The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-06-07
A aDEyu,s ADVOCATED

La the bitter days OF his sour OLD age,
| when he was envenomed by seeing the
land rise happy and prosperous from the
ruin he had wrought, and his name and
memory become more and more of a
by-way word and a reproaeh, jeff Davis
used to console himself by saying that at
least the women and the preachers were
not conquered, and would not be Gre
constructed" No matter how convinc-
ing the logic Of events might be to
others, they at least would remain
morose, recalcitrant, unforgiving, and
unpaeifed.
We have had a sorrowful illustration
of how we'll the arbitrator knew those of
whom he spoke. Last week there was a
grand gala day and public demonstra-
ton in Richmond, Va. The stores were
closed, business suspended, buildings
decorated, a great assemblage of noted
and leading men, and tens of thousands
focked into the city from all parts OF
Virginia and the South. The occasion
was the unvailing, On the former site of
Libby Prison, of fine monument to
" the Confederate Private Soldier" The
orator of the occasion was Rev. L. {.
Cave, of whom we know nothing, except
that the prefix to his name indicates his
sacred calling. But his bitter, vengeful,
hate-breeding speech, which was APP
plauded to the echo by the assembled
multitue, startled the public like bomb
of an anarchist in some thronged public
place, and has brought him at once to
the front of National attention.
Think of a clergyman presumably
meek follower of the Prince of Peace
standing In the front of such an audi
ence-standing in the center of
horizon whose rim at every point
touched thousands of graves Of men
slain in an utterly senseless and unneces-
sary war-speaking such hate-infaming
words as these:
/ am not one of those who, clinging to
the old superstition that the will of heaven
is revealed in the immediate results of trial
by combat" fancy that right must always
he Oh the side of might, and speak OF Appe-
mattox as Judgment OF God. Idon not forget
that a Suwaroff triamphcd and koscl-
usko fell that a Mere welded the scepier
Of an empire and Paul was beheaded that
HerOd was crowned AID that Christ was
crucified, and instead OF accepting the defeat of
the South as divine verdict against her, /
regard it as but another instance of truth on
the scaffald and wrong on the thfone.n Ire
meneous applause.
APPROXIMATION was triumph of the physi-
cally stronger in a conflict between the rep
resentatiEes of two essentially different civ
ilizatiens and antagonisiic ideas of Govern
ments. On one size in that conflict WAS
the South Led By the descendants of the
Cavaliers, who, with all their faults, had in
herited from loog line of ancestors manly
contempt for moral littleness, high sense
of honor, lofty regard for plighted faith,
strong tendency to conservatism, profound
respect for law and order, aud an unfaltering
loyalty to constitutional Governments.
Al IL
of the North, dominated by the spirit of
Puritanism which, with all its virtues, has
ever been characterized by the Pharisaism
that worships itself and Is unable to per-
ceive any goodness apart from itself and
from the time Of Oliver Cromwell to the
time of Abraham Lincoln, has never hest
tated to trample upon the rights Of others
in order to effect its Own ends.
at Appomattox Puritanism, backed by
overwhelming numbers and unlimited re-
sources prevailed. But brute force cannot
settle questions OF right and wrong. Think
ing men do not judge the merits of a cause
by the measure Of its suecess; and believe
the world shall yet decide, in truths clear
laT-of light, that the South was in the
right; that the cause was just; that the
men who took up arms in her defense were
patriots who had even better reason for
what they did than had the men who fought
at Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill;
and that her coercion, whatever good may
have resulted or may hereafter result from
it, was an outrage on liberty. lApplsuse.
The speaker insisted that those who
served under the banner of the Confed-
eracy were not rebels, fighting against
lawful authority and seeking to destroy
the Union founded by our fathers of
American independence. That Union
was dear to the hearts of the Southern
people, but when it became evident that
the Union was to exist in name only !;
when Its essential principles had been
overthrow and trampled in the dust,
then did the South stand up and insist
upon her rights, acting not as passion
swept mob in mad rebellion against con-
stituted authority, but as an intelligent
and orderly people, acting in accordance
with due forms Of law and within the
limits of what they believed to be their