THE WAR PRESIDENTS
The real leader of the Boers of the two Republics was Paul Kruger, their
man of peace. His opinions on the momentous questions that agitated the
country and his long political supremacy caused him many and bitter
enemies, but the war healed all animosities and he was the one man in the
Republics who had the respect, love, and admiration of all the burghers.
Wherever one might be, whether in the houses on the veld or in the
battlefield's trenches, every one spoke of "Oom Paul" in a manner which
indicated that he was the Boer of all Boers. There was not one burgher who
would not declare that Kruger was a greater man than he was before he
despatched his famous ultimatum to Great Britain. His old-time friends
supported him even more faithfully than before hostilities began, and his
political energies of other days became the might of his right arm. Those
who opposed him most bitterly and unremittingly when it was a campaign
between the Progressive and Conservative parties were most eager to listen
to his counsels and to stand by his side when their country's hour of
darkness had arrived. Not a word of censure for him was heard anywhere; on
the contrary, every one praised him for opposing Great Britain so firmly,
and prayed that his life might be spared until their dream of absolute
independence was realised.
Sir Charles Dilke once related a conversation he had with Bismarck
concerning Paul Kruger. "Cavour was much smarter, more clever, more
diplomatically gifted than I," said the Prince, "but there is a much
stronger, much abler man than Cavour or I, and that man is President
Kruger. He has no gigantic army behind him, no great empire to support
him. He stands alone with a small peasant people, and is a match for us by
mere force of genius. I spoke to him--he drove me into a corner." Kruger's
great ability, as delineated by Bismarck, was indisputable, and a man with
less of it might have been President and might have avoided the war, but
only at a loss to national interests. The President had one aim and one
goal, his country's independence, and all the force of his genius was
directed toward the attainment of that end. He tried to secure his
country's total independence by peaceable means, but he had planted the
seed of that desire so deeply in the minds of his countrymen that when it
sprouted they overwhelmed him and he was driven into war against his will.
Kruger would not have displaced diplomacy with the sword, but his burghers
felt that peaceful methods of securing their independence were of no
avail, and he was powerless to resist their wishes. He did not lead the
Boers into war; they insisted that only war would give to them the relief
they desired, and he followed under their leadership. When the meetings of
the Volksraad immediately preceding the war were held, it was not Paul
Kruger who called for war; it was the representatives of the burghers, who
had been instructed by their constituents to act in such a manner. When
the President saw that his people had determined to have war, he was
leader enough to make plans which might bring the conflict to a successful
conclusion, and he chose a moment for making a declaration that he
considered opportune. The ultimatum was decided upon eleven days before it
was actually despatched, but it was delayed eight days on account of the
Free State's unpreparedness. Kruger realised the importance of striking
the first blow at an enemy which was not prepared to resist it, and the
Free State's tardiness at such a grave crisis was decidedly unpleasant to
him. Then, when the Free State was ready to mobilise, the President
secured another delay of three days in order that diplomacy might have one
more chance. His genius had not enabled him to realise the dream of his
life without a recourse to war, and when the ultimatum was delivered into
the hands of the British the old man wept.
[Illustration: PRESIDENT KRUGER ADDRESSING AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS]
When the multitudinous executive duties to which he attended in peaceful
times were suddenly ended by the declaration, the President busied himself
with matters pertaining to the conduct of the war. He worked as hard as
any man in the country, despite his age, and on many occasions he
displayed the energy of a man many years younger. The war caused his daily
routine of work and rest to be changed completely. He continued to rise at
four o'clock in the morning, a habit which he contracted in early youth
and followed ever after. After his morning devotions he listened to the
reading of the despatches from the generals at the front, and dictated
replies in the shape of suggestions, censure, or praise. He slept for an
hour after breakfast, and then went to the Government Buildings, arriving
there punctually every morning as the clock on the dome struck nine. He
remained in consultation with the other members of the Executive Council
and the few Government officials, who had remained in the city, for an
hour or more. After luncheon he again worked over despatches, received
burghers on leave of absence from the front and foreigners who sympathised
with his people's cause. He never allowed himself to be idle, and, in
fact, there was no opportunity for him to be unemployed, inasmuch as
almost all the leading Government officials were at the front, while many
of their duties remained behind to be attended to by some one. Kruger
himself supervised the work of all the departments whose heads were
absent, and the labour was great. His capacity for hard labour was never
better demonstrated than during the war, when he bore the weight of his
own duties and those of other Government officials, as well as the work of
guiding the Boer emissaries in foreign countries. Added to all these grave
responsibilities, when the reverses of the army grew more serious, was the
great worry and the constant dread of new disasters which beset a man who
occupies a position such as he occupied.
