Ohio History Journal

GENERAL KEIFER HONORED

 

 

BY C. B. GALBREATH

General Joseph Warren Keifer, Ohio's grand old

man, celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of his birth

on January 31 of this year. On that day he received

congratulations from men eminent in many walks of

life. The House of Representatives at Washington

paused, in its deliberations in honor of his services.

Tributes were spoken by Representatives Charles Brand

of Urbana, Ohio; Martin B. Madden of Illinois, Chair-

man of the House Appropriations Committee; George

Huddleston of Alabama and Henry St. George Tucker

of Virginia.

On motion of Mr. Madden, Speaker Nicholas Long-

worth was directed by unanimous vote to send a tele-

gram of felicitation on behalf of the House of Repre-

sentatives. Previously the members of the Ohio dele-

gation had sent a similar message to General Keifer.

Representative Brand, who represents General

Keifer's old district in the House, in his tribute referred

to the General as "the first citizen of my district". He

recounted briefly the General's service in the Civil War,

the War with Spain and the Congress of the United

States. In his military service General Keifer rose to

the rank of major general of volunteers. In Congress

he became Speaker of the House of Representatives, a

position in responsibility and power second only to that

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General Keifer Honored              419

of the President of the United States. In the course

of his address Representative Brand said:

I wish to submit to the House that there are few men who

can claim such distinguished services as General Keifer--a

major general in the Civil War, a major general in the Spanish-

American War and a member of the House of Representatives

for something like fourteen years, and a former Speaker of that

body; and so I say that he is not only the first citizen of my dis-

trict, but also, I might truthfully add, he is likewise one of the

first citizens of the Republic, having given fifty years of his life

to eminent public service.

Representative Madden said in part:

Few men have risen and stayed at the top as General Keifer

has done during all his long period of life. He has the confi-

dence and respect of every man who served here with him and

knew him. We recognize in him one of the great leaders of the

House. We followed him in the great national issues which

he advocated and for which he stood. He was an exemplar of

real American patriotism. He lived a life we can well emulate.

We are proud to have been allowed to live in the shadow of his

greatness.

Representative Huddleston who had served as a pri-

vate under General Keifer in the War with Spain said

in concluding his tribute: "I hold him in deepest affec-

tion."

The concluding address in the House was made by

Representative Tucker, whose father was a colleague

of General Keifer's in the House forty years ago.

On Wednesday evening, February 3, a compli-

mentary banquet was given in honor of General Keifer

under the auspices of the Clark County Bar Association.

Approximately one hundred and seventy-five persons

attended the banquet while congratulatory messages

were read from about two hundred others.

Dr. Rees Edgar Tulloss, President of Wittenberg

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420     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

College, offered the invocation at the opening of the

banquet. At the conclusion of a six-course dinner

President Horace Stafford of the Bar Association traced

the career of General Keifer in peace and war and closed

his address by unfurling the American flag carried by

General Keifer's division in the Civil War, a flag which

was held by Confederates, then recaptured by a southern

girl with Union sympathies and finally restored to the

General. This flag, now in the custody of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society, was loaned for

the occasion. A full account of it, given by General

Keifer, is published in Vol. 31, pages 414-421 of the

Publications of the Society. This story was related

by General Keifer on the occasion of his transfer of

the flag to the custody of the Society.

At the conclusion of his address Mr. Stafford intro-

duced John L. Zimmerman, Sr., who presided as toast-

master. Addresses were delivered by George W. Win-

ger, President of the First National Bank of Springfield,

who served with General Keifer in the Civil War; Judge

Frank W. Geiger, formerly of the common pleas court,

read letters from various notables congratulating Gen-

eral Keifer. Among those sending congratulatory mes-

sages were Calvin Coolidge, President of the United

States; William Howard Taft, Chief Justice of the Su-

preme Court of the United States and former Presi-

dent; Joseph C. Cannon, former Speaker of the House

of Representatives and intimate friend of General Kei-

fer; Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United

States; Judge James G. Johnson, formerly of the Ohio

Supreme Court; Judson Harmon, former Governor of

Ohio; Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury;

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General Keifer Honored              421

 

Chauncey M. Depew, former U. S. Senator. In his

telegram Depew said, "All years are good but the nine-

ties crown them all. May you live to round out the

hundred." Representative Theodore E. Burton;

Carmi A. Thompson, former Speaker of the Ohio

House of Representatives; Governor Vic Donahey; Rep-

resentative Martin B. Madden; Senator Simeon D.

Fess; Senator F. H. Gillette; Judge John Sater of Co-

lumbus; Chief Justice Carrington T. Marshall of the

Ohio Supreme Court.

