The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-15
ALL WASHINGTON
Great Turnout at dwelling of
Sherman Statue.
Thousands of Veterans Honor
Memory of Dead Chieftain.
ROOSEVELT SPEAKS.
Other Prominent Men Honor
the HerO's Memory.
David B. Henderson and Gen.
Grosvenor Among Speakers.

y
of William Tecumseh Sherman an
equestrian statue was unveiled here
this afternoon by a little boy, VIM.
Tecumseh Sherman Thorndyke. grand
son of the dead chieftain, in the pres
ence OF official Washington, the presi-
dent, the diplomatic corps and the cab
met at its head. Thousands of Veter-
ans, members of the societies of the
armies of the Cumberland the Tennes-
see, the Ohio and the Potomac. all the
regular troops in the vicinity of Wash
ington, a battalion of marines, two bat
talionS of seamen and the District Ma
tional Guard were reviewed by the
president before the unveilng cere-
monies. which began at 2:3O o'clock.
After the invocation by the Rev. D.
! j. Stafford and music by the Marine
band, Gen. Granville NJ Dodge. preSi-
dent of the Society of the Army of the
Tennessee and chairman of the statue
committee. made the Introductory ad-
dress Upon its conclusion the Marine
band struck up THE Star SpangIed
Banner" the Fourth field battery,
United States army, fired a salute, and
the flags which hid from view the
statue were drawn aside by the grand
son of the hero to whose memory it
was erected.
President Roosevelt was then intro
duced. and spoke as follows:
Today we meet together to do Eonor
to the memory of one of the great fl,en
whom, in the hour of her agony, our
nation brought forth for her preSerVa-
ton The civil war was not only in the
| Importance of the issues at stake and of
the outcome the greatest of modern
times, but it was also. taking into ac-
count its duration. the severity of the
| fighting, and the size of the armies en-
gagged, the greatest since the close Of
the Napoleonic struggles. Among the
1n 70 hi ncft ion
/ leaders of the various armies in the
| field are many who viii be remembered
in our history as long as this history
itself is remembered. Sheridan. the III
carnation of fiery energy and prowess,
/ Thomas, farsighted. coolheaded. whose
steadfast courage burned ever highest
| in the supreme moment of the crisis.
/ Mcclellan, withs his extraordinary gift
for organization; Meade, victor in one
of the decisive battles of all time: Han
cock. type of the true fighting man
among the regulars; Logan, type of the
| true fighting man among the volun-
teers--the names of these and of many
others will endure so long as our peO-
pie hold sacred the memory of the fight
for union and for liberty. High among
these chiefs rise the figures of Grant
and of Grants great lieutenant. SheI-
4 man, whose statue here in the national
capital is today to be unveiled. 1t is
not necessary here to go over the long
roll of Shermans mighty feats. They
are written large throughout the history
of the civil war. Our memories would
! be poor indeed if we did not recall them
now as we look along Pennsylvania av-
enue and think of the great triumphal
! march which surged down its length
when at the close of the war the VIC
torious armies of the east and of the
west met here in the capital of the ma
! ton they had saved.
There is peculiar fitness in COM
memorating the great deeds of the sol
diers who preserved this nation, by
suitable monuments at the national
capital l trust we shall soon have a
proper statue of Abraham Lincoln, to
whom more than to any other one man
this nation owes its salvation. Mean
while on behalf of the people of the ma
ton, [ wish to congratulate all OF you
who have been instrumental in securing
the erection of this statue to General
Sherman.
The living can best show their respect
for the memory of the great dead by the
way in which they take to heart and
act upon the lessons taught by the lives
which made these dead men great Our
homage today to the memory OF Sher-
man comes from the depths OF our be-
| ing We would be unworthy citizens did
we not feel profound gratitude toward
| him. and those like him and under him,
who, when the country called In her
| dire need, sprang forward with such
gallant eagernesS to answer that call
Their blood and their toll, their endur-
anC6 anu QdlTlOt1SIIls 11dNC llld0C 10 eAl4N
all who come after us forever their
debtors. They left US not merely re-
united country, but country incalcul-
| ably greater because of its rich heritage
in the deeds which thus left it reunited.
AS nation we are the greater, not only
for the valor and devotion to duty dis
played by the men in blue, who won in
the great struggle for the Union. but
| also for the valor and the loyalty to-
ward what they regarded as right of
the men in gray; for this war, thrice
fortunate above all other recent wars
in its outcome. left to all of us the right
of brotherhood alike with valiant victor
and valiant vanquished-
Moreover, cur homage must not only
find expression on our lips; II must
also show itself forth in oul deeds
1t is a great and glorious thing for a
nation to be stirred to present triumph
by the splendid memories of triumphs
in the past. But it is shameful thing
for a nation if these memories stir it
only to empty boastings, to a pride
that does not shrink from present
abasement, to that self-sa tlsfaction
which accepts the high resolve and un-
bending effort of the father as an ex-
cuse for effortless ease or wrongly dl-
rected effort in the son. We of the
present if we are true TO the past. must
show by our lives that we have learned
Alright the lessons taught by the men
who did the mighty deeds of the past.
We must have in US the spirit which
made the men of the civil war what
they were: the spirit which produced
leaders such as Sherman; the spirit
which gave to the average soldier the
grim tenacity and resourcefulness that
made the armies of Grant and Sherman
as formidable fighting machines as this
world has ever seen We need their
ruggedness of body, their keen and Wig
orous minds. and above all their domi-
nant quality of forceful character
Their lives teach us in our own lives to
strive after not the thing which Is
|