The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-07-30

Dear Uncle Remus:
T Here is something in which I would
like to get the assistance of Mr.. Billy
Sanders, the Sage of Shady Dale, and of
all the readers of Uncle Remus-the
Home Magazine and of all who think as
the editors of Uncle Remus's-the
Home Magazine-eyidently do think.
Last Saturday, in the late afternoon.
when it had grown little cool, l was
riding with two of my Aids, Capt. FitZ-
hugh Lee and Capt. Archie Butt, of your
own. State and my mothers State of
Georgia. The mare l was on. by the
way, was named Georgia, and a good
mare she is, too. well-behaved and a
good jumper. We We're taking our
horses out to exercise them over some
jumps.
I'VE had just been listening to the
really superb singing of the mems
chorus of the Arion Singing Society, an
organization of citizens of German birth
or parentage, who were about to go
abroad to appear at certain courts and
elsewhere in Europe, and who had
wished to sing in the White House as
q farewell before starting on their for
had at my request sung Dixie Gas well
as The Old Kentucky Home and The
Suwanee RfverD.
while riding we were talking over
the fact that Dixie was far and away
the best tune (and the best military
tune that we knew, not even excepting
Garry OwenO, and that it had won its
way until it was the tune which would
bring everybody to his feet with yell
in any audience in any paES of the coun-
try, and we were bemoaHlng the fact
that there never had been any words
which were in any way adequate to the
tune, and dwelling on the further fact
that it was such a fine battle tune-the
best battle tune of our Army.
capt. Butt then added that just as
Dixie stood alone among tunes so we
had in Julia Ward Howe's great Battle
Hymn of the Republic the very finest
and noblest battle hymn possessed by
any Nation of the world. a hymn that
in loftiness of thought and expression.
in both words and tune, lent itself to
choral singing as no other battle hymn
did in any country, and he added that
there was not sectional line in the
hymn, not a word that could awaken
a single unpleasant thought in the mind
of any American, no matter where he
lived and no matter on which side he
or his father had fought in the great
war
II told him I entirely agreed with
him. and that. just as Dixie was be-
coming the tune which when played
excited most enthusiasm among Ameri-
cans everywhere, so ] hoped that sooner
or later all Americans would grow to-
realize that in this Battle Hymn of the
Republic we had what really ought to
be a great National treasure, something
that all Americans would grow to know
intimately, so that in any audience any
where in the land when the tune was
started most of the audience should be
a n IN mi sin no
eve then grew to wondering if this
good result would ever be achieved, and
we thought it would be worth while to
write to you.
''.We know that any such movement
can come, If at all. only because of a
genuine popular feeling, and with small
regard to the opinion of any one or anyI
particular set of men; and II can only
come slowly in any event; but wei
thought it might be helped on a little iii
what we had to say was published in
your magazine. l append copy of the
Battle Hymn.
Faithfully yours,
Theodore Roosevelt
Mr.. joel Chandler Harris, Atlanta, Ca"
Much that the President said in this
letter will receive entire commentator,
but much will be as strongly dissented
from. The Georgia papers, in publish
ng the letter, speak of Dixie" as the |
battle song of the Confederacy." It'll
never was, and its popularity is thing
Of ''after-the-war growth" We are sure
that our readers will bear us out in
he memory that during the war the |
bands in front of us very
-arely played Dixie" These which we
heard played mostly were "The Bonny
and "Stonewall Jackson Crossing Into
Maryland" All these were adaptations |
If old tunes, but made very spirited |
compositions. as all will re-
member who have heard a Confederate
band on some quiet evening when the
were silent and the picket lines
veil established play any one of them
rhe "Bonny Blue Flag was an old
scotch air; Maryland, My Maryland"
vas college song. which had been sung
or century or more by the students
If Europe and America, while stone
vail Jackson Crossing eInto Maryland" |
vas a negro minstrel walk-around
Known as BILLY Patterson" Occasion
ally the bands played Dixie" but it |
seems to us that this was mostly con-
ined to a band from New Orleans. The
Northern bands played Dixie" much
more frequently than did the Southern,
md President Lincoln appropriated it |
or the whole country in 1865, saying
hat we had captured it along with
else in the Southern Confed-
,racy.
AS TO its being the best military tune
snown there is question. Competent
authorities disagree Rudyard Kipling
Marching Thru Georgia."
he best military tune that we have, and |
me of the very best in the world OIL
curse, we cannot expect the Southern
rs to accept Marching Thru Georgia"
md here comes the same objection to
The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
Unquestionably the noblest compost
ion in any language of a battle hymn |
s Julia Ward Howe's poem. II has
Lightly and grandeur unapproached by
my other great National anthem. At
he same time the tune of John |
Browns Body" while splendid march,
ng air, is said by musical critics not to
il the majestic words of THE Battle |
hymn of the Republic in a satisfactory
way The Southerners have objected to
he words OF the anthem from its allu-
ion to making men free" which they