Evening star., 1898-10-05
Annual Meeting Of Grand Camp OK
Confederate Veterans.
JUDGE CHRISfIANSDEPENSEO OF SOUTH
Proud Of the Cause and Of Its De-
Tenders.
WINNIE DAVIS SUCCESSOR
Special from a STAFF Correspondent.

camp OF Virginia. confederate states
| army, began yesterday afteingcn in this
city, Grand Commander J. J. Williams OF
winchester presiding. Delegates represent
ing seventy-five OF the ninety-o camps of
the state We're present
| ohiy matters of routine nature were
transacted up to the time of filing this dis
| patch, but 1t is practically settled that the
Grand Camp will today place itself ON
record as opposed to perpetuating the name
OF Daughter of Confederacy," "a applied
TO q successor to the late Winnie DayI.
The Grand Camp will also, II is understood,
condemn some histories of the United
States, published by northern houses, in
which the name OF Stonewan jackson is
ignored, and but few pages are devoted to
Lee and other leading confederate generals.
IN an INFORMAL manner a large number Of
the ieading members present indorsed the
ioIoWing Views of former Senator ingalls,
OF Kansas. as expressed to The star cor
respondent by the latter on the successor
snip to the Daughter of the Confederacyp
MI. ingalls, said he had no personal ac-
qnaintance with Miss Davis. but from those
VINO knew her well he heard nothing but
eulogy. He thought the position taken by
General Gordon was entirely correct as
tne oauehter OF the only president of the
confederacy, born while the war was going
on, at the confederate capital, her claim
TO the title of the Daughter of the Con-
ieueTaCy was unique, and could he shared
py no one. While others might be equally
mer1torious, none could possess the claims
that she had to occupy the position, which
rested solely upon sentiment and the devo-
tlon OF Its adherents to the tradition and
the romance of the lost cause"
Judge Chrfstian's Address.
The principal event of the first days pro-
ceedings was the address of Judge George
l. Christian of Richmond. Va. who dis
CuSSpd
any public speaker heretofore. THE Con-
federate Cause and Its Defenders"
In part, Judge Christian said:
The question Of the justice of the south
ern cause in the great conflict which con-
vulsed this country from '6i to 60 is ono
which must command the attention of con-
federate soldiers and their descendants for
all time to come. During that contest and
for many years after it's close. there was
no doubt in the minds of the southern peo-
pie on the subject. and this is the case
with nearly all our mature and thinking
people today. I am fearful. however that
some of our children may have some mis-
givings on this all-importsnt question, ow-
| ing TO the fact that they have been misled
by the false teachings of some of the his
tories which have been permitted in some
of our schools
LAS Carthage had no historian, the
Roman accounts OF the wars between those
great peoples had to be accepted. All the
blame was, as a matter of course. thrown
on Carthage and thus Punaca Fides be-
came a sneering by-word to all posterlty
And so, until recently, with the south. For
many years after the war our people were
SO poor and SO busily engaged in keeping
| the wolf from their doors that they lost
sight of everything else
II do not intend in this address to discuss
the confederate cause from the standpoint
of a southerner at ALL What l propose TO
call attention to is G) what the people of
the north said and did to establish the
Justice of both duriDp nd cin
the war and (2) what distinguished for
eigners have said about that cause and the
way the war was conducted on both Sides"
After quoting many writers TO prove that
large number of prominent persons in the
north and in Europe thought the south was
right, Judge Christian said:
Northern Comment.
But / must pass on to what a distin-
guished northern writer had to say of the
people of the south and their cause twenty
one years after the close OF the war The
writer was Mr.. Benjamin J. Williams Of
Lowell. Mass, and the occasion which
brought forth his paper was the demon-
stration to President Davis when ne went
to assist in the dedication of a confederate
monument at Montgomery, Ala. He says
of Mr.. Davis: Everywhere he receives from
the people the most overwhelming manifes-
tation of heartfelt devotion and reverence
exceeding even any of which he was the
recipient in the time of his power: such
MANIFESTATIONS as no existing ruler in tho
world can obtain from his people, and such
as probably were never given before TO a
public man, old, out of office with no
faVors TO dispense, and disfranchised Such
homage is significant: it is startling IL is
given, as Mr.. Davis himself has recognized
not to him alone, but to the cause whose
chief representative he is
MIR. Henry Cabot Lodge one of the pres-
ent senators from Massachusetts in his
life of Webster, says: When the Constitu-
ton was adopted by the votes of the states
at Philadelphia and accepted by the states
In popular convention, II is safe to saw
there was not man in the country from
Washington and Hamilton on the one side
TO George Clinton and George Mason on
the other, who regarded the new system as
anything but an experiment entered upon
by the states, from which each and every
state had the right peaceably to withdraw
"a right which was very likely TO be exer-
cised.'
Right of Secession.
Quoting Mr.. James c. Carter a native Of
New England, to the same end Judps
Christian added:
These are clear and candid admissions
on the part of these distinguished north.
erners that the southern states had tho
right to secede as they did. and were there
fore, right in regard to the real issue in.
volved in the war between the states
Il would fain hope that what have said
will be pondered by the young people OF
the south. and If there be more than one
young southerner who has said as / heard
that one did not long ago of his old con-
federate father, The old man actually
thinks he was right in the war that the
facts Will make any such not only feel and
know that the cause of the south was right
and that the people of the south almost
to a unit, espoused and loved that cause
but that they love 4. still, and that their
children ought to feel alike proud of thar
cause and those who defended IT with their
lives. their blood and their fortunes.
"Appomattox was not a judicial forum
but a battlefield. a simple test of physical
power, where the Army Of Virginia worn
out with victory and almost starving laid
down its arms to overwhelming numbers
and resources.
We need not fear to submit our cause or
the way II was conducted by us 10 the muse
of history and to await her verdict with
calm confidence