Birmingham state herald., 1897-04-27

Broadway Rouss has met with hearty response from all parts of the south, and the necessary amount has been raised to insure the donation of one hundred thou sand dollars by MT. Rouss. And now comes the greatest question of all, "Where shall the Battle Abbey be To- cated?" A question; in one sense 1t is not question. Nine-tenths of the senti not question. Nine-tenths of the sen timent of the south is united upon one place. If the question were put to them today they would answer it with one voice that would ring out through hill- side and valley, and that answer would be, Virginia, Virginia Richmond, Vir- ginia." There is an eternal fitness in things There is a pre-emtnent fitness in locating 1t at Richmond. The selec- tion of any other place would be an un- Iardonabl error. Locate it in the state which holds within it's bosom the sacred ashes of Jefferson Davis, StoneWaH Jack son and Robert E. Lee. Locate 1t In the city around which were fought the greatest battles since the time of Mara thon, Salamis and Thermopylae. Locate it in the city that was surrounded Dy and scorched in the very furnace nres of the civil war. Locate 1t in the clty where more battles were mapped out and more conferences held by confeder- ate generals, and more important ques- tions solved relating to the civil war than in all other cities and all the states
 
 of the confederacy lived during that fearful convulsion of laundering war, in which the whole Union quaked from center to circumference. Locate It where all of him that is mortal is resting. l1o- cate it ip the city that was the capital of the confederacy, where her senators and her congressrssn sat. Locate lt where that valiant soldier and patriotic citizen, Charles Broadway Rouss, said he wanted it located, "in Richmond, Nlr- ginia."
 We do not mean to cast any reflection upon the state of Tennessee. We lecog- nize tllat TO state had more chiValrouS soldiers or more Dcya1 women man She in that terrible contest which lasted TOT four long years, and until 1t had rooped the cradle and the grave to redll the dacimeltsta ranks of the confederate army. Bu, now is the time for Tennessee to show hea patriotism, and let the Battle Abbey go where it belongs 1 think to locate it in any ether place than Rich- mond would be such distortion of righ., such a violent disregard of propTiety, as to net only be an unpardonable error, but an unpardonable sin. 1 feel that Tn wh at I have said I echo the sentiment or every confederate soldier in Alabama ard all lhe loyal w5men who love the southern cause. I feel that I do not speak as prophet of evil when 1 say that If the committee should be misguided and fa.l to locate the Bat 1e Abbey al- Rich mend Wlie.,e the soflthsrn people and Charles Broadway Rouss want it located, they will bring down upon their heads v.ltuperaltion and anathemas from all cWer Ina southland that will burn like red-hot showers of melted iron, and it will take centuries to covsr up their shame ard hide their sense of wrong Such a mis- take. such an error, should not be per mitted at this day and time. AS one who has worked and labored for he con- federsse cause f2r more than quarter of a century, as one who expects in future to spare neither time nor labor, nor in- defatiga ble [ efforts to keep green the memory ard embalm the names of these gallan: men who surrendered life for country, I appeal to the press of Ala bama to discuss this all-important ques ton. I appeal to the press all through the southland to open up their batteries and continue the fight till the souths Battle Abbey shall be located at the capi- ta1 of the confederate states, in the his- toric city of Richmond, Va.
 MRS. w. F. SPURLIN, Vice-President Alabama Charter Chap ter, U. D. c.