For though, as some one remarked,
it is true that I "fought mit Sigel," and decamped from Chancellorsville
with the Eleventh Corps; it is also true that I passed through the fiery
ordeal of the Seven Days, and fought my way across the railroad-cutting
at Manassas, side by side with Joseph Hooker, under the gallant
leadership of that other hero Philip Kearney. It was very evident that
but few of the speakers, as well as auditors, had themselves heard or
read what I actually said. The result of "coaching" for the occasion by
some wire-puller was painfully apparent. Let us see what was said.
I give the entire paragraph from my Lowell lecture:--
"It has been surmised that Hooker, during this campaign, was
incapacitated by a habit of which, at times, he had been the victim.
There is, rather, evidence that he was prostrated by too much
abstemiousness, when a reasonable use of stimulants might have kept his
nervous system at its normal tension. It was certainly not the use of
alcohol, during this time, which lay at the root of his indecision."
If that is an accusation that Hooker was then drunk, if it does not
rather lean toward an exculpation from the charge of drunkenness,
then I can neither write nor read the English language.
Pages:
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337