The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1909-04-29
MIR. TAFT SPEAKS
The President Talks of q
United Nation.


Feelings I'm the south Have Changed
During Past Forty Years and the
President Believes it Possible To
Make the Two Sections Even Closer
Together-We Should Know No
Sectional Lines i'm Political Mat
tiers.
Philadelphia, Pa, April 27-Pres-
ident Taft tonight was the principal
speaker at the Grant birthday dinner
of the Union League. in this city. MI.
| Taft was sharply criticised year ago
| because Of certain of his references
to General Grant and he took ad
vantage of to-night's opportunity to
| express anew his admiration for Gen
eral Grant as man, as a soldier and
as Chief Executive of the United
| States
What | wished particularly to
dwell upon tonight" said President
| Taft, was the spirit of that peace
at Appomattox, represented on the
one hand by the magnanamity and
| far-sightedness of Grant and by the
self-restraint and courage and far
sighted patriotism (for that it was)
on the part Of Lee, in bringing the
| struggle to finish. The spirit at
! Appomattox is to-day, | trust, trium-
phant Between the two leaders it
existed when the terms of the sur
render were signed, but it was i'm
possible under the conditions that
that spirit should control and make
| itself Immediately manifest between
the two sections. The conditions
| were such that that it could not be.
| The remnants of slavery and the dis
| tressed condition of the South, and
the feelings that had been wrought
| between the two sections could not
| be downed by the mere expression of
| two such leaders as Grant and Lee,
and it was necessary, / suppose. that
We should go through that thirty or
forty years in order that the rent
which was made to the foundations
of our country and of our civilization
should be united in common coun-
| try with a common spirit.
But what | mean to point out is
that that spirit we now rejoice in as
we find between the two sections nc
remaining bitterness. is a sririt that
has between the two great command
ers existed the day that they shook
hands and signed the terms of sur
render 1t is a matter that | have
very much at heart | believe it is
possible to make the two sections
even closer together. The South is
the more homogeneous people than
we. Emigration into this country
spread over the North and went not
into the South, and the South pre-
We in the North.
81 am not making a Republican
speech, and l am not speaking from
a Republican standpoint, at least [
wMRohondnseidc,E Et- .rdahrdlaauaua
hope I can separate myself from that
disposition natural to one who went
through the last campaign.
What I am looking forward to is
a division of the parties in the South,
so that there shall be tolerance of
political opinion there SO that in their
State government and in their natu-
raj affairs, there shall be more than
one political creed to be subscribed
to and supported. l believe that gen.
orally through the South the men
who are not actively engaged in pol
itics would recognize that end as one
devoutly to be wished. In expressing
these desires I am quite conscious
that my motives are likely to be mis-
construed or, at least, that I shall
have attributed to me rather more
: political policy than patriotic DESIRE
but, nevertheless, persist in express
ing it, and while some of my friends
from the South who represent that
section in Congress and in the Sen
ate are constantly throwing cold wa
ter on my attempts to encourage a
little independence of political think
: ing in the South, and saying that it is
Z. hopeless for me to attempt to bring
about a change in that regard, they
will excuse me if I attribute to them
a little of that political prejudice
that they think is actuating me
Qaughter), and it is possible they
, would not welcome that division OF
> political opinion in the South with all
the fervor of some other patriots in
that section who do not hold now the
position of Representative and Sen
ator in Washington.
But, however, it is, feel certain
the real spirit of Appomattox that Il
is charging on and that it is infusing
itself in the people of the South as
it was long ago infused in the people
of the North, and that we are grow.
J ing closer and closer together, and il
5 will manifest itself in political inde
J pendence the country over, SO thai
|. we shall not know each other by sec
tons In political matters. but by diff
: ference only in sections"