Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1898 — PRESIDENT IN THE SOUTH [ARTICLE]

PRESIDENT IN THE SOUTH

Haads the Monster Military and Ctrftc Jubilee Parade at Atlanta. The second day of the Atlanta peace jubilee opened auspiciously. The cinwda were enormous, excursion trains arriving at short intorvah»_from all directions. The ovation given President McKinley *t the capitol the previous day by the members of the Legislature was the greatest reception ever given an American citirom in Atlanta, and his speech having relation to the care of Confederate dead fired the hearts of Southerners with admiration for the chief executive. The President in his speech said: Sectional lines no longer mar the map ot the United State*. The Union la once more the common atlas of our love and loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice. The old flag again waves over ua In peace, with new glories, which yonr sons and ours this year have added to Its sacred folds. The memory of the dead will be a precious legacy and the disabled will be the nation's care. A nation which care* for It* disabled soldiers, as we have always done, will newer lack defenders. The national cemeteries for those who fell In battle are proof (hat the dead as well as the living have our Jove. What an army of silent sentinels we have, and with what loving care their graves are kept! Every soldier’s grave mase during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor. And while when those graves were made we differed widely snoot the future of this Government, the** differences were long ago settled by the arbitrament of arms; and the time has now come, in the evolution of sentiment and feeling under the providence of God, when In the spirit of fraternity we should share with you In the care of the grave* of the Confederate soldiers. The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and the South prompts this gracious net, and if it needed farther Justification it is found In the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in the year Just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead. What a glorious future await* us if unitedly, wisely and bravely we face the new problems now pressing upon ns, determined to solve them fox right and humanity?” The feature of the second day o< the jubilee was the monster civic and military parade. Six thousand infantry, 10.000 school children, 400 carriages containing 1,600 people, 1,000 members of secret orders, 500 Confederate veterans, under command of Gen! Joe Wheeler, IjOOO laboring men, 100 officers and marshals, 12 bands, 100 Grand Army men, a squad of policemen, 200 mounted police, members of the Young Men’s Christian Association and Ministers’ Evangelical Association, 200 members of the Capital City Club ynd Fulton Club, the Atlanta fire department and representatives of 500 civic organizations from all parts of the South took part in the parade. The President and other distinguished guests in carriages were at the head of the pageant. They were escorted by the Third New Jersey and Fifteenth Pennsylvania regiments, which came from “their winter camp at Athens for the occasion. The President was compelled to bow almost continuously to the cheers from the crowded sidewalks and the windows of the buildings along the line of march. A roar of welcome denoted the position of Gen. Joe Wheeler and his band of cavalrymen who followed him through the civil war, and the wizened leader at times was compelled to force his horse through throngs of would-be worshipers who blocked his path.