The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-09-28


candidate for the United States Senate to sue
| coed the Hon. John w. Stevenson, July %,
| 1875, in Covington, Gen. Williams made q
speech, in which he is reported to have said as
| follows. in speaking of the action of Southern
| ers during the war:
We did not feel any remorse or regret for the part
we had borne in the dreadful drama through which
! we had passed, but we felt proud of r1s heroic
| struggle our people had made.
In the course Of the same speech, he OBJ.
served:
| The democratic party had work before them
! one of those Democrats who did not believe any
principle had been lost, People often said, That is
settled Dy the war; and this is settled. He did net
know but one thing that had been settled, and
that was the inability of the Southern people to
whip the North-fve or six millions to thirty mill
| ions.
Mr.. Senator Norwood, of Georgia, made a
speech Feb. rs, 1875 App. Cong. Rec. p. 881,
in which he said of the rebellion:
That war, sir, was fought on a principle. Its
origin was in difference of opinion on the right
construction of the constitution. We of the South,
honestly believing that rights which we held were
guaranteed by that instrument could not be pre-
served in the Union, sought to secure them under
separate and independent government. We
struck no blow at the existence of the Federal
Government, and SO impartial history will record
it's verdict. ftli5l4
Ex-Gov. Benjamin G. HUMPHREYS, of Missis-
sippi made speech at reunion of the Thir-
teenth Mississippi Confederate Infantry at
Meridian, on the 23d of November, 1875, in
which he said:
We have surrendered none of our convictions and
still claim the right of vindication In looking back
at our past actions and motives and the wrongs we
have suffered and are still suffering, we confess
that we have regrets for the choice we made be-
tween the "higher-law license Of maJorities in the
Union and the sacred security of self government
in the States between the Federal and Confederate
Governments. We are not conscious of single de-
reelection of duty either as citizens or soldiers and
g A,n4 k-s,1%I iTQfn no
from wrong doing. We know we were right; and,
though crushed to earth, we should ever remember,
and teach our children to remember, our cause was
Just. We still proud OF the cause, and glory in
the fight we made
In view of these remarks the observations of
Mr. John J. Patterson. Senator from South
Carolina made in the Senate. Aug. 8, 1876, ap-
pear to be pertinent:
proceeded all our ills. From it proceeded all the
woes the country has been suffering. 1t was the
first to secede The first gun that fired at Fort
Sumter involved this country in a war and reused
the people to sense OF their danger. Now,
South Carolinian (for claim to be tnat) as repre-
sentative of South Carolina stand here to-day co
speak of new danger. If any man will ask me
if believe the Southern people contemplate anoth-
er secession tell him no, they do not think OF such
a thing: but there is a sentiment abroad In the
whole South that these Democratic politicians I'M
derstand No English speaking people ever made
such sacrifices in defense of an idea as the South
ern people did IN defense of the " Lost Cause"
they believed they were attempting to relieve them
selves from an oppression as intolerable and I'm
bearable as the oppression that our grandfathers
attempted and did successfully relieve themselves
from in the contest with Great Britain. They be-
lieved it then; they believe it to-day
Have you ever heard Democratic Senator on this
floor get up and say that he believed the lost
was wrong? No; it is the boast of their people
that they fought honestly because they believed
they were right History never deceives any per-
SON. History will repeat itself These people in the
ba1ie at liberties
down at Appomattox. That flag of the stars and
bars represents principle dearer to them than life,
and they sacrificed their lives freely and cneertuly
in defense of that principle. They conquered,
but the spirit of liberty never has been driven out
of any people. 1t may be stricken down, but it has
never BEEN in the history of the world forgotten by
a people. They may be overcome; they may be
held in the power of q stronger nation; but they
forget an idea that they once fought for, and
thabidea with the Southern people is that they were
fighting for their liberty.
I do not wish to be misunderstood upon this point,
because I say nothing here that do not believe.
I say that South Carolina was the Pandora
box Of all our ills; she was the first to strike;
she led the Southern column; she inaugurated
secession by her bold and able leaders. say that
South Carolina to-day has the whole question IN
her power she is to-day the key of the situation.
South Carolina is the only State in the South that
the Republicans have any certain prospect OF car
rying. South Carolina is the only State that is to-
day certainly a Republican State. But let this
spirit of Hamburg, let this spirit of Ku-Klux let
this spirit of violence, let this spirit of murder go
on let South Carolina be swept into the vortex OF
Democracy, and you have united South; and L
say to the people of the South, in all kindness
my home is there; all that have in the world is
in South Carolina my interests are their inter-
ests the evil that overcomes them Overcomes me
and 1 say to the people of South Carolina that,
when they consent to have the State swept into
this vortex, they may make up their minds to pre-
pare for new horror. A united South just as
truly means united North in the future it did
in 1870 Unite the South and you unite the North !;
you array one section against the other section,
and it means war.