Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-10-23
ADDRESSES GREAT THRoNG IN
DIxIE'S CAPITAL.
LAUDS SOUTHERN VALOR
Gives Praise to Civil War Soldiers
Who Offered Their Lives as the
Measure of Their Devotion-Pros-
perity in Place of the DesoIation
of Conflict.

Richmond, Va, Oct 19.-President
Roosevelt spoke here yesterday to a
large and demonstrative southern aud
fence. He addressed himself partic-
ularly to the effects of the civil war
and the remarkable fact that the bit
terness of that great conflict had died
away.
The wounds left by the great civil
war have long healed, but it's mem.
cries remain said the president.
Think of it, oh, my countrymen,
think of the good fortune that is
ours! That whereas every other war
OF modern times has left feelings of
rancor and bitterness to keep asunder
the combatants, our great war has
lett 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 end of the men who fought on
the other. The proud self-sacrif1ce,
the resolute and daring courage. the
high and steadfast devotion to the
right as each man saw it, whether
northerner or southerner, these quail
tiles render all Americans forever the
debtors of those who in the dark days
from 81 to '65 proved their truth by
their endeavor Foreign observers
predicted that when such a great war
n10cod If would hn i,,opocciL1o for +bo
hundreds of thousands of combatants
to return to the paths Of peace. They
predicted ceaseless disorder, wild
turbulence, the alienation of
anarchy and despotism. But the good
sense and self-restrafnt OF the aver
age American citizen falsified these.
prophecies. The great armies dis
banded 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
a wonderful, a marvellous thing, in
country consecrated TO peace with but
an infinitesimal regular army, TO de-
velop so quickly the huge hosts which
fronted one another between the
James and the Potomac and along the
Mississippi and it's tributaries. But
it was an even more wonderful, an
even more marvellous thing, how these
great hosts, once their work done, re-
solved themselves into the general
fabric of the nation.
only a heroic people could have
battled successfully against the con-
ditions with which the people of the
south found themselves face to face
at the end of the civil war. There
had been utter destruction and disas-
ter, and wholly new business and
social problems had to be faced with
the scantiest means, The economic
and political fabric had to be read
justed in the midst of dire want, of
grinding poverty. The future of the
broken, war-swept south seemed be-
yond hope, and if her sons and daugh
tiers had been of weaker rper there
would in very truth have been no hope
But the men and the sons of the men
who had faced with unfaltering front
every alienation of good and evil
fortune from Manassas to to Appomat
tOx, and the women, their wives and
whose courage and endur-
ance had reached an even higher
heroic level-these men and these
women set themselves undauntedly to
the great task before them. For
twenty years the struggle was hard
and at times doubtful Then the
splendid qualities of your manhood
and womanhOod told as they were
bound to tell, and the wealth of your
extraordinary natural resources be-
gan to be shown. Now the teeming
riches of mine and field and factory
attest the prosperity CT those who are
all the stronger because of the trials
and struggles through which this pros
perity has come. You stand Loyalty
to your traditions and memories;