The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-05-06
SOME UNWRITTEN HISTORY.
An Interesting Address by Judge John n,
Regan.
Houston Post.

Houston Post.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, April 90
| The entertainment given at the Grand
Opera house tonight under the auspi-
ces of Albert Sydney johnson camp
Of C%onfederates for the benefit of the
Southern Abbey and Jefferson Davis
monument funds attracted a large and
representative audience. The feature
| of the entertainment was the address
by Hon. John Fl. Reagen, the sole
surviving member Of the Confederate
cabinet.
A program Of choice local musical
and literary talent followed.
Judge Reagan was greeted with
| warm demonstrations and spoke. as
follows:
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen
| The historic memories of a people,
| the wisdom of their statesmen, the
skill of their generals, the courage of
their soldiers, the learning of their
philosophers, the sublimity Of their
poets, the purity Of their divines, the
virtue Of their women, constitute the
greatest incentives on the part Of their
successors, to emulate their examples,
in order to form great characters to
inaugurate and carry out great enter
prises, to make the greatest progress
and to accomplish the greatest good
| for the benefit of mankind.
Who can read the history Of the
early settlement Of the American col
| onies, of their patient endurance, of
| the ~privations to which they were
exposed, Of the courage with which
they encountered and overcame the.
hostile Indians, of the sacrifices Of
comfort they made in coming to a new,
wild country where they might enjoy
political liberty and religious freedom
and federation, without feeling a n
of proud satisfaction because'of being
their descendants? Who can read of
the courage Of our Revolutionary an
cestors, ard Of their fortitude and
suffering during a eve years war,
and of the wisdom Of the statesmen to
whom we are indebted for our model
system Of Democratic government,
which secures political liberty and
religious freedom to all the people,
without experiencing emotions of graft
tude and veneration for the wisdom
and courage which gave to us the I'M
equaled blessings we enjoy?
+ And coming down to a later period
and nearer home, who can contemplate
the heroic courage, the love of liberty,
and the great sacrifices made by the
pioneers of Texas, the deathless our
age of the defenders of the Alamo,
and the intrepid valor Of the heroes Of
San Jacinto without his bosom swell
ing with pride on account of his being
q citizen of Texas?
And still later, who that remembers
the unequaled valor, the self-sacrifc-
ing devotion Of our men and women
during the brief and stormy life Of the
late Confederate States government;
who can remember the sublime gran
deur, the self-sacrifcing devotion to
the enterests of the people of the Con-
federacy of their great leader and
president, Jefferson Davis; who can
remember the splendid military genius
of General Robert E. Lee, General
Stonewall Jackson, General Albert
Sydney Johnston, and their brother
officers; and who can remember the
conduct of the noble women of the
Confederacy in their struggle to pro-
vide for and take care Of their families
at home and to furnish clothes and
supplies for the fathers, the husbands
and sons in the field, without feeling
proud that he was a Confederate. or
that he is the descendant of a Confed-
crate?
I do not allude to these things to
stir anew the passions, or to revive
again the hopes which then animated
our people. That great contest with
it's trials and it's sacrifices, it's achieve
ments, it's glories and its sufferings,
has passed away and our fortunes are
indissolubly linked with the fortunes
of those who were then our enemies.
We are all now American citizens,
have the same government and are
protected by the same Constitution,
being of the same great race, with the
same hopeTame aspirations and
the same destiny awaiting us. But
we are not the less proud of the
achievements of our statesmen, the
skill of our officers, the courage of our
soldiers and the self-sacriicing devo-
ton to that cause of the mothers, the
wives and the daughters of the Con-
federacy.
JEFF DAVIS CHARACTER.
I understand that it is the purpose
of your camp to raise funds to assist
in the building of a battle ABBEY, at
some place in the Southern States, in
which the evidences Of the grand
memories Of the Confederate struggle
may be perpetuated; and to contribute
tnthe fund for the erection of a monu-
ment to the memoryo of Jefferson Davis,
the president of the C~onfederacy.
Our interests and the pride we feel in
the memories of a war, in which hun
dreds of thousands of men were en-
gagged, which convulsed a continent
and attracted the anxious gaze Of the
civilized world, and produced some Of
the greatest military leaders and the
bravest soldiers. and exhibited to the
world the greatest endurance and most
self sacrificing disposition, and which
showed the women of the Co~nfederacy
to be as patriotic and self-sacriicing
as the men in the field, makes it
peculiarly appropriate that we should
adopt such measures as will perpetuate
a knowledge of these great virtues as
an incentive and an emulation to like
patriotism, courage and virtues in the
coming generations.
No man known to history more rich
ly deserves a monument to his memory
than the president of the late Confed-
eracy. The wisdom and courage with
which he conducted the affairs of the
Confederacy; the extraordinary forti-
tude and constancy with which he en-
dured a long and cruel Imprisonment
after the fall of the Confederaey; the
ability and fidelity which he displayed