Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-08-26
from the St. Louis Republican,

from the st. Louis Republican,
The recent meeting OF ex-confeder-
ates at Sedalia was Que of those occa-
sions to which heroic and thrilling
memories impart the highest interest
that can be given TO human affairs-tor,
after all, 1t is strife and struggle with
The individual achievements that illus.
trate and embellish it that make up
nearly all of history that human beings
care about. the Sedalia gathering was
an assemblage OF representatives OF a
cause as utterly and hopelessly lost as
1t is possible to conceive. 1t makes
little difference what that cause really
was, and what the ex-confederates
fought for-whether state sovereignty.
the right OF secession, southern indepen-
dence OR slavery, or all these put
together, it NO longer has an existence;
It has q name in history as the subject
OF q OF the most gigantic and interest,"
ing wars OF any age-and that is all.
The term ''lost cause" is of confederate
coinage, and it represents the absolute
humiliation which, by their own ac-
acknowledgement. it net with. If severe
ly pressed, the ex-c%ontederates OF
Missouri and the ex-confederates OF
Sonth Carolina might give somewhat
different interpretations of their cause,
for secession. being In its very nature
the opposite OF unity, impaired an
unavoidable indifference 10 the politics
that grew out of it. But there was no
uncertainty. incoherence or diversity in
the championship of it. No people
were ever more united and determined
than the ex-confederates OF Missouri
and South Carolina were in their enter.
prise of 1861; no people ever before
exhibited a greater degree of the truest
valor; no people eve illustrated their
cause with more admirable examples OF
individual heroism and sacrifice, and no
people ever followed their banners 10 q
more AFFECT and pitiable extremity OF
suffering and endurance. 1t would 10,
have been enough to defeat such a
people. They had t. he vanquished
aud utterly broken-and this was the
fate OF the south in the war. The
ex-confederates came out of the struggle
with nothing material but the rags on
their backs-and many OF them were in
debt for these. But they took home
with them u record of achievements and
All array OF memories which their VIC
tors themselves cannot surpass, and
which n" other people. ancient or
modern. aver wrought out in the brief
splce of four years-a record which, old
as the world is and SCARED by ~striies,
has earned a peculiar and prominent
place in its hoary history.
Perhaps the very highest of all the
high examples of virtue given by the
ex-cOnlederates is their absolute recog-
milton OF and submission to their
vanquishment. 1t could not have been
more complete and manly. When they
gave up their swords they admitted
that the whole thing was over. They
never attempted nor dreamed Of
attempting to repeat the experiment.
Also In one hour those armies of gray
clad. seasoned veterans. whose thin aud
wasted lines stretched from the Atlantic
to the Rio Grande, vanished from the
earth. never 10 be seen again. Many
members OF that thin line, thinned still
more by the ravages OF seventeen years,
still live, and a goOdly number OF the
survivors met at Sedalia on the 18th to
indulge in the song Ut recOileclions.
They were no longer the boys who drew
the sword and shouldered the musket
IN 1861. Their hair was gray the heads
OF many were bald their faces were
wrinkled. They had q meek and harm
less look about them. ter many of them
are fathers of large families, and all of
them are exemplary citizens. They
mel as the surviving veterans of the
armies OF the Cumberland, the Iennes-
see aud the Potomac meet-to look one
another in the face again and see that
history treats them fairly. There are
no pensions for ex-confederates, and one
object OF the association formed at S.-
dalia is the pions one of assisting those
members OF 1t "wbo by the strokes OF
war or misfortune have been rendered
incapable of providing Tor themselves
and their families" Another is to
"%perpetuate tru:hfully the events in
which its members have participated and
correct The untruthiul and spurious mar.
~ratives which have too often been put
forth MS history" and still another is to
preserve those bones OF esteem and
affection which justly unite those who
have served and suffered together ,;
These are noble and commendabIe pur-
poses. No history of u civil Wal was
ever fairly written by the actors on one
side. Our posterity will demand the
truth about the war oil twenty years
ago, and the truth can be found only IN
the records and reports OF both sides.