The morning news., 1899-04-27
MR. BEoKw1rHs ADDRESS.
Justice to the Cause of the south in
school History His Topic.


Guards hall last night to hear the annual
Memorial address delivered by MIR. J. F.
B. Beckwith. Those who had expected
an eloquent address were not disappointed
Mr.. Beekwith was at his best. and his ad-
dress was chaste, eloquent and thoughtful,
''The Future Justice of History" Mr..
Beckwith's address might be entitled. The
theme upon which he chiefly dwelt was
the treatment of the struggle between the
states by historians the injustice which
has generally been done to the Southern
cause and the necessity for taking steps
TO properly present the principles for
which the people of the South contended
ana the manner in which they fought
Mr.. Beckwith opened his address with
tribute to woman.
There is nothing on earth so bitter as
war. There is nothing on earth so sweet
as woman" he said. "As an administer
ing angel upon the estate of mans help
iessness and moral sickness, can you
blame him for yearning for touch of
the vanished hand and the sound of the
voice that is still? Next to Divinity comes
Womanhood. There can be no more en-
nobling thought for the publication of
the mind than the reflection, mother.
Wife and sweetheart This trinity Is the
moral chain that anchors man to all that
IS humanly pure, and is the voice of
the triune God, pleading for mans re-
demption. If there is one moral feeling
free from the impurities of earthly frailty.
that tells us in its slightest breathings OF
ts celestial origin, 1t is that of woman's
loVe-the first. the fondest and most last
ing cord. with which affection can hind
the heart of man. If there Is ANYTHING of
mortality that survives the grave. SURELY
thls best and noblest passion will never
perish"
MT Beckwith made a rapid resume of
me events of The past thirty Years and
present conditions. He said:
The fratricdal strife; the bitterness Of
the hereest struggle of martial ambition:
tne memories of the loved ones fallen
whose burial has consecrated the fields,
the valleys and the mountains of our he
loved Southland-the sorrows of the wild
owed and the orphaned, the poverty.
the physical and mental agonies of the
survivors; the struggle for rehabilitat tion;
the dark days of reconstruction: the moral
blossoms of industry and hope; The for
giving spirit of the yanquished! The songs
of our sweet singers chanting the inspir-
Ing words, In Our Fathers House are
many mansions;" the gradually extending
arms of the brothers of the North: the
united country; the dying voice of the
politician, and the assertiveness of the old
soldler IN blue; the call to arms against
our country's foe; the uagnlticente out
burst of patriotism ofaour Southern man
hood; the enlistment y the victory, on sea
and land, tell of the death of secession: the
quickening of the new-republic; the palsied
hand of possible rebellion; the grandeur
of the greatest people of the earth; great
oct In ta-f tn Il
of individual character and self-respectlng
manhood; greatest in brotherly love, prac-
tically expressed greatest in the self-ln-
spring thought that to be an American is
greater than to be king-and above us all
floats the Stars and Stripes now and for
ever.
Amid this general rejoicing over our
perpetuated reunion comes the whispering
and we'll modulated voice of JUS
tice, HAS the history of the causes
that lead to the war OF secession between
the states been written in reason, in puri-
ty, in unselfshness? Has my voice the
voice of righteous justice been heard in
the Weighing of every thought, Of every
line? Has the story been told so that
when the American boy of the twenty-hst
century shall open the book of his coun-
trys history and shall glance back to the
ninteenth century and shall then see that
his beloved country, from 81 to '65 was
| racked in the death throes of the grea test
fratricidal strife of the ages will he there
and then be able to read the truth of that
| fearful seismic wave that threatened 10
| divide the republic at Mason s
| and Dixon's line? The voice
| of reason; the voice of fair play;
comes rp from every intelligent and self
respecting bosom OF the South and, in dig
nihed response, says, "If the story as now
| told and taught universally is TO be the
story for the American boys of the twenty
first century to read, then the descendants
of the Joins of the South must consign
their forefathers to infamy.
1.-THE past belongs to history-belongs to
| the South's boys heart-a priceless herlt-
age. Something must be done to keep it
| so.
"If all the ashes Of our lamented dead
| could be gathered in one vast monumental
urn; IL all the heroic deeds of our brave
| soldiers surviving and departed, could be
writ in verse and story; If all
! the loving sacrifices of our sweet,
pure and noble women could be conse-
| Grated with holy chrsm of southern mel
ody; yet these expressions of alteration and
of love woald pass away, unless the an
telfigence of the South, male and female,
| shall unite in a determined effort 10 bat
tie with pen and sentiment against the
| 1alSe writings tHdt dIe pOisOIluB the ulAn0s
| of our children and will poison their pro-
geny in perpetuity. Since the war be-
tween the states the great Percentage of
school histories of this country treat
our position in 81 and 65 as. a re-
bellous one, and never gives us credit
for honestly holding the principles for
which we fought and how well we did
| fight there is little said. am not men
| tioning these things to revive feeling, but
simply to suggest that the time has come
when the men and the women Of the South
must meet these issues In the forum OF
the press and by add of the teacher and
through the deepest channel to general
education, the public schools.
History, poetry, romance, art, public
| opinion, have been most unjust to the
South. BY perverse reiteratlon. it's annals,
| it's acts, its inner feelings, its purposes,
have been grossly -misrepresented II is
too late 70 repair the wrong. But the
South can be restored to its true place in
the story Of the formation and the history
| Of our government, and you, influential
men and women of the South must restore
her. Has the South made any special
|