Lexington weekly intelligencer., 1881-10-08
or to ride, while the owner of the horse
walked, and the offer was accepted, but


till this meeting, when Governor Rey-
nolds had the unexpected pleasure of
meeting him, and learning that he was
J. D. Conner. now living at Lexington,
Missouri.
The governor continued as follows:
"For the reasons have given we ought
to fom an association. / will not ven
ture to indicate what the objects should
be in detail, but we should form an as
sociation by which we shall know each
other and where we all are to be found.
We are getting old varied fortunes have
come 10 US all. Some few, perhaps, but
still some, may need help; and we
should form an association by means of
which that help can be extended and the
memories of our war preserved. We
have that duty before US, and / trust l
will wound no sensibilities by saying
that we have another duty. Any lawyer
will tell you that in this region and
throughout most of Missouri, especially
in those counties where the confederate
element prevails, the criminal docket is
almost a blank. We are the law and
order people of the state emphatlcally.
But it SO happens that people who are
not and never we're contederates, but
are simply criminals. have committed
train robberies and other outrages in
sections OF the country where confeder-
ates happen to be in great numbers.
Those rufians select those sections be.
cause, as We are all aware, there are
Businesses and thickets there where they
can hide. 1t becomes our special duty,
then, to be foremost in sustaining law
and order and in aiding the authorities
in putting down those wrongdoers.
Loud applause.] 1t is true that when
history comes to be faithfully written
it will give an account of the origin and
progress of the disorders on the lire Of
Kansas and Missouri, commencing with
Henry Ward Beecher's sermon ofthe
gospel according to Sharpe's rifle, and
ending with some train robbery. But,
still, whoever may have been originally
at fault, the whole question belongs to
the past, and we have to look to the
present and future and it behooves US
to sustain law and order as part of our
duty as citizens.
Thus disposing of those political
questions, fellow.cltizens, we are placed
on the high ground that we have no
apologies to make for what we have
done. [Applause] We have no argu-
ment to make about 1t. We have no
apologies to ask OF others, in short, we
have nothing to say about the right or
| wrong of the past, but look forward to
grand and glorious future, Applause, ]
in which confederates and union men
will stand shoulder to shoulder together
for the common glory and prosperity Of
this great country, and men will simply
ask not whether their ancestor was a
confederate soldier or q union soldier,
but was he an honest and honorable
man, and did he behave himself we'll on
the field OF battle, and elsewhere, and
| afterwards, and it that is 50, then you
can say he Is honor enough, and as long
as you can say that all the world will
respect and honor you.
MR.. REYNOLDS CONTINUED HIS ADDRESS
by stating that events had justified, and,
he was confident would continue to jus.
tify, the same remarks he had made ter
years ago at a similar reunion at Roam.
oke, in that county, and which had met
the hearty approval of all then present
He then read portion of his address on
that occasion, as follows: While all
merely political questions OF the day are
by our own free decision excluded from
consideration on this occasion, there
are other subjects not yet brought into
the arena of actual political strife. but
specially referring to us, on which it is
almost a duty to ourselves and the
country that our views should be
known. There are certain ghosts oil
dead questions which haunt the imag.
ination of some OF our people, and in
aiding to lay them we contribute to the
welfare of our common country. Sena.
tor Morton, In very able and candid
speech, has expressed apprehensions
which, as the discourse was delivered
last week in the chief city of our own
state, it will not be out of place for us
to notice here and now. They were
that at some future period the existing
settlement of the issues of the late wal
might be disturbed by refusal to pay
interest on the United States debt, or an
assumption of the debt of the late con.
iederate states and compensation for
emancipated slaves; by refusal to pay
the pensions granted to union soldiers
or grant of like pensions to those ol
the confederacy.
1t may, with almost absolute certain
ty, be asserted that as far as the conted-
crates of Missouri-and am confident
those of other states are concerned
these fears are wholly groundless. We
have played at the grand game of civil
war, and so ably as to gam the admira.
tIon OF the world and the respect OF
magnanimous opponents. We lost il
Tor want of trumps, bat we drew at least
our tair share of the honors. Confed-
crates, and especially Missourlans, are
not the men to attempt afterward to
filch the stakes from the winner. The
payment of the interest on the United
States debt, and the principal of it when
due, and both as contracted for, is Sc.
cured by principle stronger than any
constitutional amendment. The pros.
perity of all the people as individuals il
so intimately connected with the pres.
ervation OF the public credit that on 6
mere calculation of profit and loss. it Ii
better to preserve the latter as the basis
of the former. We confederates have
as much
INTEREST IN PRESENTING BOTH
familiar with events in the confederacy
in the last years OF the war will ever
dream of an assumption by any one ol
its obligations, whether in bonds or fol
loss of property in slaves, or anything
else. Not only by general public law,
but also by the express terms OF the
contract, every creditor of the confed.
eracy made his repayment dependent
upon the establishment of its lndepend.
ence, and as 1t failed to secure it he has
no claim, either legal or moral. You
soldiers know that even when success
was possible, the common talk in the
camps was that the amount actually re.
celved by the confederacy for its bonds
and notes was In such ridiculous dis
proportion to the amount promised te
be paid that no sense of abstract law o,
Justice would ever secure their payment
How, then, would you receive a propo.
sal now to tax ourselves to pay anything
whatever on them when bought up, as
they certainly would be, on any pros.
pect OF gain on them, by sordid specula-
tors, for mere songP With regard to
losses of property, from the horses
which many of you whom now see be-
fore me had killed under you in some
gallant charge up to the millions lost IN
slaves by some unionist or lukewarm
planter who denied you their labor to
aid you in erecting breastworks agains,
FEDERAL balls. all must 60 alike the road
which universal, public law marks out
| for ha unSuccaSStul IN owl x.,or ~,