Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1905-11-09
THE SOUTH.

personable tribute-another, anC
quite a different, Theodore Roose.
welt appeared upon the scene; the
big stick was laid away; the habili-
ments Of the rough rider were
exchanged for more conventional
apparel; words were uttered and
engineries were set in motion which
gave the people promise of enact
patton from the rapacity of certain
aggregations of capital that had
long defied the law; and, finally by
an act of daring rs original as il was
felicitous, and sustained throughout
by uniagging persistence and intel
ligent purpose, this ~recreated Theo.
dore Roosevelt stands forth a very
archangle of peace. bringing upon
himself and his country glory
unspeakable.
The Roosevelt who spoke at Rich
mond of Lee and jackson who,
standing in the confederate capital,
under the shadow of sectional battle
fields, bravely put sectional ism and
partyism beneath his feet-who,
tenderly and in the name of a dead
mother, claimed kindred there's a
gray horse of quite another color.
Then and there he touched the but
ton that in an instant thrills as it
lights all southern hearts. Then
and there he wiped out every old
score and opened a fresh set of
books. Who has changed, he or WEI
What boots it? Maybe neither
maybe just a case of plain. old
fashioned misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, there is no disputing,
no resisting words like these:
Coming today by the statute of
Stonewall jackson, in the city of
Lee, | felt what a privilege ii is that
|, as an American, possess in claim
ing that you yourselves possess no
greater right Of kinship in Lee and
Jackson than | have. / can claim
to be a middling good American,
because my ancestry is half southern
and half northern; l was born in the
east and | have lived a good while
the west-so long in fact, that l
do not admit that any man can be a
westerner than | am. There
was an uncle OF mine, now dead, my
Mothers brother, who has always
been among all the men | have ever
known the man who it seemed to me
came nearest TO IMPLYING in the
iesh that most beautiful OF all
characters in fiction Thackeray's
col. Newcome--my uncle, James
)unwoody Bullock, an admiral in
he confederate navy. In short,
gentlemen, | claim to be neither
iortherner, 10 southerner, nor east
rner, nor westerner. nothing but a
,ood American, pure and simple.
Sext to a mans having worn the
'lue comes the fact of the mans
worn the gray as emitting
lim to honor in my sight
In breadth Of patriotic spirit and
n far reaching statesmanlike sug-
nothing finer than this was
aid by Abraham Lincoln. 1t
deserves, indeed, to be recorded in
of gold alongside the Getty
'urg speech, being at once al echo
nd confirmation OF that immoral
ltterance. Breathing such senti-
nents, bearing such a message,
Theodore Roosevelt becomes n of
rs, which is only to say that we are
il, Americans, equally proud Of
common country. equal heirs of its
pblime traditions, no less loyal to
he Gag Of the union because we fol-
owed the flag Of the confederacy.
The south has wondered forty
Iears through a wilderness Of sec
for this vision Of the
,romised land of perfect nationality.
4 has longed for some Messiah Of
patriotism and brotherhood 70 rnise
u the north and TO reach out to it
the hand Of equality, having .
hanx4 ~ - II Theodore Rooaayelt