The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-10-22

down to the last ragged Confederate SOL
der, as their own life. They reasonably
hoped that they could transmit to their
sons and daughters the same admiration
the same proud knowledge of the I'M
furnished glories of the Confederate
armies that its survivors would take to
their graves with them. The only
thing they had left was honor, and, alas
a native born southerner is the first man
to make a charge against any one of the
heroes of this war. Governor Culberson
of Texas, for partisan purposes, has for
gotten the lesson taught the rising youth
of the south, and, with vandal hand, he
attempts to tear the laurels from the
brow of one of the noblest, bravest and
most self-sacrifcing generals of the
southern Confederacy-Gen. Simon Boil
var Buckner. The Confederacy is not
now "a cause" it is q memory-a senti-
ment, one of the dearest and hottest that
possesses the hearts of its survivors. 1t
may be an idol, but no man can, with
vandal hand, tear down one of these
idols or deface it's stalwart manliness
without mourning the condemnation of
every man that loved the Confederacy.
They desired so much to leave the
memory of the gallantry of the armies
of the Confederacy untarnished to those
who come after them, so that if patri-
otto occasion demanded the services Of
this generation of southern youth they
might be animated by the recollection
that their fathers went unhinching
through the ordeal of fire; but that
can not be. A young and accomplished
orator has begun to make war upon the
fame of the Confederates, and as he
has chosen one of the most gallant of its
heroes. the recklessness of the attempt
gives evidence of deep-seated antipathy
to the survivors of the Confederate
armies. This young man has broken
down the sacred barriers by which they
were surrounded in the hearts of their
countrymen and their countrywomen.
He has impaired that reverence with
which the young regard these venerable
men and who knows how far his per-
suasive eloquence will be used, if it con-
tributes to his political interests. to
render these old men a by-word and a
reproach in the estimation of their own
descendants. If this serious blow had
come from an ancient enemy it would
have been attributed to sectional bitter
ness and gone unchallenged, but it is
much more dangerous as coming from
one to the manor born and an ostensible
friend.
1t carries with it more force to kindle
a lively prejudice against everything
these old patriots regard as sacred,
they had delighted to honor on account
of the fellow feeling of comradeship
with his father For the first time after
the lapse of thirty years the Confeder-
rate armies and their gallant generals
and brave privates need a champion to
enter the list against one of the sons of
the south, Governor Culberson of Texas,
who has opened up a war upon their
claims as the bravest, the best, the
noblest armies that ever answered the
beat of the long roll or the blast of the
bugle summoning them to battle.
We have said they need champion.
We take it back. Their dead needed no
monuments to perpetuate their memo
ries; their living and their dead need no
champion to do battle in behalf of the
glories of their achievements. Their
deeds are their champions. The sacred
spots of their fallen brave attest their
imperishable renown. They are en-
shrined in the memories of all their
countrymen, from the st. Croix river to
the Rio Grande, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific coast, as examples of American
manhood, indomitable endurance. in
exorable intrepidity and untarnishable
honor.