The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-06-07
THE INEVITABLE ROssER.

Whenever a gathering of unrecon-
structed rebels can be gotten together
in the name of the Lost Cause, Gen.
Thos. /. Rosser is sure to be among
them, and "improye the occasion +" by
utterances so inceBdiary as to be
criminal. As such other rebel scolds
as Jeff Davis, Yancey, Toombs,
Semmes, ID. FL. Hill, and .Jubal Early
pass away their measures of gall and
bitterness appear to be handed over
to Rosser, and be concentrated in him.
The Confederate Cavalry held its Re-
union in Richmond, May 81, and Rosser
was the principal speaker. Among
other things he said:
Comrades, when You marched out in 81
you were bnoyed by The hope of the future
Now You have only the memory of the past.
The great principles for which We fought
have been dishonored but they are not dead.
We are now only an ambulance corps
But we are here to-day to do honor 10 the
men who fell, for we love their memory as
we love orr God.
The men who oyer-ran us remind me of
the locusts which are now infesting portions
of the State. They could not whip us, but
they devoured our substance The army
THAT devOured us was an army Of substitutes.
We killed all the substitutes, and the men
whom they represented stayed at home and
made money, and now draw pensions.
despise the man who gives United States
money to a pensioner. This country can't
stand when it makes one citizen support
another. shall never vote for Congress
man who is in favor of Government pen
ssons.
will say to Massachusetts, you pay your
pensioners as Virginia pays hers.
Gen. Rosser was careful not to specify
what were the "great principles for
which we fought" 1t used to be stated
concretely as the privilege of a mans
walloping his own niggers. A. stephens,
the Vice President of the so-called South
ern Confederacy, said that it was the In
tention to erect new nationality, the cor
ner-stone of which was human slavery.
1t is amazing that man should have
his heart SO set on these things, as to be
utterly broken when denied them.
1t is our distinct impression that the
men who "over-ran III" gave us a
most terrific thrashing-not merely Gus"
collectively, but also Thomas L. Rosser
himself. 1t will be remembered that
Rosser then styled himself the "Savior
of the Valley" and commanded body
of men he called the Laurel Brigade"
One day a party of Union rough-riders,
under the command of Torbert, Custer,
Merritt, and others, went out and had a
little picnic with Rosser and his Laurel
Brigade" When the performance closed
it would have taken pack of hounds to
find Rosser and his command. Meeting
the Savior of the Valley" a little while
afterward, old Jubal Early piped out:
"Rosser, you ought to have the name
Of your brigade changed to the Grape
vine. The laurel isn't runner"
| The General differs remarkably from
his Northern colleagues. They say the
substitutes are all ON the pension-roll.
He says we killed them all" @The
substitutes must have been made of
excellent material to have hustled Rosser
and his men out of the Valley In such
remarkably fast time.
Gen. Rosser then went on to say that
the GAR. WAS banded together to get
pensions, and if he had been at Biz