No man had greater influence over the Boers than Kruger, and his counsel
was always sought and his advice generally followed. When the first
commandos went to the front it was considered almost absolutely necessary
for them to stop at Pretoria and see "Oom Paul" before going to battle,
and it seemed to affect the old man strangely when he addressed them and
bade them God-speed in the accomplishment of their task. It was in the
midst of one of these addresses that the President, while standing in the
centre of a group of burghers, broke down and wept as he referred to the
many men who would lose their lives in the war. When the Boer army was
having its greatest successes Kruger constantly sent messages to his
burghers, thanking them for their good work, and reminding them not to
neglect thanking their God for His favours. One of the most characteristic
messages of this nature was sent to the generals, commandants, officers,
and burghers on January 8th, and was a most unique ebullition to come from
a President of a Republic. The message was composed by himself, and, as
literally translated, read:--
"For your own and the war-officers' information, I wish to state that,
through the blessing of our Lord, our great cause has at present been
carried to such a point that, by dint of great energy, we may expect to
bring it to a successful issue on our behalf.
"In order that such an end be attained, it is, however, strictly necessary
that all energy be used, that all burghers able to do active service go
forward to the battlefield, and that those who are on furlough claim no
undue extension thereof, but return as soon as possible, every one to the
place where his war-officers may be stationed.
"Brothers! I pray you to act herein with all possible promptitude and
zeal, and to keep your eyes fixed on that Providence who has miraculously
led our people through the whole of South Africa. Read Psalm 33, from
verse 7 to the end.
"The enemy have fixed their faith in Psalm 83, where it is said that this
people shall not exist and its name must be annihilated; but the Lord
says: 'It shall exist' Read also Psalm 89, the 13th and 14th verses, where
the Lord saith that the children of Christ, if they depart from His words,
shall be chastised with bitter reverses, but His favour and goodness shall
have no end and never fail. What He has said remains strong and firm. For,
see, the Lord purifieth His children, even unto gold, proven by fire.
"I need not draw your attention to all the destructiveness of the enemy's
works, for you know it, and I again point to the attack of the Devil on
Christ and His Church. This has been the attack from the beginning, and
God will not countenance the destruction of His Church. You know that our
cause is a just one, and there cannot be any doubt, for it is with the
contents of just this Psalm that they commenced with us in their
wickedness, and I am still searching the entire Bible, and find no other
way which can be followed than that which has been followed by us, and we
must continue to fight in the name of the Lord.
"Please notify all the officers of war and the entire public of your
district of the contents of this telegram, and imbue them with a full
earnestness of the cause."
When the President learned that Commandant-General Joubert had determined
to retreat from the neighbourhood of Ladysmith he sent a long telegram to
his old friend, imploring him not to take such a step, and entreating him
to retain his forces at the Tugela. The old General led his forces
northward to Glencoe, notwithstanding the President's protest, and a day
afterward Kruger arrived on the scene. The President was warrior enough to
know that a great mistake had been made, and he did not hesitate to show
his displeasure. He and Joubert had had many disagreements in their long
experiences with one another, but those who were present in the General's
tent at that Glencoe interview said that they had never seen the President
so angry. When he had finished giving his opinion of the General's action
the President shook Joubert's hand, and thereafter they discussed matters
calmly and as if there had been no quarrel. To the other men who were
partly responsible for the retreat he showed his resentment of their
actions by declining to shake hands with them, a method of showing
disapprobation that is most cutting to the Boers.
"If I were five years younger, or if my eyesight were better," he growled
at the recalcitrants, "I would take a rifle and bandolier and show you
what we old Boers were accustomed to do. We had courage; you seem to have
none."
