Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1881-02-17
THE REBEL CLAIMS DEBATE

The assumption by Democrats that
it is they alone who q
broad charity and kindly spirit be-
tween the two great sections of the
country is quite as amusing as a spec
linen of Democratic egotism as it is
ridiculous when tested by facts. The
assertion by "brigadiers" and their
dough-faced dependents that "a be-
lief that they were right will relieve
them at the bar of history from the
taint of rebellion Is absurd. History
is memorable. 1t will stamp fright
over the verdict of the longest sword
and most cannon against any "lost
cause founded on a corner stone of
human slavery. No sophistry car
change this. When the Democracy
recognize this and act upon it, the era
of good will, which they pretend to
hunger for as a tramp does for a
warm dinner, will come. But every
attempt to reverse history only post
pones it. The attempt Ct itself
breathes upon the dying embers and
fans them into flames.
The latest attempt grows out of the
claim of Capt. E. P. Pages widow,
Capt. Page was a Virginian and an
officer Of the navy at the beginning
of the rebellion. He had taken upon
him an oath of fidelity to the Union,
and, like many other southrons, shed
his fidelity, with the convenience that
crab does its shell, at the moment
when the government needed his SER
vices, and, in the language Of Mr..
Conger raised the sword which had
been given him to defend his
try, to strike his country down.
When he joined in with the rebellion
it is claimed there was a small matter
of 1886 due him as salary, and the
'brigadiers" now insist it shall be
paid to his widow. This sum is pay
for only part of a menth and it is
more than probable, that for a much
longer period than this small sum
covers. Capt. Page was plotting
against his government. Some of
his fellow officers in the navy, with
a chivalrous sense Of honor(?), de-
voted their last weeks in the United
States service to filing bowitzer
shells with sawdust, in the meanwhile
signing their pay rolls and drawing
their salaries with loyal fidelity.
Whether Capt. Page was n of the
sandust suffers, or not, does not ap-
peal. But the plotting is made clear
enough from what subsequently
transpIred. The people who advo-
cate this claim are the last who
should do so. They have put away
from themselves all right to denounce
eonfscation, or to demand its rever-
sal. 1t was they who inaugurated
this policy. The first step in the di.
r~ection of rebellion was the confisca-
ton of many millions of dollars of
public property and as early as April
26, 1861, the state of Georgia and
other southern states forbade the pay
ment of private debts to the north,
and confscated millions Of dollars OF
such debts to the use of the rebellion.
Public property. public moneys and
private debts of enormous values
were thus swallowed by southern con-
fscatiou and irrevocably lost to their
rightful owners; and until the south
makes restoration, which 1t never can
Or will do, it has no right to claim
restoration, and more especially so in
a case like this, when the time for
which pay is claimed was devoted to
encouraging and augmenting resist
ance to the government. General
Bragg, a Union officer, and Demo-
cratic congressman from Wisconsin,
put the ease fairly when, in opposing
the bill, he said:
Benedict Arnold had fought no5ly,
bravely and well, but he had deserted
the flag of his country liz a trying
hour. Capt. Page had fought brave
Iy on Lake Erie. 1t had been far
better for him had he died sustaining
the flag of his country in the glo-
rious battle of Lake Erie than have
in his later years spat on that flag by
rendering the resignation of his COM
mission in the hour of his country's
peril.
Other Democrats foolishly WINGED
under these forcible and honest words.
and sBrigadier" Hooper OF Mississippi
protested that they were unjust be-
cause the south rebelled from a con-
viction Of right and because they
.believed they were right the SUBJ
49, ,1y