Addresses were delivered at the banquet by Judge

William L. Day of Cleveland, Ohio; Rupert Beetham,

of Cadiz, Ohio, former Speaker of the Ohio House of

Representatives; Webster P. Huntington, Secretary of

the Perry Memorial Commission. At the conclusion of

these speeches General Keifer was introduced and re-

sponded substantially as follows:

It is impossible for me to make a speech upon an occasion

like this I am thankful for the good feeling of my neighbors

and friends. Although I have been praised as a soldier, I want

to say that in my opinion, as the result of my experience, war

is nothing but barbarism. I have always been in favor of peace,

peace--peace on earth good will to men.

We need peace and we are struggling for it now. For years

nations have been admonished to beat their swords into plow-

shares. There is hope in recent proceedings that peace may be

guaranteed to the whole world.

I have been active and I have had some triumphs, but what

I am most thankful for is the friendship, peace and good will of

my neighbors and friends.

Because of my war record I am entitled to burial in Arling-

ton Cemetery when I die, but I do not want that. I want to be

buried in the cemetery here in Springfield, by the side of my

departed wife and relatives and among the friends whom I have

known and loved.

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422       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

The foregoing account of the banquet is gleaned

chiefly from the report in the Springfield Daily News

of February 4. Many appreciative editorial expressions

are found in the papers of the state and those beyond

its borders. The following from the Springfield Daily

Sun is here reproduced:

 

THE SAGE OF SPRINGFIELD

Ohio is proud of Gen. J. Warren Keifer, Springfield's great

soldier, statesman, teacher, lawyer who simply refuses to grow

old. He is more than another Chauncey Depew, for he works

without posing. In his ninetieth year he has just been re-elected

president of the Lagonda National bank, an institution with which

he has been associated since 1873.

Unlike most men of goodly age Gen. Keifer does not live

wholly in the past. He is not as Emerson said of a banker of his

time, "a phanton walking and working amid phantoms, and find-

ing his solid universe proving dim and impalpable before his

sense". Although he lived and worked with Lincoln, and had

a great share in the war of the rebellion, and served his coun-

try in congress in days when intellectual giants controlled its pol-

icies, and was one of them, and has been honored by other places

of high public trust, and lived and prospered through all the in-

tervening years of invention and progress, his thought and in-

terest are altogether of and for this day. He goes to his office

daily, and takes as lively a concern in the current affairs of men

and country as he did in the days of his youth.

Even his counsel to the girls and boys who are now in school

breathes a wisdom seasoned by the ripened fruitage of his own

experience and a hope that, conscious that it may not share their

own life and fortune in the coming years, is exerted wholly for

their good.

"Practical common sense counts in all things," he says to

them. "Education must be usable. Training must make one

able to do things. The man with practical knowledge always

wins over the man with book knowledge. I have tried to im-

press upon everyone the need of a workable education and some

of my ideas are being carried out in Antioch college, with which

I am still connected. Education is useless unless the young man

or young woman learns how to apply it. They must be equipped

to earn a living when they leave school. Educational standards

are changing, and, I believe, for the better".

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General Keifer Honored             423

 

Here is no vain or shallow thought. May the sage who

gives such counsel be spared yet many years to enjoy the fullness

of a useful life.

A detailed sketch of General Keifer's life was pub-

lished in Volume XXXI of the Publications of the So-

ciety, page 417, and need not be repeated here. General

Keifer has long been a life member of the Society and

has made some notable contributions to its publications.

Since 1922 he has been a member of its Board of Trus-

tees and for some years past has taken an active part

in its annual meetings. Those who were present will

remember thrilling recitals of his life experience at the

meetings of 1921 and 1922.

Among these was his recital of the manner in which

the news of the abolition of slavery was received by the

soldiers in that portion of the field where General Keifer

was then in command. It will be recalled that in some

places, even among loyal citizens, the emancipation

proclamation was coolly received. Previous to its issue

there had been some question as to the attitude of sol-

diers in the field and their commanders. We reproduce

from General Keifer's Slavery and Four Years of War,

published in 1900, a statement of what he witnessed

January 1, 1863 -- a scene which he vividly described in

his address before the Society:

 

On the night of December 31, 1862, the command bivouacked

on the western slope of the Alleghany Mountains in a fierce snow-

storm, and early the next morning my troops led the way in the

continuing storm over the summit. Shortly after the head of

the column commenced the eastern descent, and when the chill-

ing winter blasts had caused the lowest ebb of human enthu-

siasm to be reached, shouts were heard by me, at first indistinctly,

then nearer and louder. This was so unusual and unexpected

under the depressing circumstances that I ordered the column

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424       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

to halt until I could go back and ascertain the cause. My first

impression was that a sudden attack had been made on the rear

of the troops, but as the shouts came nearer I took them to be

for a great victory, news of which had just arrived. When I

reached the crest of the mountain I descried through the flying

snow, General Milroy riding along the line of troops and halting

at intervals as though to briefly address the men. I waited his

approach, and on his arrival accosted him with the inquiry,

"What is the matter, General ?" He had his hat and sword in his

right hand, and with the other guided his horse at a reckless

gallop through the snow, his tall form, shocky white hair flutter-

ing in the storm, and evident agitation making a figure most

picturesque and striking. He pulled up his horse abruptly to

answer my question. A natural impediment in his speech, af-

fecting him most when excited, caused some delay in his first

vehement utterance. He said:

"Colonel, don't you know that this is Emancipation Day,

when all slaves will be made free?"