After the President had encouraged the officers, and had secured their
promises to continue the resistance against their enemy he wandered about
in the laagers, shaking hands with and infusing new spirit into the
burghers who had flocked together to see their revered leader. When
several thousand of the Boers had gathered around him and were trying to
have a word with him the President bared his head and asked his friends to
join him in prayer. Instantly every head was bared, and Kruger's voice
spread out over the vast concourse in a grand appeal to the God of Battles
to grant His blessing to the burgher army. The grey-haired old man was
conspicuous in a small circle which was formed by the burghers withdrawing
several paces when he began the prayer. On all sides there spread out a
mass of black-garbed, battle-begrimed Boers with eyes turned to the
ground. Here and there a white tent raised its head above the assemblage;
at other points men stood on waggons and cannon. Farther on, burghers
dismounted from their horses and joined the crowd. In the distance were
Talana Hill, where the first battle of the campaign was fought; the lofty
Drakensberg where more than fifty years before the early Boer Voortrekkers
had their first glimpses of fair Natal, while to the south were the hills
of Ladysmith of sombre history. There in the midst of bloody battlefields,
and among several thousand men who sought the blood of the enemy, Kruger,
the man of peace, implored Almighty God to give strength to his
burghers. It was a magnificent spectacle.
He had been at Glencoe only a short time when the news reached him that
the burghers in the Free State had lost their courage, and were retreating
rapidly towards Bloemfontein. He abbreviated his visit, hastened to the
Free State, and met the fleeing Boers at Poplar Grove. He exhorted them to
make a stand against the enemy, and, by his magnetic power over them,
succeeded in inducing the majority to remain and oppose the British
advance. His own fearlessness encouraged them, and when they saw their old
leader standing in the midst of shell fire as immobile as if he were
watching a holiday parade, they had not the heart to run. While he was
watching the battle a shell fell within a short distance of where he
stood, and all his companions fled from the spot. He walked slowly away,
and when the men returned to him he chided them, and made a witty remark
concerning the shell, naming it one of "the Queen's pills." While the
battle continued, Kruger followed one of the commandos and urged the men
to fight. At one stage of the battle the commando which he was following
was in imminent danger of being cut off and captured by the British
forces, but the burghers fought valiantly before their President, and
finally conveyed him to a place of safety, although the path was shell and
bullet swept.
He returned to Bloemfontein, and in conjunction with President Steyn,
addressed an appeal to Lord Salisbury to end the war. They asked that the
republics should be allowed to retain their independence, and firmly
believed that the appeal would end hostilities, inasmuch as the honours of
war were then about equally divided between the two armies. To those who
watched the proceedings it seemed ridiculous to ask for a cessation of
hostilities at that time, but Kruger sincerely believed that his appeal
would not be in vain, and he was greatly surprised, but not discomfited,
when a distinct refusal was received in reply.
Several weeks after the memorable trip to the Free State, President Kruger
made another journey to the sister-republic, and met President Steyn and
all the Boer generals at the famous Krijgsraad at Kroonstad. No one who
heard the President when he addressed the burghers who gathered there to
see him, will ever forget the intensity of Kruger's patriotism. Kroonstad,
then the temporary capital of the Free State, was not favoured with any
large public hall where a meeting might be held, so a small butcher's
stand in the market-square was chosen for the site of the meeting. After
President Steyn, Commandant-General Joubert, and several other leading
Boers had addressed the large crowd of burghers standing in the rain
outside the tradesman's pavilion, Kruger stepped on one of the long
tables, and exhorted the burghers to renewed efforts, to fight for freedom
and not to be disconsolate because Bloemfontein had fallen into the hands
of the enemy. When the President concluded his address the burghers raised
a great cheer, and then returned to their laagers with their minds filled
with a new spirit, and with renewed determination to oppose the enemy--a
determination which displayed itself later in the fighting at Sannaspost,
Moester's Hoek, and Wepener. Kruger found the burghers in the Free State
in the depths of despair; when he departed they were as confident of
ultimate victory as they were on the day war was begun. The old man had
the faculty of leading men as it is rarely found. In times of peace he led
men by force of argument as much as by reason of personal magnetism. In
war-time he led men by mere words sent over telegraph wires, by his
presence at the front, and by his display of manly dignity, firm
resolution and devotion to his country. He was like the kings and rulers
of ancient times, who led their cohorts into battle, and wielded the sword
when there was a necessity for such action.
