The news & observer., 1905-10-19
tcheered to the echo introduced the
NJ. Roosevelt Speaks.


President.
NJ" Roosevelt Speaks.
Mr.. Roosevelt began speaking at
once, often departing from the speech
prepared for this occasion and making
among other extemporaneous utter
anceS hose:
Mr.. Mayor. Governor, and your,
my hosts:
"One among the very many great
Virginians at the time when this ma
tion was born-and / quote, gentle
men, Patrick Henry. said: We are no
longer New Workers or New England
ers, Pennsylvanians or Virginians. we
are Americans And surely, Mr.. May
or the man would be but a poor
American who was not touched and
stirred to the depths by the reception
that ] have met with today i'm this
great historic city of America. Coming
today by the statue of Stonewall jack
son, in the city of Lee, | felt what a
privilege it is that /, as an American.
have, in claiming that you yourselves
have no more right of kinship in Lee
and Jackson than | have. | can claim
to be middling good American, be-
cause my ancestry was half Southern
and half Northern; l was born in the
East and / have lived a good while
in the Vest long in fact that I
do not admit that any man can be q
better Westerner than I am. There
was an uncle of mine, now dead, my
mothers brother, who has always
been among all the men / have ever
met the man who it seemed to me
came nearest to typifying in the flesh
that most beautiful of all characters
in fiction, Thackery's Colonel New
cOme-my Uncle James Dunwoody
Bulloch, an admiral in the Confederate
navy. In short gentlemen, / claim
to be neither Northerner nor South
erner, neither Easterner nor West
ener, nothing but a good American,
pure and simple.
Next only to 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
1 told General Fitzhugh Lee that |
wanted to add to my collection of au-
tograph letters of great Americans
Lincoln, Grant Clay, Jefferson. (turn-
ing to the governor), your namesake,
Andrew Jackson-that of General
Lee. with his photograph. 1 got from
General Fitzhugh Lee letter of Gen
eral Lees and a photograph of him,
handed to me after General Fitzhugh
Lees death. l was not able to thank
my old and valued friend, the father,
but | put the son on my staff; and
now / have the grandson of General
Grant and the granddaughter of Gen
eral Lee and the son of Phil Sheridan
on my staff. l think it is middling
good staff, too.
In my regiment, organized at the
beginning of the Spanish
war. I think that there were more
men whose fathers We're the gray than
there were whose fathers wore the
blue. The only rivalry that ever en-
tered their heads was the rivalry as
to which man could show himself best
entitled to the praise of having done
all that in him lay for our country and
our flag.
Il noticed that the statue of Stone
wall Jackson had been raised as a
gift by certain Englishmen. The best
biography of General Jackson was by
an Englishman, Colonel Henderson. 1t
is curious, and rather lamentable
fact that he died just as he was about
to undertake another biography, which
/ had earnestly asked him to under
take. | had written him urging that
he should finish his very remarkable
military study of Stonewall Jackson
by writing a military biography of
General Lee and he had written me
back that he intended to do so.
Shortly afterwards l learned of his
death.
. Gentlemen, / cannot sufficiently
express to you my deep appreciation
of the way in which you have greeted
me today. You cannot be nearly as
glad to see me as / am to see you.
Let me say once more what | said in
my more formal address. Think OF
the good fortune that is ours, think
of the good fortune that is ours, as a
people having each of us in our per-
sons or though our ancestors wore the
blue or the gray, the proud right 10
challenge as our own all of the Valor,
all of the self-devotion, all of the
steadfast adherence to right as, God
gave to each man to see the right,
shown alike by the men who wore the
blue and by the men who wore the
gray in the great contest that was
waged from 81 to '65."
[ Mr.. Roosevelt's prepared speech
is printed in full on the first page of
Section One of this paper
feature of the return of the pro-
cession from the west end to the Capt.
tol Square was the public school chill
dren banked for several blocks along