The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-15
TRIBUTE To A HERO
COL. GARDENERS ADDRESS AT RE-
INTERMENT CEREMONIES.
REPUBLIC OWES HIM HONOR.
LIFE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PA
TRIOT REVIEWED.

mains an Incentive TO Coming
Generations to Emulate His Ex-
ample in Patriotism, Perserver-
ence. Energy, Attention to Duty
and Honesty of Chnracter-Col.
Gardiner's Eloquent EuIOgy Upon
the Great Soldier.
Col. Asa Bird Gardiner, President
of the Society of the Cincinnati of
| Rhode Island, in his address during
the interment ceremonies at the manu-
ment dealt with the history of Gen.
Greene and his illustrious services to
| the country.
I'VE are assembled here to-day" he
said, with official representatives from
the state of Rhode Island and Georgia,
to render final honors to the remains of
| Maj Gen. Nathaniel Greene, now
about to be deposited under this beau
| tiful monument erected many years
ago by patriotic citizens, to commence
rate his splendid military services in
the eight years of war for American in
| dependence. 1t has been said, and the
sentiment has become a proverb that
republics are ungrateful and unjust to
their benefactors.
Nathaniel Greene in the later years
of his life, exemplified the statement,
but fortunately the states of North
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia,
recognizing that but for his wonderful
military ability they would, probably,
not have been relieved from British
domination. nor been included in these
United States at a definitive peace,
made to him generous grants of land
and money to mark their high sense of
his extraordinary services, and thus
enabled his closing years to be free
from the burden Of debts contracted in
the cause of his country, debts which
had exhausted his private estate"
In reviewing the great soldiers life,
Col. Gardiner referred to the fact that
he belonged to a family of great an
tiquity and responsibility in England,
and was descended from a cadet branch
which, early in the reign of Henry VIII,
had its seat in Dorsetshire.
Gen. Greene's Public Life.
Dealing at some length with his an
cestors and the early years of his life,
Col. Gardiner took up the public life
of Greene, beginning with his election
to the Rhode Island Colonial Assem-
bly,, during which, foreseeing with bis
knowledge of political events, that the
dispute between Great Britain and the
American colonies must ere long be
brought to the arbitrament of the
sword, he sought to prepare himself
for the life of a soldier.
E.T II
ices to his country, which made him a
hero of the great struggle which gave
to the colonies their independence.
Col Gardiner gave briefly the his
tory of the memorials which have
been erected to the great soldier.
In presenting the statue of Greene
to the United States for the Old Hall
OF the House of Representatives as
provided by Congress, Col Gardiner
quoted the words of the late United
States Senator Henry B. Anthony of
Rhode Island in his presentation adj
dress:
Among those who, in the Revolu-
tionary period, won titles to the ma
tional gratitude, never disavowed he.
whose statue we have placed in the
Capitol stands in the Judgment of his
contemporaries and by the assent of
history second only to the man who
towers without peer in the annals of
America" He also quoted Archdea-
con Cyrus Bradym, a graduate of the
United States Naval Academy, in the
preface to a recent romance when
Blades Are Out and Loves Afield,"
In which he said: Next to Washing
ton this New England blacksmith, who
so highly educated himself that, for
relaxation, he read the Latin poets in
the original by the light of the camp
fire, stands as the most brilliant SOL
dier-strategist. tactician and fighter of
the Revolution. And his character
was as great as his genius"
When he died Anthony Wayne. who
was with him, wrote a hasty note to
the authorities of Savannah and said:
He was great as a soldier, greater
as citizen, immaculate as a friend,
The honors, the greatest hon.
ors of war, are due to his remains.
Pardon this scrawl; my feelings are
too much affected because l have seen
great and good man die"
Washington's sorrow.
Washington, in announcing his de-
cease to Rochambeau, in July, 1856,
said HE was a great and good man,
indeed" and in a letter from Mount
Vernon to Thomas jefferson, dated
Aug. l, 1886, said: You will. in COM
mon with your countrymen, have le-
GREETED a loss of so great and so hon
est a man."
Washington, in letter to Col. Jere-
miah Wadsworth, dated Oct. %, 1856
offered at his "own cost and expense
to educate his namesake, George
Washington Greene" who was then
in his eleventh year. This plan was
carried out, and the lad was sent to
the care of Lafayette until the French
Revolution.
The Cincinnati of Georgia, as to-
ken of high respect and veneration''
for the memory of Gen. Greene, re-
solved that his eldest son, George
Washington Greene, should be admit
ted an hereditary member on arriv-
ing at age of Is years, but. I'M
! fortunately, before that date the young
man was accidentally drowned in the
Savannah river off Mulberry Grove on
March 2S, 1898. and his body was de-
| posted with his fathers, in the Gra-
| ham vault. Here they remained until
last year, and now are to be rein
TERED with fitting honors under the
| beautiful monument in johnson
Square, the first one erected to Greene's
memory.
This is the general wish of his de-
scendants, and the Legislature of
Rhode Island. by fitting representa-
ton from their body, is present to as
sist in this patriotic act The pres
| ence of the executive and the legisla-
tive representatives of the state of
| Georgia are proper acknowledgements
| of Greene's potential services to the
| cause OF the South.
This monument, which will now have
Il l. a. - Al.