The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-19
Speaks at Banquet.

Speaks at Banquet.
 MT. Mayor, Governor and you, my hosts; One among the very many great Vir- ginians at the time when this nation was born (and 1 quote, gentlemen, Patrick Henry) said
 " We are no longer New Workers, New Englanders, Pennsylvanians, or Virgin
 ians, we are Americans and surely MT.
 Mayor, the man would be but poor American who was not touched and strr- ed to the depths by the reception that have met with today in this great historic city of America. Coming today by the statue of Stonewall Jackson, in the city
 of Lee, I felt what a privilege 1t IS that I, as an American. have in claiming that you, yourselves, have no more right of
 kinship in Lee and. Jackson, than have.
 "I can claim to be a middling good American because my ancestry was half southern and half northern; l was born
 in the east and have lived good while
 in the west-so long, in fact, that do not admit that any man can be better
 westerner than I am. There was an uncle of mine, now dead, my mothers brother, who has always been, among all the
 men 1 have ever met the man who 1t l seemed to me came nearest to typifylng
 in the flesh that most beautiful Of all characters in fiction, Thackary's Colonel
 
 Bulloch an admiral in the Confederate navy. In short, gentlemen, I claim to be neither northerner nor southerner, nor customer nor westerner, nothing but good American, pure and simple
 Next to a mans having worn the blue, comes the fact of the mans having worn the gray, as emitting him to honor in my
 sight. Last year told Gen. Fitzhugh Lee that I wanted to add to my collection of autograph letters of great Americans Lincoln Grant, Clay. Jefferson Burning to the governor), your namesake, and Andrew Jackson, that of General Lee
 with his photograph. I got from General Ftzhugh Lee a letter of General Lees and a photograph of him was handed to me afterward by General Fitzhugh Lee. I was not able to thank my old and
 valued friend, the father, but I put the 1 son on my staff, and now l have the !, grandson of General Grant and the | grand-nephew of General Lee and the son
 of Phil Sheridan on my staff I think it
 is a middling good staff. too.
 Southern Men Preponderate. '1n my regiment organized at the be- | ginning of the Spanish-American war, 1 | think that there were more men whose l fathers wore the grey than there were men whose fathers wore the blue. The | only rivalry that ever entered their hearts, was rivalry as to which man could show himself best entitled to the praise of having done all that within him lay for our country and our flag.
 q noticed that the statue of StonewaH Jackson had been raised as a gift by certain Englishmen. The best biography of General Jackson was by an English man, Colonel Henderson. It is a curious and rather lamentable fact that one died | just as he was about to undertake an- other biography which I had earnestly | asked him to undertake. I had written him urging that he should finish his very remarkable military study of Stonewail
 Jackson by writing a military biography | of General Lee, and he had written mo | back that he intended to do so. Shortly | afterward I learned of his death. "Gentlemen. I cannot sufficiently ex- | press to you my deep appreciation Of the
 way in which you have greeted me to-
 day. You cannot be nearly as glad to | see me as l am to see you. Let me say
 once more what I said in my formal ad- | dress. Think of the good fortune that IS | ours as a people In having, each of us
 whether we in our own persons or through our ancestors wore the blue or the gray, 1 the proud right to challenge as our own
 all of the yalor, all of the self-devotion, l all of the steadfast adherence to right
 as God gave to each man to see the
 right, shown alike by the men who wore l 1 in the great contest that was waged from | '81 to 65.'
 Stop at Lee Monument.
 After the banquet the presidential party l visited points of interest about the city 1 The party first stopped at the Lee mon
 ument, where the Confederate Veterans | from R. E. Lee camp soldiers were
 gathered to greet the President. Address
 Ing the old soldiers, the President said; "My friends and fellow Americans: l
 wish to say just one word of greeting to l YOU. I honor the success of Virginia be- | cause she has taken charge of the Con | federate veterans in their old age. All Americans. north and south, must ever | show high honor to the men Of the CIVIL
 war whether they wore the blue or
 whether they wore the gray. so long as | they did their duty as the light was | given them to see their duty, with all or | the strength that was in them
 .sIn '9s when we had to face a very l little war, our efforts was to face 1t In the spirit in which you had faced the
 great war In my regiment think there | were if anything more. men whose iath- | CTS wore the gray than there were men | whose fathers who wore the blue. ana all alike felt but one lmpluse and that | was the Impulse, the desire, the firm
 determination to show in generous rivalry
 that no one man could surpass another in his ardor or devotion to the flag that
 waved over all Americans alike. Here greet you in the shadow of the statue of your mighty commander-Generai Robert Lee You and he left us memories | when, inasmuch as they are part of
 the memories bequeathed to the entire country by all the Americans who fought in the civil war, to serve forever
 more as spurs and incentives to the gen.
 erations coming after, to teach us and our descendants that alike In peace and in
 war, whether the times which try men 8 | souls may come, we are to rise level to the opportunity as you rose level to your
 opportunity. and to be ready to prove.
 as you proved your willingness, to prove
 our worth by our endeavor.'
 Heartily Cheered By Veterans. The president and listened to with great interest and was heartily cheered by the gray clad veterans
 Turning eastward, the party drove to the old home of John Marshall. chief jus tice of the United States and to the Con- federate museum, where many of the ladies of the Confederate Memorial and
 Literary association gathered. MT. Roose-
 welt was presented by the ladies with a
 bunch of red and white roses, tied with the Confederate colors. Proceeding east | ward the party visited St. Johns Epis-
 copal church in which Patrick Henry
 made his famous give me liberty or give
 me death speech, and the president ex-
 pressed great interest in the old church,
 and the adjacent burying ground.
 Shortly after o'clock the president
 joined Mrs. Roosevelt at the governor S