He then turned to the halted troops and again broke forth:

"This day President Lincoln will proclaim the freedom of

four millions of human slaves, the most important event in the

history of the world since Christ was born. Our boast that this

is a land of liberty has been a flaunting lie. Henceforth it will

be a veritable reality. The defeats of our armies in the past we

have deserved, because we waged a war to protect and per-

petuate and to rivet firmer the chains of slavery. Hereafter we

shall prosecute the war to establish and perpetuate liberty for

all mankind beneath the flag; and the Lord God Almighty will

fight on our side, and he is a host, and the Union armies will

triumph."

This is the character of speech that aroused the soldiers to

voiceful demonstrations on a summit of the Appalachian chain on

this cold and stormy mid-winter morning. The sequel shows

how Milroy's prophecy was fulfilled.

General Keifer was in Berlin when Kaiser William

issued his proclamation that plunged nations into the

World War. The following, from the General's address

before the Society, is an interesting statement of what

he saw and heard on that occasion and his attitude to-

ward all wars:

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General Keifer Honored              425

I was on my way in the latter part of July, 1914, to Stock-

holm, Sweden, to make an address before the proposed meet-

ing of the Parliamentary Union for World Peace. I had spoken

on that subject August 31, 1910, in Brussels, Belgium, and was to

make a similar address in Stockholm. While on my way to the

city where all the peoples of the world had their delegates, even

China and Germany, I stopped in Berlin on the 27th of July,

1914, to look over the city.

The next day hosts of soldiers were marching down the

Unter den Linden and to the forts and going over toward Bel-

gium. The Kaiser had not yet issued his proclamation declar-

ing war but his army was marching, hoping to get to the Eng-

lish channel and into France and dictate terms to England.

On August 4, 1914, the papers announced that the Kaiser

read his message to the Reichstag. That can scarcely be true.

On that day he read his proclamation bearing date of August 2,

to Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and others of his cabinet in a

side room and Bethmann-Hollweg read it to the Reichstag.

I was present when it was read, one of about twelve in a

gallery that would hold twelve hundred. I got in under false pre-

tenses. I was told no one not connected with the government

would be given a pass. I made an effort to get one and failed.

Then I went to our ambassador and he said he could not help

me. I said, "I wish to ask a favor. I would like to borrow your

pass to the diplomatic gallery." He answered that he could

avoid that but he hadn't instructed his secretary to lie. Turn-

ing in his chair he said, "Mr. Secretary, can that pass be found?"

The secretary pulled out a drawer and said, "Here it is." Then

he gave it to me and I went and heard the proclamation.

That was the day Von Kluck assaulted the works at Liege,

Belgium, and the day Great Britain served word to her ambas-

sador at Berlin that she would stand by Belgium and declare

war unless the Kaiser would agree to withdraw his armies in

Belgium and make reparation for the damage done.

When that word went out there was a riot. The Germans

had large armies; they thought they had more troops than all

the other nations of Europe. The mob crushed in the doors

and windows of the English embassy.

I was listening to what was going on in the city. About

eight o'clock, as I was walking along the Unter den Linden, I

heard a cry, a wild one farther down the street. I recognized

it and knew what it was. I do not believe any of you would

know it because you have never heard it. It was the cry that

can be made by ten or twenty thousand people en masse, all

screaming at once. I commanded three regiments in August,

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426       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications 1863, and went from the Army of the Potomac to the city of New York to suppress a draft riot, and there I heard that cry. It has never been heard there since. The mob in Berlin killed about one thousand persons. They were trampled to death. I was afraid to talk English or be on the street. If anybody was suspected, someone struck him and knocked him down and the crowd would jump on the body and trample it under their feet. The victim would be left there on the street. I saw great num- bers of them in Berlin. I had a German friend and his wife from Cincinnati who were in Berlin on their way to Carlsbad. They went with me and when there was any talking they did it. * * * I want to emphasize the fact that war is the great curse of the world and that we shall have to answer for it until we have, not disarmament alone, but that change of spirit and heart that will compel nations to submit their differences to in- ternational courts or arbitration tribunals and settle their dis- putes as you settle your differences with your neighbors and friends. We have more responsibility in the United States to- day than ever before. We must maintain our government. It is the best form of government, federal and state, on earth and in a sense we do not appreciate it. The laws that apply to a city or a township in this country are the most important of our laws. We keep them; in like manner the nations should obey international law. When the nations recognize this duty the day will come -- turn to your Bible -- when the angels from heaven will sing, as the heavenly host did over the birthplace of Christ as he lay in the manger at Bethlehem: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

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