The Paducah sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, 1905-10-23


much regard to law or usage-Theo-
dore Roosevelt. the presidential can
didate. who having captured the ma
chine and secured his nomination.
seemed borne along upon a golden
stream of campaign contributions
wrung from the corporations by
methods that to say the least of them
looked like coercion--in short, Theo.
dore Roosevelt, the strenuous, arous-
ed the antagonism and invited the at
tacks of all who could see in his cleo
ton only a menace to the peace of
the country as we'll as to good order
and good feeling in the southern part
of it.
That was q year ago.
Coming in upon a wave Of unsxam-
pied popular volition, partly the re-
bound of extraordinary conditions.
but at the same time an undeniable
personal tribute, another and quite a
different Theodore Roosevelt appear
ed upon the scene. The big stick
was laid away; the habilaments 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 emancipation from the
Iapacity of certain aggregations OF
capital that had long defied the law
and finally by an act of daring as
original as ii was felicitous and sus-
tanned throughout by unflagging per
sistance and Intelligent purpose, this
re-created Theodore Roosevelt stands
forth an arch angel of peace. bring
ing upon himself and his country
glory unspeakab,e.
The Theodore Roosevelt who spoke
at Richmond of Lee and Jackson,
who. standing in the Confederate
capital. under the shadow of section
al battlefields, bravely put sectional
ism and partyism beneath his feet.
who tenderly. and in the name of
dead mother, claimed kindred, there
is gray horse Of quite another col
or. Then and there he touched the
button that in an instant thrills as ID
lights all southern hearts. Then ami
there he wiped out every old score
and opened a fresh set of books Who
has changed, he or we; what boots
It? May be neither. may be just a
case of plain Old fashioned misunder-
standing.
Meanwhile there is no disputing,
no resisting words like these:
Coming today by the statue OF
Stonewall Jackson, in the city of Lee.
felt what a privilege it is that I, as
an American, possess in claiming
that you yourselves possess no great
er right of kinship in Lee and Jack
son than / have. / can claim to be a
middling good American, because
my ancestry is half southern and half
northern. | was born in the east and
have lived a good while in the west
so long. in fact, that | do not admit
that any man can be a better western
er than | am. There was an uncle
of mine. now dead, my mothers
brother-who has always been amons
all the men | have ever known, the
man who il seemed TO me came near
est to typifying in the flesh that mos,
beautiful of all characters in fiction.
Thackeray's Col. ewcome-my un-
Gle, James Dunwoody Bulloch, an ad-
mlral in the Confederate navy. In
short, gentlemen, | claim to be Meth
er northern, nor southerner, nor east
erner, nor westerner, nothing but a
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"
In breadth of patriotic spirit and
in far-reaching statesmanlike sugges-
ton, nothing finer than this was said
by Abraham Lincoln. 1t deserves,
indeed, to be recorded in letters Of
gold alongside the Gettysburg speech.
being at once an echo and confirma-
tion of that immortal utterance.
Breathing such sentiments, bearing
such a message Theodore Roosevelt
becomes one of us, which is only TO
say that we are all Americans, equal
ly proud of a common country, equal
heirs of its sublime traditions, nor
less loyal to the flag OF the Union
because we followed the flag of the
Confederacy.
The south has wandered forty
years through a wilderness of sec
Uonalism for this vision of the prom
Used land of perfect nationality. It
has longed for some messiah of pa
triotism and brotherhood to rise In
the north and to reach out to IL the
hand of equality having a heart in il,
To Theodore Roosevelt this happy lot
has fallen; and having fought him
hike a man the south sends the mem
DRY o. all frictions to the rear and
greets and acclaims as a kinsman.
Though we differ tomorrow. never
again shall there be from us acefbity
of thought or speech Today at least
shall be given to the love of God. to
the fellowship of manhood, and