Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-25
President Lauds Sheridan
As Type of True American
The President spoke as follows:

The President spoke as follows:
1T is eminently fitting that the nation s
illustrious men. the men who loom as
heroes before the eyes of our people,
should be fittingly concentrated here al
the National capital. and 1 am glad in
deed to take part in the unwilling of this
statue to Gen. Sheridan. His name will
always stand high on the list of American
worthless.
"Not only was he a great general, but
he showed his greatness with that touch
of originality which we call genius. In
deed, this quality of brilliance has beer
in one sense disadvantage to his repu-
tation, for it has tended to overshadow
his solid ability. We tend to think of him
only as the dashing cavalry leader.
whereas he was in reality not only that.
but also a great commander.
'tOf course, the fact in his career most
readily recognized was his mastery in
the necessarily modern art Of handling
masses of modern cavalry so as to give
them the fullest possible effect. not only
in the ordinary operations of cavalry
which precede and follow battle, but
in the battle itself But in addition he
showed in the civil war that he was a
first-class army commander. both as a
subordinate OF Grant and when in indie
pendent command. His record in the
Valley campaign, and again from Five
Forks to AppOmattOX, is one difficult to
parallel in military history.
After the close of the great war. in a
field where there was scant glory to
be won by the general in chief. he rem
dered a signal service which has gone
almost unnoticed; for in the tedious,
weary Indian wars on the great plains
1t was he who developed in thorOughgoing
fashion the system of campaigning in
winter, which at the cost of bitter hard
ship and peril. finally broke down the
banded strength of those formidable war
riors. the horse Indians.
From Bottom to Top of Ladder.
His career was typically American. for
from plain beginnings he rose to the high
est military position in our land We
honor his memory itself; and. moreover,
as in the case of the other great COM
manders of his day. his career symbolizes
the careers of all those men who in the
years of the nations direst need sprans
10 the front to risk everything. including
life itself, and to spend the days of their
strongest young manhood in valorous con-
fiict for an ideal.
often we Americans are tainted with
having only a material ideal. The empty
| folly of the taunt Is sufficiently shown
| by the presence here today of you men
of the Grand Army, you the comrades OF
the dead general the men who served
| with and under him. In all history we
| have no greater instance of subordination
of self. of the exalting of a lofty ideal
| over merely material well-being among
| the people of a great nation. than was
shown by our own people in the civil
war.
And YOU, the men who wore the blue
would be the first TO say that this same
| lofty indifference to the things of the
| body, when compared to the things of the
| SOUL was shown by your brothers who
| wore the gray. Dreadful was the suffer
| Ing dreadful the loss. of the civil war
Yet it stands alone among wars in this
| that, now that the wounds are healed
| the memory of the mighty deeds of valol
/ performed on one side no less than or
| the other has become the common heri
| tage of all our people in every quarter
| of this country.
"The completeness with which this i.
| true Is shown by what is occurring here
today We meet together to raise q
monument to a great Union general, ir
the presence of many of the survivor: