The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-15
THE CAUSE OF THE LATE WAR.
Did Gen. Lee Know What the Confederate
States Were Fighting For?-The Record.

THE CAUSE OF THE LATE WAR.
Did Gen. Lee Know What the Confederate
States Were Fighting For?-The Record.
Wars aw Indianian- Republican.
The following reply to an open letter" re-
Gently published in the Century Magazine, was
written by the editor of the IndianIan -Repub-
lican, but as the editor of the Magazine gave US
reasons, supposed to he good and sufficient to
himself, for not publishing it, we lay it before
our readers just as it was written at the time,
although some of the points in the article will
be lost to those who did not see the interview"
between General Lee and the contributor, to
which the following is o ur reply:
II have been highly pleased, as are many
readers of the Century Magazine. with it's new
feature illustrative of facts and incidents con-
nected with the late war between the States.
Coming, as they do, from prominent partici-
pants in that struggle on both sides, they are of
absorbing interest to the general public, both
North and South. Written, as they are, twenty
years and more since their occurrence, they
ought to be not cnly historically, but absolutely
truthful. This being an adpitted fact, must
say that l was almost sorry that Mr.. John Ley
burn, of Baltimore, Nd, placed the late Confed-
crate General Robert E. Lee in an attitude
which, / feel sure, he would not like to occupy
were he alive to-day. Mr.. Leyburn declares
that General Lee, in an interview with him after
the war, deeply deplored the persistent manner
in which the leading Northern journals, and
Northern people generally, insisted that the OBJ
ject Of the war had been to secure the perpetual
ton of slavery" / do not like to rate General
Lees intelligence at so low an estimate. The
Confederate Constitution, adopted at Montgome-
ry, Alabama, differed only from that of the
United States on a very few points. These
were: The perpetuation of slavery, absolute
States rights, and a few other unimportant
points, such as fixing the term for the Presi-
dency at six instead of four years; permitting
Cabinet officers to participate in discussions on
subjects for legislation in Congress. etc. [See
American Conflict, by Horace Greeley, pages Ala
and 5l5, volume IL A. FL, Stephens, vice presi-
dent of the Copfederacy, certainly understood
if General Lee did not-that the contest was to
be waged for this purpose, and for this alone;
for, after accepting the position to which he had
been elected at Montgomery, Ala, in the first
speech made by him afterwards, he used the fol-
lowing language IN reference to the Constitution
adopted by the Confederate States:
But not to be tedious in enumerating the
changes for the better, allow me to allude to one
other-though last, not least; the new EConfed-
eratel Constitution has put at rest forever all
the agitating questions relating to our peculiar
Observation-Disclosures slavery, as it exists among
us-the proper status of the negro in our form
of civilization. This was the immediate cause
of the late rupture and the present revolution!
= It's foundations are laid; its corner
stone rests upon the great truth that the negro
is not equal to the white man; that slavery and
subordination to the superior race. is his natural
and normal condition.
lC6 pfeSlUeuG DI0pUeDS certainty bHOugnL
the South was fighting for the perpetuation of
African slavery, and would Mr.. Leyburn have
us place so low an estimate on Robert e. Lees
intelligence as TO have the public think he fought
for four years or more-gallantly and well, it
must be admltted-withouJ knowing that the
whole war was based on the slavery question
almost exclusively Nothing that has ever ap-
peared has made General Lee occupy a position
at once so humiliating and at variance with the
generally-received public opinion of him. 1t were
hotter for GaOnral Iqptl rnD1tatinp
had Mr.. Leyburn's open letter
been retained in Baltimore. On another
point, however, Mr.. Leyburn presents General
Lee in an unenviable light, and that is, when
the latter is made to deplore the vast number of
noble young men lin the South) who had fallen
in the bloody strife. He makes General Lee
say that the struggle was most unequal. The
North, he admitted, had sent many of her valu-
able young men to the field, but, as in all large
cities, there is a population that can we'll be
spared, and from immigration from abroad an
u~nfailing additional supply of them can be had.
Tn South, on the other hand, had to
depend on her own sons, and she
sent and sacrificed the flower of the
land This is the old, old story.
The Southern people were made to believe that
they were fighting foreigners, but as | saw
much OF the confederate armies during the war,
| give it as a fact that in proportion to the num-
Der engaged, regiment for regiment, the South
ern army contained as many foreigners as did
those of the North. I know this bug a. boo was
accelerated by our boys when on picket, who, on
being asked by those of the enemy opposite,
what regiment they belonged to, and knowing
that this feeling prevailed to a wide extent on
the confederate side, were in the habit of ans
wering. The Two-hundredth Ireland, or the
Two. hundredth-and siXty-second from Germa-
ny, or the Ninetieth from France etc. This was
a joke, but many Of the confederates firmly be-
lieved it to be true. We pass over the reflection
of General Lee that a father or a mother north
of the Ohio might not think their son just as no
BILE, and love him just as ardently and as ten
derby, as the father or mother of Southern birth
even poor Irish peasants might, indeed, love
their progeny just as dearly, and as purely, and
as deeply. / repeat that Mr.. Leyburn has not
added much tc the reputation of General Lee by
publishing the interview referred to. If the South
was not fighting for the perpetuation of
slavery, what was the contest about
Surely a people would not go into a war of such
mighty proportions merely that a President
should have a term of six, instead of four
years; or that Cabinet officers should have the
privilege of participating in the debates of both
or either house of Congress-these being the
only special changes from the Constitution of
the United States, except on slavery, which Mr..
Stephens, Vice-president of the Confederacy, de-
clared to be the cornerstone of the new nation
that was to be- If General Lee was not fight
ing for the perpetuation of slavery, what, l ask,
was the war about, anyway
.'REUB WILLIAMS"