The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-05
THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER.
Lee mre by Hon. A. N. waddelI, of North
Carolina.

NEw York. May Hon. Alfred NJ. Wad-
deli. of North Carolina, delivered his lecture
| on tho "Confednrate soldier last evening in
Stenway Hail. for the benefit Of tho veteran
corps of the Forty y-seveDth Regiment of New
York Volunteers. Among those on the plat
form were ex-Gov. H Hoffman, Mayor Ely Post
master James, the Row. DR. c. +. Deems,
Gen. +. L.. Viele, Gen. Charles A. Carleton
and others. Tho audience was Frequently V ey-
cited to applause, or provoked to laughter by
the striking statements or dry humor of the
lecturer.
lie said that the Confederate soldier and
the mule citizen of the Confederate States
were nearly absolutely synonymous terms.
No other government was ever charged with
robbng the cradle and the grave" to recruit
its melting armies. The question has been
asked thousand times, how it could happen
that n people who were 50 opposed to seces-
sion In March, 1861 should in the May follow
ing have been enthusiastic in their deternina-
ton to resist to the last extremity the power
Of the Federal government
The answer to this question Is very simple
It contains the whole philosophy Of the Con
fcderate struggle. 1t is this: While the peo-
pie differed as to the abstract right of State
to withdraw from the Union, they were al
most unanimous in the conviction that II a
State did secede the other States had no right
to use armed force to hold her, and that the
first duty of q citizen in such case was to
his own State. This had been the political
education Of men OF all parties-hence the
Confederate soldier.
There have been and still are, very erro-
ncOus IDEAS as to the motives which influenced
these men to take up arms. Among them
was tho idea that they were inspired by
fanatcal love Of the institution Of slavery;
yet only small portion of the people Of the
South owned slaves, and assert here and
now, as fact which no Southern man will
deny, that not one man in one hundred living
there at that time, and perhaps not one in a
thousand, would have shed one drop of his
blood simply to save that institution IAp-
pauSe.I
honestly believe, and base my judgment
upon historical facts, as well as personal OBJ
servation, that but for the agitation of that
question for years previous to the war; grad
ual emancipation, under the pressure of pub
lie opinion in the South alone, would have
been inevitable.
The Confederate soldier fought, strange as
it may sound to some ears, for exactly what
you fought for, love of country and constitu-
tional liberty How he fought during those
four years Of horror you may be the Judges.
How he suffered, through what privations he
passed, how naked and hungry he went, with
lacerated feet but lion heart, from battlefield
to battlefield OF that stricken land, none but
God and his comrades will ever know
You overthrew him and returned amid the
acclamations OF rejoicing millions to happy
and prosperous homes. He went back,
through wilderness, to find a solitary chin
ney where his cabin stood, and to kiss his
ldSSth WHO CIHl lOT YET
never heard the Confederate soldier whine
over his fate. LApplausel Profanity may
sometimes have disturbed the atmosphere a
little, but it was never made sckening by any
such infusion as that. [Laughter.I
The grand words OF Robert E. Lee to the
surrendered remnant of his splendid army,
Human virtue should be equal to human
calamity" touched the heart Of the Southern
people, and as the blast Of Bessemer fur
mace transforms the softened metal, steeled it
~ RI \
the same spirit which animated them during
the war, exhibiting recuperative power at
which You were amazed, and their. country,
then utterly desolate, smiled again with
bcunteous harvests, and despite every OBJ
stacle, has steadily advanced toward pros
Ierlty and power.
La this material development of that portion
OF your country, [ know you have r,joiced
They were and are your countrynen and the
title to which each can lay claim with the
highest pride Is 4 was an American soldier"
he time has come when we can talk over
these things as matters of history. You know