The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-10-20
ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION To
THE PRESIDENT IN RICHMOND
Richmond Light Infantry Blues.


ed Howitzers.
Carriages occupied by President,
governor and mayor.
Reception committee and city coun-
ell in carriages.
The line of march was through some
of the principal streets to the western
part of the city and return to the cap
itol square where the speakers staud
had been erected.
All along the route the President
was enthusiastically cheered
When the procession arrived at the
capitol square the President and par
ty called at the executive mansion
and then repaired to the speakers s
stand, which was faced by one of the
| greatest multitudes ever assembled in
Richmond. Mayor Mccarthy present
ed the governor who in a brief and
most complimentary speech the seRti-
ments of which were cheered to the
echo introduced the President who
spoke as follows, commencing at one
thirty o'clock.
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT.
The President said:
L trust L need hardly say how great
is my pleasure at speaking in this his
toric capital of your historic state; the
state than which no other has contrib
uted Il larger proportion to the leader
ship Of the nation; for on the honor
roll Of those American worthless whose
greatness is not only for the age but
for all time, not only for one nation
but for all the world, on this honor roll
F1rglnla'S name stands above all
others. And in greeting all of you, l
know that no one will grudge my say
ing special word of Acknowledgement
to the veterans Of the civil war A
man would indeed be but a poor Amer
icin who could without thrill witness
the way in which, in city after city in
the north as in the south, on every
public occasion, the men who wore the
blue and the men who wore the gray
now march and stand shoulder to
shoulder, giving tangible proof that we
are all now in fact as we'll as in name
reunited people, a people infinitely
richer because of the priceless memo
ries left to all Americans by you men
who fought in the great war. Last
Memorial Day l spoke in Brooklyn, at
the unveiling of the statue of a north
ern general, under the auspices of the
Grand Army of the Republic, and that
great audience cheered every allusiOn
to the valcr and self-devotion of the
men who followed Lee as heartily as
they cheered every alluSion to the
valor and self-devotion Of the men wAo
followed Grant. The wounds left by
the great civil war have long healed,
but it's memories remain. Thing of it,
oh, my countrymen, think of the good
e or~frr hat Sc
every other war of modern times has
left feelings of rancOr and bitterness
to keep asunder the combatants, our
great war has left to the sons and
daughters of the men who fought, on
whichever side they fought, the same
right to feel the keenest pride in the
great deeds alike of the men who fought
on one side and of the men who fought
on the other. The proud self-sacrifice,
the resolute and daring courage, the
high and steadfast devotion to the
right as each man saw it, whether
nOrtherner or sOutherner, these quail
ties render all Americans forever the
debtors of those who in the dark days
from 81 to 80 proved their truth by
their endeavOr. Here around Rich
naOnd, here in your own state, there
lies battlefield after battlefield. rem
dered forever memorable by the men
who counted death as but little thing
when weighed in the balance against
doing their duty as it was given them
to see it. These men have left us of
the younger generation not merely the
memory of what they did in war, but
of what they did in peace. Foreign
observers predicted that when such Il
great war closed it would be impossi-
BILE for the hundreds of thousands Of
combatants to return to the paths of
peace They predicted ceaseleSS disOr-
der, wild turbulence, the alienation of
anarchy and despotism. But the good
sense and self-restraint of the aver
age American citizen falsified these
prophecies. The great armies disband-
ed and the private in the ranks, like the
officer who had commanded him, went
back to take up the threads Of his life
where he had dropped them when the
call to arms came. 1t was wonder
full, a marvellous thing. in a country
consecrated to peace with but an in
initesimal regular army, to develop so
quickly the huge hosts which fronted
enc another between the James and
the Potomac and along the Mississippi
and it's tributaries. But it was an
even more wonderful, and even more
marvellous thing, how these great
hosts, once their work done, resolved
themselves into the general fabric of
the nation.
THE SOUTH'S STRUGGLE AFTER
THE WAR.
Great though tres need Of praise is
which is due the south for the soldier
ly valor her sons displayed during the
four years of war, think that even
greater praise is due to her for what
her people have accomplished in the
forty years of peace which followed.
For forty years the south has made
not merely a courageous, but at times
a desperate struggle, as she has striven
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