The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-07-21
CONFEDERATE VETERANS.
Patriotic Address from Gen.
Gordon.

trains brought thousands or people lnto
Atlanta to attend the opening exercises OF
the reunion of the Confederate veterans.
The interest of the day conferred In the
convention at Piedmont Park. Among
those on the stand were Gen. Charles E.
Hooker of Mississippi, the orator of the
day; GOV. Atkinson of Georgia; Gen.
Dickerson, commander of the Florida
division, and Gen. Stephen d. Lee,
looked upon by some as candidate for
command erin chief.
Before the gathering was called to or
der, three cheers were given for the "gal-
liant son of Alabama" Lieut.. Hobson,
followed moment later by three more
cheers for Gen. Joe Wheeler.
Gen. John B. Gordon, the commander
in-chief, was given tremendous ovation,
Cheer after cheer swept through the hall
and the audience could not be stilled for
five minutes. Gen. Clement A. Evans,
the commander of the Georgia Division,
called the convention to order at half
past eleven, and prayer was offered by
Rev. ]. William Jones of Virginia, the
chaplain-general of the q. S. Confed.
crate veterans.
After the address Of welcome, Gen. Cor
don responded in part as follows:
Now, my fellow countrymen, may 1
ask If you contemplated and compre-
hended the fun significance of this
splendid reception; and of others like it
which have been accorded by Louisiana,
by Alabama, by Mississippi, by Texas, by
Virginia, by Tennessee. by all the peoples
wherever it has been our fortune to con-
vene. How strange, how marvellously
strange must these annual outpourings
appear to all peoples outside Of the
South's border.
"On another occasion. felt impelIed
to advert to the peculiar significance OF
these Confederate reunions, but the
mind can never tire of their ANALYSIS
philosophy patriotism, virtue and religion
may all feed and feast upon such time
without exhausting 1t; and the spirit of
| liberty, the reverence for law and for
| regulated government rejoices and grows
strong in the sentiment and high pur-
pose which these gatherings evoke No
disbanded and defeated soldiery has ever
been for SO long period the special OBJ
jects of SO unique and universal appro-
baton and affection by people for
| whose cause that soldiery commended un-
successfully. In every other age, in every
| other land, public honors, costly demon
STATIONS, and universal acclaim have
been the heritage of successful armies,
Imperial Rome, intoxicated with the
glory of conquest, erected lofty arches to
her mighty warriors only when they bore
her proud eagles above the ranks of con-
quering legions France was united and
exultant under the great Corsican, SO
long as he was victorious; but he too,
was defeated, and at his fall the legisla-
tive assembly of his people abandoned
and demanded the abdication of this
hitherto idolized leader. Nor do our own
brave countrymen, the brave veterans of
the Union army, furnish any parallel to
the conditions which surround us. When
they returned from the horrors of war. it
was to homes of increased comfort. to
augmented wealth and with arms in their
hands and victory on their banners.
They returned to an established and
grateful government. The return of the
disarmed and disbanded Confederates.
however, WAS to people made poor; to q
land made desolate, covered with black
ened ruins, where every home was In
mourning, and yet, after third of
century has passed, after the remnant of
| those armips
the government for which they fought
lives only as memory, these grim
Southern warriors gather in annual re-
unions, are the recipients of boundless
hospitality dispensed by this recently
impoverished but grateful people.
81 press the question-what is the
meaning Of these Confederate pageants?
Are they due to any covert or sinister
aims. Or, in the remotest degree to self
seeking2 Do these reunions and popular
demonstrations, which attend them, draw
their inspiration from any suggestion Of
disloyalty to either of the tremendous
results OF the Wharf.-The freedom of the
slave and the eternal unity of the repub-
lie? The protection of the negro by
Southern courts, his reliance for security
upon Southern sentiment and his educa-
ton through white taxation in southern
schools, furnish the South's answer to
the first. To the secxnd, loyalty to
perpetual union of the states and to the
honor and glory of the republic-the
South has been continually answering
since the close of the Civil war. and she
is answering today by the presence and
prowess Of her heroic sons at the front
in the war in Spain. Her Lee her
Wheeler, her Bagley, her Blue, her Hob
son and her thousands of volunteers who
sprang to arms at their country's call
are answering from their camps, from the
Philippines and from the jungle of
Cuba. You my Confederate comrades
would be there if the country needed you.
Many of you assembled here would have
been there but for impaired health and |
failing strength. But our sons and grand |
sons are there. With our prayers and
blessings they are enlisted in this war
hiuh hn1xy