The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.4, page 4, Sept. 1895, U. of Illinois Press

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The BOOKER T. WAS HINGTON Papers fruits of which were exposed to the world in Atlanta, through whose streets of fluttering flags rivers of bayonets, plumes and banners billowed towards the gigantic amphitheatre where the New South demonstrated that she is no longer a mere agricultural dependency of the North, but a serious rival in every branch of industry, commerce and the arts, would have been astonished by the spectacle when Prof. Booker stepped to the front of the platform. A moment before the strains of ''Dixie'' from Gilmore's Band were filling the big hall; a moment later ''Dixie'' had a new meaning for the people of the South. Thirty years ago Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground. It was a heap of blackened ashes when he left on his march to the ocean. But on these ashes the ruined and loyal South has built the foundation of a new career. And the amazing thing about this Exposition is that the work was undertaken in the middle of the silver excitement, when the Southern banks were actually issuing scrip to save the people from utter bankruptcy. This might not have been considered in Chicago, but in the slothful South, which has been paying its share of the $~,7~7,275,7~8 of pensions for Northern soldiers without a murmur the beaten, broken, harassed South, with its almost hopeless problems of race, climate and politics—it seems a miracle. CLEVELAND AND THE SOUTH And the hand that set the machinery of this almost miraculous enterprise in motion is the same hand that raised two Southern men to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States and restored the South to a substantial political equality with the rest of the country. There is material in this day's work here for John Sherman and his friends to think about. Since the sun rose this morning over the green hills of Atlanta, where Sherman's breastworks still stand, the city has been in a state of breathless excitement. Trains from all parts of the country bore thousands of visitors into the streets, and the multitude of men who had been working all night on the Exposition grounds were still at their task. The heat was appalling. By noon the procession of Georgia and Louisiana soldiers, headed by four companies of the Fifth United States Regiment, commanded by Col. Kellogg, had formed at the junction of Broad and Marietta streets. At ~.30 Gov. Atkinson, the managers of the exposition and the guests took their places in the line and the march was begun. 4