During the war President Kruger suffered many disappointments, endured
many griefs, and withstood many trials and tribulations; but none affected
him so deeply as the death of his intimate friend, Commandant-General
Joubert. Kruger and Joubert were the two leading men of the country for
many years. They were among those who assisted in the settlement of the
Transvaal and in the many wars which were coincident with it. They had
indelibly inscribed their names on the scroll of the South African history
of a half-century, and in doing so they had become as intimate as two
brothers. For more than two score years Kruger had been considered the
Boers' leader in peaceful times, while Joubert was the Boers' warrior. The
ambition of both was the independence of their country, and, while they
differed radically on the methods by which it was to be attained, neither
surpassed the other in strenuous efforts to secure it without a recourse
to war. The death of Joubert was as saddening to Kruger, consequently, as
the Demise of his most dearly-beloved brother could have been, and in the
funeral-oration which the President delivered over the bier of the
General, he expressed that sense of sorrow most aptly. This oration,
delivered upon an occasion when the country was mourning the death of a
revered leader and struggling under the weight of recent defeats, was one
of the most remarkable utterances ever made by a man at the head of a
nation.
"Brothers, sisters, burghers, and friends," he began,--"Only a few words
can I say to you to-day, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
We have lost our brother, our friend, our Commandant-General. I have lost
my right hand, not of yesterday, but my right hand since we were boys
together, many long years ago. To-night I alone seem to have been spared
of the old people of our cherished land, of the men who lived and
struggled together for our country. He has gone to heaven whilst fighting
for liberty, which God has told us to defend; for the freedom for which he
and I have struggled together for so many years, and so often, to
maintain. Brothers, what shall I say to you in this our greatest day of
sorrow, in this hour of national gloom? The struggle we are engaged in is
for the principles of justice and righteousness, which our Lord Has taught
us is the broad road to heaven and blessedness. It is our sacred duty to
keep on that path, if we desire a happy ending. Our dear dead brother has
gone on that road to his eternal life. What can I say of his personality?
It is only a few short weeks ago that I saw him at the fighting front,
humbly and modestly taking his share of the privations and the rough work
of the campaign like the poorest burgher, a true general, a true
Christian--an example to his people. And he spoke to me then and even more
recently; and, let me tell you, that the days are dark. We are suffering
reverses on account of wickedness rampant in our land. No success will
come, no blessings be given to our great cause unless you remove the bad
elements from among us; and then you may look forward to attaining the
crowning point, the reward of righteousness and noble demeanour. We have
in our distinguished departed brother an example. Chosen, as he was, by
the nation, time after time, to his honourable position, he had their
trust to such an extent that everything was left in his hands; and he did
his work well. He died, as he has lived, in the path of duty and
honour. Let the world rage around us, let the enemy decry us, I say,
Follow his example. The Lord will stand by you against the ruthless hand
of the foe, and at the moment when He deems it right for interference
peace will come once more. Why is the sympathy of the whole world with us
in this struggle for freedom? Why are the strangers pouring in from Europe
to assist to the maintenance of our beloved flag, to aid us in the just
defence of our independence? Is it not God's hand? I feel it in my
heart. I declare to you again, the end of our struggle will be
satisfactory. Our small nation exists by the aid of the Almighty, and will
continue to do so. The prophets say the closed books shall be opened, the
dead shall arise, darkness be turned into light; nothing be concealed.
Every one will face God's judgment throne. You will listen to His voice,
and your eyes shall be open for the truth of everything. Think of the
costly lives given by us for our cause, and you will rally to the fight
for justice to the end. Brothers, to the deeply bereaved widow of our
Commandant-General, to his family, to you all, I say trust more than ever
in the Almighty; go to Him for condolence; think and be trustful in the
thought that our brother's body has gone from amongst us to rise again in
a beautiful and eternal home. Let us follow his example. Weep not, the
Lord will support you; the hour of all our relief is near; and let us pray
that we may enter heaven, and be guided to eternity in the same way as he
whom we mourn so deeply. Amen."
