The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-06-11
ON HISTORIC SOIL
Statue to Gen. 8. ID. Lee LIS Ded-
icated at Vicksburg.
Geo. r. Peck and Gen. Grant
Among the Guests.
WATTERSON PRESIDES
Former Kansan Was the Orator
Of the Day.
Two of Lees GrandsOnS Perform
the dwelling.

| VickSburg, Miss, June 11.-VickS-
burg is today entertaining a large
crowd of confederate veterans and
visitors, who are present to take part
this afternoon in the unveiling of the
bronze statue of General Stephen d.
Lee, who at the time of his death was
commander-in-ch chief of the United
Confederate Veterans. In addition to
/ the gray clad veterans, General Fred
/ erick Dent Grant, U. S. A, is the es-
pecial guest of the city. General
Grant arrived here from Memphis in
! the special car of ]. T. Harahan, of
/ the Illinois Central railroad, Mr..
/ Harahan being one of the party.
| Among the other prominent per-
sons present are General Clement A.
Evans. the present commander in
| chief of the United Confederate veter-
ans; Henry Watterson of Louisville,
master of ceremonies; Colonel George
| r. Peck of Chicago, and Governors
Sanders of Louisiana and Noel of
| Mississippi, with their staffs and Bile
witt Lee, son of General S. D. Lee.
Three companies of United States
regulars from Fit. Logan H Roots, of
Little Rock, Ark, are also here as
| participants in the unveiling. Two
| grandsons of General Lee, John Giles
ner Lee of Chicago. and Lee Harri-
son of Columbus, Miss, are here to
/
Watterson Presides.
| Upon taking the chair as presiding
| officer. Mr.. Watterson said:
standing by the Father of Waters
| let me first give thanks to God, that,
| from the Falls of st. Anthony to the
| Gulf of Mexico, it flows through an
| unbroken succession of American
states; at once a chain and an emblem
of perpetual union between the north
and the south.
1T was to gain this outlet to the
sea that we acquired the Louisianas of
France. 1t was to keep it open that
the yeomen of the great northwest
took the field. The purpose to close
| it proved an error of far-reaching
magnitude; but If it be true, as Glib
bon tells US, that History is little
| more than the register of the crimes
| what must not all of US have to ans
4 wer for when reason comes to the
final disposition of the facts of con-
/ ffict which even now battles philo-
sophy; because the SOUTH foredoomed
to defeat, risked all and had every
thing to lose; the wonder being, and
the glory, that against such odds the
seIf-confident but vanquished and
vanished confederacy was able to holo
out so long.
Reunited Forever.
Those of us who survive that dreat
ordeal are old men now and each an
nual roll call brings yet fewer of us to
gether. Presently there will remain
!. among the living not one who tough
on either side. Happy those who hav,
been spared to look upon land neve
again to be wet by fraternal blood ant
a people reunited forever in hand ant
heart. The mystic chords of memory
stretching from every battlefield ant
patriotic grave to every living hear
and hearthstone,' touched long ago b.
the "-gels of our better nature swell
at last the universal chorus of th
Union; the memory of deeds of kind
ness and of valor done; of common
blood and race; for, impossible as tn
line of fire seemed, we were one people
then and we are one people now, tn,
War of Sections a mutual and blessed
heritage.
This is why we are assembled in
national cemetery to rear memoria
to q Confederate general. He was O
the best the south has to offer upon tn,
affairs of American manhood, all tha
the north could wish an American tx
be. I have ridden to battle with him
and knelt by his side in prayer, an6
can truly say that what his great kins
man was to Virginia he was to Missis'
sippi:
$50 prompt and capable and yet 81
calm. He nothing lack'd in soldiership
except good fortune. "
Il Introduces Others.
lcompanied by salute from the War
rem light artillery and the singing O.
1.-THE Vicksburg school children Mr.. Wat
terson. as prelude to the introduc
ton of Lieutenant General Clement A
Evans, who presented it in the nam,
of the Confederate veterans, and Ma
tjor General Frederick Dent Grant, wht
accepted it on behalf of the govern
ment and tie army. and George r
Peck, who delivered the Grafton, said
i''I have declared that we are one peo
Iple No air lines, nor water lines, no
lisothermal lines, separate US into geo
/ graphic fragments, all the good on thi
side. all the bad on that. The wa
! ended nearly so years ago. He VIII
thinks there are issues left outstand
ling from the days of secession an,
lslavery must have been dwelling in
rut of distorted fancies. ror have trav
eled much beyond the shadow of hi
mississippi and Massachusetts, ar,
convertible terms. Given the same
conditions their people would be th'
!, same and would do the same. During
the thirty years Immediately preceding
the war of sections three at least o.
Mississippi's most popular and cele
brated public men came here from tn.
north: Robert j.. Walker, born and
reared in Pennsylvania; John A Quit
! and Sergeant s Prentiss, born anl
reared in the state of Maine.
ssI am about to present you in sue
! cession Lieutenant General Clemen
: Anselm Evans, commander-in-chiefo o
Confederate Veterans, Major Genera
Frederick Dent Grant of the army o
1.-The United States, and the Hon
George Record Peck of the grea
? northwest, holding my own commits
sion at large and from the District o
r Columbia, where I was born, bu
' claiming some time to be Ken
l tuckian. No state or sectional line
S have ever made a pent up Utica 70
2 any of US. Each of breeds back t