The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-03-21
"EPITHETs SETTLE NOTHING
Senator Buffers Manly Protest Against
Fire-Eating Oratory.


letter in reply to that Of a Lynn veteran,
who asked if General Rosser's recent
Baltimore speech expressed the feelings
of the Southern people. The Senator
saysEe cannot give an intelligent ans
wer as to whether or not a given num-
Der Of Southerners can whip a given
number of "puritanical Yankees" but
he improves the opportunity to refer to
his experience in Congress in the fol-
lowing language:
II have listened with comparative
composure to the degrading epitnets
and anathemas which men of the
North-some who wore the blreHe
heaped upon and hurled at the men
who wore the gray. During my twelve
years in the United States Senate I
have heard such terms as traitor
REBEL perjurer,' 'ingrate,' rascal
assassin ETC., showered upon honora-
BILE men and brave soldiers of the South,
but I never permitted myself to become
excited over them, because I know the
words were not true. I could fill vol
ume with the vilest epithets of which
the Englishlanguage is capable, applied
to leaders in the South whose charac-
ters ere very dear to the Southern peo-
ple-epithets generally approved and
applauded at the North-certainly
never rebuked as far as know.
~ do not believe any brave man
would apply such ,epithets to a fallen
enemy, certainly not to fallen enemy
whose courage and fidelity to his con-
victions he has been compelled to ad-
NIT. I do not think elimination and
recrimination between people of the
same race, who were equally conscien-
tious in the line they pursued, are wise.
They settle nothing in any proper
controversy; each side will be judged,
after the disputants have passed away,
by the records each has made, when
epithets will be forgotte' The tempta-
ton to retort, however, Is almost ire
sistible. When Gen. Sherman utters
sentiments and gives advice calculated
to precipitate race collisions and blood
shed in the South, and when Cover
nor Foraker denounces and maligns
Southern men and women by the
wholesale, and somebody from the
South calls them bad names, dc not
see Why other people should. get ex-
cited.
"Gen. Rosser did not claim to speak
for anybody but himself. He is quite
able to take care of himself. He was my
immediate comrade and friend during
the war, and no army ever had more
able and gallant cavalry officer. have
always thought that to speak ones SEN
timents freely was one Of the boasted
rights of American institutions. He had
his favorites in both armies, and has
never concealed his preferences. In his
speech at Baltimore he wrapped him
self in the flag of the Union, as he had
done in the flag of the late Confederacy.
He criticised, with some severity,
Generals of the Union army, and pro-
nounced the tenderest and most fat
tering and touching eulogies upon
others. He did the same towards Con-
federate Generals. I have never heard
any Federal speaker applaud and praise
any Confederate officers as I have
heard Rosser applaud and praise Custer,
Pleasonton, Merritt and others; and I
have never heard Federal speakers
criticise any Confederate officer with
more force than I have heard Rosser
criticise Pope, Sherman and other men.
So I think he has struck a fair general
average.
II do not agree with General Rosser
in his opinions Of the superior proves
of the Southern men over the cyan
KEGS To begin with, all ''Yankee'sare
not 'puritanical' You will find 'puri-
tani2ar people everywhere, South as
we'll as North; and sometimes when
'puritanism' runs into fanaticism they
are tie ugliest customers in the world.
Beside this, I believe by military dis
cipline you can make any soldier fight
certainly any American soldier. Gen.
Rosser has perfect right to his opin-
ions: and an equal right to express
theT2.n
Its Bad Enough
| e., f.,ol n,,.n1. nnn,s 1aracinIlS time in OK.