Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-10-08
THE CONFEDERATE REUNION.

The absence OF the writer prevented
such a notice of the confederate reunion
at Moberly, last week. as We should
have desired to make. Even though a
little late in the day we wish to
say a few words regarding it. In the
resolutions adopted the gentlemen there
in attendance declared the object of
their meeting to be s'we here associate
ourselves together as a permanent Or
g~anization Tor social enjoyment and the
preservation OF our history" They
adopted resolutions oondemning assas-
sination, expressing sympathy with the
family of President Garfield, denouncing
all sorts of crime, and especially train
robbery, and %renouncing all desire for
pensions from the federal or state gov
ernments.
Not q sentiment expressed in the res
olutions has been adversely criticised
even by the most rabid radical news
| paper In Missouri. When this is said
much is said, because if there had any
where been a flaw big enough for the
introduction OF the point of a pen knife,
it would have been made to appear as
large as a mountain fissure. Generosi-
ty has never been a trait with that kind
of people, and their failure to crlticise
was simply that there was absolutely
nothing to condemn.
In lieu OF this, In their desire to de-
prive the confederate soldier of the
privilege of again grasping his old COM
rades by the hand, of sitting at
table and mingling with men who how
ever mistaken, politically. as soldiers
were heroes, these people assert that
such meetings are q 'glorifcation OF
treason" They take care not to quote
from the speeches to prove anything
like this, for they would bear evidence
to the contrary. Every man who allu-
ded to the cause for which he fought de-
clared It lost, and forever. Not a man
expressed any other Idea Or feeling.
They were not there to resuscitate a
dead issue, o are they afraid Of Its
ghost.
They were assembled to sacrifice on
the altar Of friendship; to renew those
sacred feelings OF brotherhood engen-
dered by common hardships and COM
mon dangers. Many OF them youths
when the war began, all OF them now
show silvering or silvered heads. Some
of them then erect are now being bowed
with age. The old rosters have more
marks for the dead than for the living.
At best they BAL meet but a few times
more. There is no treason in their
hearts. They loved their country we'll
enough when wars alarms rang through
the land to take their lives in their hands
and offer them for the right as they
then saw it. They were neither cow
ards or hypocrites, and when they &C.
cepted the conditions of the surrender,
to return to their homes and sustain
the government, they did it honestly j,
frankly. and with no fraud In their
hearts. and If, to-day, nj common
country, for it Is ours by Inheritance
and by our great love for 1t, should be
in danger, we can confidently and truly
say, that from no source would spring
more loyal or more jealous defenders
than from the two thousand grizzled
veteran soldiers who met at Moberly.
They may have worn the gray, but
they are o the less American citizens.
They propose, God willing, to meet
annually as long as they may, to foster
their love for a another. and they will
summarily care for any idiot who OBJ
trudes into their councils a word OF
hatred for any one else. They are su-
premely Indifferent to the bowls of dema-
gogues or the sneers of the ungener-
Oua