The record-union., 1893-10-11
THE CONTEST OVER CREED HAY.
MOND'S ESTATE.


A San Francisco paper under the head
of "Politics Did 1t ALL" in an article, too
evidently in the interest of the legatee of
the Raymond estate, makes many state
ments clearly not in accordance with the
facts. 1t attempts to enforce the impress
sion on the reader that the only difficulty
between Mr.. Raymond and his surviving
relatives was one of politics. It says of
Raymond that his political speeches
were bitterly partisan. This is not true.
Colonel Raymond was strong partisan.
His temperament led him to excess of
thought and speech. He was not denun-
ciatory of Democrats, but, the article
says, he lost no opportunity to denounce
the South for election outrages. Colonel
Raymond may have made references to
the Klukluxism and terrorism by which
Democratic supremacy in the South is
maintained, but from political stand
point they were merely moderate Repub-
hcan statements.
But the widest departure from the fact
is to be found in the statement that in
private conversation Mr.. Raymond
spoke with great bitterness against the
South, and toward the region south of
the Potomac and the Ohio and it's people
his feeling was one of intense hatred.
This is simply untrue. Colonel Hay
mond never spoke of the people of the
South with bitterness. In private con-
versation he never manifested any
partisanship against the Democratic
party. According to his own dec
iarations, made in private, he
became a Republican upon the theory
that time must be reached in the history
of the nation when the past would be as
ifdead and forgotten; that it was better
for the whole nation to turn its back
upon the past and it's face to the future;
and that the platform of unity was the
Republican party. He has been heard to
say that the people of the South were
fifty years behind the people of the
North, but he said this with no bitterness
toward the people whose conservatism he
was criticising. He said it with regret,
and even with affection.
In a conversation relating to the war :,
not very long before his death, he was
heard to say that the conquest of the
South by the superior power of the North
left no stain upon the valor of the South
ern people; that the whole difficulty
should have been compromised; that it
was an outrage that any war should have
grown out of the differences between the
two sections of the country. The state
ment that he made no attempt to conceal
his hatred and bitterness toward the
Southern people is gratuitous.
Of the subsequent statement in the
article that he did not visit his old home
on his Eastern journeys, we are again
prepared to say that it is not true. Upon
his return from Washington, he narrated
with pleasing enthusiasm q visit to his
old home in Western Virginia. He said
that it seemed to him like a dream of
romance rather than statement of real
fact that boy who left Western Virginia at
the age of 20, without education and with
out aspiration to enter professional life,
should be returning for the first time to
his old home in private car, on his way
to make an argument before the Su-
preme Court of the United States in q
case involving millions of dollars and of
character which would employ the best
talent of the nation. He said this with
that pardonsble pride which men feel
at having achieved honorable success in
life. But this statement shows con-
clusively that he did visit his old home.
He did revisit the scenes of his youth and
experienced all the pleasing associations
inseparable from such a visit. He re-
counted the experiences of that visit and
the emotions it invoked with pleasing
enthusiasm and brilliant recital.
1t was well known to those personally
intimate with Colonel Raymond that he
was opposed to the large pensions
granted to Northern soldiers. He was
frequently heard to say that the Govern
ment in natural justice owed to the dis
abled soldiers of the Confederate army
the same pension due to the Northern
soldier. His argument in favor of this
proposition was very plausible and very
specious. It was usually met by his Re-
publican friends with the charge that
men should not be rewarded for treason,
even though they might be forgiven that