governor
and absolutely indispensable requisite
was order-peace. The reign OF lawles:
violence. of resistance to legitimate au-
thority, the reign Of anarchy could nc
more be tolerated abroad than it coul6
be tolerated here in our own land
TASK IN PHILIPPINES.
The American flag stands Tor orderly
liberty, and it stands for it abroad as it
stands for it at home. The task of o1i1
soldiers was to restore anu MAINTAIN Or
task to do, and it did it we'll and tho.
roughly. The fullest and heartlest praise
belongs to our soldiers who in the Phil
ippines brought to triumphant conclu-
sion a war small, indeed, compared Z,
the gigantic struggle in which the older
men whom / am addressing took part
in the early sixties, but inconceivably
harassing and difficult, because it wa
tropic islands and against Zoe very
elusive aver-- treacherous, and often incon-z
ceivably cruel both. toward our men and
toward the great numbers OF peace-lovln;S
e
vent. The soldiers included both regu-
lars and volunteers, men from the North
the South, the East, and the West, mer
from Pennsylvania and from Tennessee
no less than men from the Rocky Noun
tains and the Pacifiss slope-and to- all
alike we give honor, for they acted az
American soldiers Should.ssa
isst- AMERICAN 5tiLTIES:
there. The fact that hey were com.
mitted under well-nigh int olerable provo
cation affords no excuse for such cruel
ties, nor can we ADM as justif1ca tiol !
that theySlwere retaliat tory in kind. Every
effort has Sbeen made to detect and pun
lisa the wrongdoers and the wrongdoing
itself has been compile tely stopped But
these rnisdeeds. were exceptional. and
their occurrence ins8no wisessSalters thu
fact E, tina the American Is. army in the
splendid sodierly qua Titles. but high
order of humanity in dealing with their
foes. A hundred thousand of our troops
went to the Philippines. Among them
were some who offended AGAINST tn:
late at home? u think not. ask fou
no special consid tian to he s sh OWL
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