Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-25
WRONG WORD PRINTED
Gen. Grant Explains HIS
Speech at G. A. R. Dinner.
REPORTS SAID "WOULD"
Made Difference Between Criticism of
a President and Conditions.
ASKED TO DISCUSS HIS FATHER
He Said No Such Conference "Could"
Have Been Held in His
Fathers Time.

NEW YORK, February 25.-Maj. Gen.
Frederick Dent Grant, United States army,
commanding the department of the east, ex-
planned further yesterday his remarks at
the dinner of the George G. Meade Post, g.
A. r., in Philadelphia on Friday night,
which were taken by most of the newspa-
pers reporting them as criticism of Presi-
dent Roosevelts action in negotiating with
MayorSchmitZ settlement of the Japanese
school question. Gen. Grant said that his
impression was that only two reporters were
present at the dinner. He thinks that one of
them missed a single word in his speech
the keyword to the paragraph which has
since caused SO much comment.
The general says he did not say: zone
thing l can state to you with positiveness,
and that is had the incident occurred be-
tween the 4th of March, 1869. and the 4th
of March, 1877, no such conference would
ever have been held at the White House in
Washington" Gen. Grant is sure that what
he did say, and what he intended to say,
was that under conditions as they existed
during the time his father was President of
the United States no such conference
could have been held at the White
House. And he is quite certain that he
neither intended to nor did say anything
which could be interpreted as a criticism of
the President of the United States. All he
wished to do was to call attention to the
difference in conditions now and then.
Gen. Grants Explanation.
Il only intended to speak about five min
utes at the dinner said Gen. Grant. II
started off by telling that little story about
the small boy who when a we'll known pub
lie speaker asked him what he should speak
about replied innocently About minute
and l said 1 would follow the little fellows
advice. l had just about made good that
promise, and was ready to take my seat
when several persons in the audience Shout
ed Speak about your father
Now, they were old veterans for the
most part, and naturally l desired to say
n few words that would make them happy.
L remarked on the significance of the day,
CWashingtons birthday, and dwelt for
little while on conditions in this country in
the years that interviewed between the war
of the revolution and the civil war. In
those seventy-six years, 1 said, the country
was disturbed by the state rights conten-
tons, so that this was not a nation in the
real sense of the word until after the re-
bellion had been put down. Before that
time it was more of confederacy.
Nation in True Sense.
Their victory in the great civil war
told the veterans had changed all that.
1t had made the country, for the first time
a nation in the truest sense of the word; ;
that is, it settled the state rights ques-
ton.
1T was this question of state rights that
led me to refer to the California episode.
1 referred to the conference the President
had with the San Francisco committee. at
the head of which was the indicted mayor
of that city. L told them that l regretted
that present condtions-conditions entirely
different from those following the civil war
had made it necessary for the President
to talk with the indicted mayor of a Cali
fornia city in regard to our relations with
a foreign power, and | added that in the
years between 1869 and 1877 no such con-
ference could have been held. The infer
ence l drew was that in those days, when
this state rights question had only just
been settled, and there were 10000 of train