Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-02-28
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY %. 1891.
Confederates at Chicago.

The proposition 70 have at the opening
Of the Chicago Exhibition grand re-
union Of Federal and Confederate soldiers
is no doubt intended TO efface any sug-
gestion Of sectionalism in the enterprise.
Put under the management Of suitable
men the movement ought to be success
full. We are going to enter heartily
into the work of the Exposition. and each
Of the southern States. according TO its
means, no doubt, will make an appropria-
ton TO have its resources snd advantages
represented there. For this and many
other reasons we wish the fair to be
success.
When Congress was threatening to place
the voting power Of the southern States
in the hands of partisan boards appointed
by Judge BOND and other Federal circuit
Judges q number of States solemDly an
noupced that If this measure became o
law they would have nothing TO do with
the fair. They were right. We were in
imminent danger, and in the exercise
OF that law Of nature which allows
q man or people to seize the weapon
most available and efficient for self-pre-
seryation southerners declared that if
they were stripped of their political
liberties they would absent themselves
from the great national and international
celebration at Chicago. That danger Is
happily passed-passed with the aid OF
some who are not of our shade OF politics,
and there is no reason now why we should
not cordially enter into the arrangements
for the Exposition.
We trust Virginia will be we'll rep
resented there. We need for permanent
exhibition in the city Of Richmond bet
ter collection Of specimens of our woods,
minerals, cereals, &C., than any now in
existence, and If one is made for the Chi
cago fair it can be brought back here and
kept In public place for permanent use.
To obtain what we need will not cost very
much. and II is at least as much if not
more to the interest of the country peo-
pie than Of the townspeople that the
General Assembly should vote the money
for 1t. II is highly probable that this will
be done, and IL is likely that every other
southern State will make like appropria-
ton. The fair should be as much ours as
anybodys, and we ought TO prepare our
selves to make it enjoyable and useful
both.
The greatest objection that old Confede-
rates can have to reiinion at Chicago
arises from the fact that some of the money
making citizens of that place have removed
the Libby Prison thither from Richmond
and set it up as war museum; set it up,
many people think, as a memorial of the
sufferings of Federal soldiers in southern
military prisons. This is not part of the
Exposition it has no connection with it,
we believe, and 1t is said by some
of our Richmond people that the
museum is really not as Objectionable
as would be imagined. Still we
regret that ii is at Chicago. 1t will
serve no good purpose. The reputation
the prison got during the war (very unde-
seryedly) clings to it still, and few of the
people who will visit it and be told of
southern barbarities" will ever know
how we begged General GRANT to exchange
prisoners, how he refused, and how our
fighting men almost starved at their posts
while We were forced to share our scanty
stores with $1,000 Federal prisoners. Nor
will visitors to the museum be informed
how in sight of smiling fields and bursting
barns Oonfederates held in northern prisons
were so i'll fed that they caught all the rats
in their prisons and ate them to preserve
life.
Such is the injustice that the Libby
Prison Museum does US, but we do not
hold the Exposition managers responsible.
That would be wrong. They will. how
ever, be compelled to see that it hurts
their enterprise.
The suggestion of soldiers reunion
seems TO come from ex-Confederates. No
matter; il cannot be successful unless
managed by men whose names will be 10
the South guarantee of fraternity.
Under suitable direction the reinion
can be made glorious.
The South will not needlessly withhold
anything of cordiality or activity to make
the Exposition a success.
Lot our northern friends do no less.