Early in his life Kruger formed an idea that the Boers were under the
direct control of Providence, and it displeased him greatly to learn that
many petty thefts were committed by some of the burghers at the front. In
many of the speeches to the burghers he referred to the shortcomings of
some of them, and tried to impress on their minds, that they could never
expect the Lord to took with favour on their cause if they did not mend
their ways. He made a strong reference to those sins in the oration he
delivered over Joubert's body, and never neglected to tell the foreign
volunteers that they had come into the country for fighting and not for
looting. When an American corps of about fifty volunteers arrived in
Pretoria in April he requested that they should call at his residence
before leaving for the front, and the men were greatly pleased to receive
and accept the invitation. The President walked to the sidewalk in front
of his house to receive the Americans, and then addressed them in this
characteristically blunt speech: "I am very glad you have come here to
assist us. I want you to look after your horses and rifles. Do not allow
any one to steal them from you. Do not steal anybody else's gun or
horse. Trust in God, and fight as hard as you can."
Undoubtedly one of the most pathetic incidents in Kruger's life was his
departure from Pretoria when the British army was only a short distance
south of that city. It was bitter enough to him to witness the conquest of
the veld district, the farms and the plantations, but when the conquerors
were about to possess the capital of the country which he himself had seen
growing out of the barren veld into a beautiful city of brick and stone,
it was indeed a grave epoch for an old man to pass through. It hurt him
little to see Johannesburg fall to the enemy, for that city was ever in
his enemy's hands, but when Pretoria, distinctly the Boer city, was about
to become British, perhaps for ever, the old man might have been expected
to display signs of the great sorrow which he undoubtedly felt in his
heart. At the threshold of such a great calamity to his cause it might
have been anticipated that he would acknowledge defeat and ask for mercy
from a magnanimous foe. It was not dreamt of that a man of almost four
score years would desert his home and family, his farms and flocks, the
result of a lifetime's labour, and endure the discomforts of the field
merely because he believed in a cause which, it seemed, was about to be
extinguished by force of arms. But adversity caused no changes in the
President's demeanour. When he bade farewell to his good old wife--perhaps
it was a final farewell--he cheered and comforted her, and when the
weeping citizens and friends of many years gathered at his little cottage
to bid him goodbye he chided them for their lack of faith in the cause,
and encouraged them to believe that victory would crown the Boers'
efforts. Seven months before, Kruger stood on the verandah of his
residence, and, doffing his hat to the first British prisoners that
arrived in the city, asked his burghers not to rejoice unseemingly; in May
the old man, about to flee before the enemy, inspired his people to take
new courage, and ridiculed their ideas that all was lost.
Whether the Boers were in the first flush of victory or in the depths of
despair Paul Kruger was ever the same to them--patriot, adviser,
encourager, leader, and friend.
It was an easy matter to see the President when he was at his residence at
Pretoria, and he appeared to be deeply interested in learning the opinions
of the many foreigners who arrived in his country. The little verandah of
the Executive Mansion--a pompous name for the small, one-storey
cottage--was the President's favourite resting and working place during
the day. Just as in the days of peace he sat there in a big armchair,
discussing politics with groups of his countrymen, so while the war was in
progress he was seated there pondering the grave subjects of the time. The
countrymen who could always be observed with him at almost any time of the
day were missing. They were at the front. Occasionally two or three old
Boers could be seen chatting with him behind Barnato's marble lions, but
invariably they had bandoliers around their bodies and rifles across their
knees. Few of the old Boers who knew the President intimately returned
from the front on leaves-of-absence unless they called on him to explain
to him the tide and progress of the war.
According to his own declaration his health was as good as it ever was,
although the war added many burdens to his life. Although he was
seventy-five years old he declared he was as sprightly as he was twenty
years before, and he seemed to have the energy and vitality of a man of
forty. The reports that his mind was affected were cruel hoaxes which had
not the slightest foundation of fact. The only matter concerning which he
worried was his eyesight, which had been growing weaker steadily for five
years. That misfortune alone prevented him from accompanying his burghers
to the front and sharing their burdens with them, and he frequently
expressed his disappointment that he was unable to engage more actively in
the defence of his country. When Pretoria fell into British hands Kruger
again sacrificed his own interests for the welfare of his Government and
moved the capital into the fever-districts, the low-veld of the eastern
part of the Transvaal. The deadly fever which permeates the atmosphere of
that territory seemed to have no more terrors for him than did the British
bullets at Poplar Grove, and he chose to remain in that dangerous locality
in order that he might be in constant communication with his burghers and
the outside world rather than to go farther into the isolated interior
where he would have assumed no such great risks to his health.
Mr. Kruger was not a bitter enemy of the British nation, as might have
been supposed. He was always an admirer of Britons and British
institutions, and the war did not cause him to alter his convictions. He
despised only the men whom he charged with being responsible for the war,
and he never thought to hide the identity of those men. He blamed Mr.
Rhodes, primarily, for instigating the war, and held Mr. Chamberlain and
Sir Alfred Milner equally responsible for bringing it about. Against these
three men he was extremely bitter, and he took advantage of every
opportunity for expressing his opinions of them and their work. In
February he stated that the real reason of the war between the Boers and
the British was Rhodes's desire for glory. "He wants to be known as the
maker of the South African empire," he said, "and the empire is not
complete so long as there are two Republics in the centre of the country."
Whatever were the causes of the war, it is certain that President Kruger
did not make it in order to gain political supremacy in the country. The
Dutch of Cape Colony, President Steyn of the Free State, and Secretary
Reitz of the Transvaal, may have had visions of Dutch supremacy, but
President Kruger had no such hopes. He invariably and strenuously denied
that he had any aspirations other than the independence of his country,
and all his words and works emphasised his statement to that effect.
Several days before Commandant-General Joubert died, that intimate friend
of the President declared solemnly that Kruger had never dreamt of
expelling the British Government from South Africa and much less had made
any agreement with the Dutch in other parts of the country with a view to
such a result. It was a difficult matter to find a Transvaal Boer or a
Boer from the northern part of the Free State who cared whether the
British or the Dutch were paramount in South Africa so long as the
Republics were left unharmed, but it was less difficult to meet Cape
Colonists and Boers from the southern part of the Free State who desired
that Great Britain's power in the country should be broken. If there was
any real spirit against Great Britain it was born on British soil in Cape
Colony and blown northward to where courage to fight was more
abundant. Its source certainly was not in the north, and more certainly
not with Paul Kruger, the man of peace.
President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, occupied even a more
responsible position than his friend President Kruger, of the Transvaal.
At the beginning of hostilities, Steyn found that hundreds of the
British-born citizens of his State refused to fight with his army, and
consequently he was obliged to join the Transvaal with a much smaller
force than he had reckoned upon. He was handicapped by the lack of
generals of any experience, and he did not have a sufficient number of
burghers to guard the borders of his own State. His Government had made
but few preparations for war, and there was a lack of guns, ammunition,
and equipment. The mobilisation of his burghers was extremely difficult
and required much more time than was anticipated, and everything seemed to
be awry at a time when every detail should have been carefully planned and
executed. As the responsible head of the Government and the veritable head
of the army Steyn passed a crisis with a remarkable display of energy,
ingenuity, and ability. After the army was in the field he gave his
personal attention to the work of the departments whose heads were at the
front and attended to many of the details of the commissariat work in
Bloemfontein. He frequently visited the burghers in the field and gave to
them such encouragement as only the presence and praise of the leader of a
nation can give to a people. In February he went to the Republican lines
at Ladysmith and made an address in which he stated that Sir Alfred
Milner's declaration that the power of Afrikanderism must be broken had
caused the war. Several days later he was with his burghers at Kimberley,
praising their valour and infusing them with renewed courage. A day or two
afterward he was again in Bloemfontein, arranging for the comfort of his
men and caring for the wives and children who were left behind. His duties
were increased a hundred-fold as the campaign progressed, and when the
first reverses came he alone of the Free Staters was able to imbue the men
with new zeal. After Bloemfontein was captured by the British he
transferred the capital to Kroonstad, and there, with the assistance of
President Kruger, re-established the fighting spirit of the burgher army.
He induced the skulking burghers to return to their compatriots at the
front, and formed the plans for future resistance against the invading
army. When Lord Roberts's hosts advanced from Bloemfontein, President
Steyn again moved the capital and established it at Heilbron. Thereafter
the capital was constantly transferred from one place to another, but
through all those vicissitudes the President clung nobly to his people and
country.