The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-01-26
THE OLD GUARD
RECEIVED
WITH EVERY HONOR
Continued from Fifth Page.)


the Blue Ridge, and wrought the battle
fires of four long years into diadcm Of
glory for the brow of Robert e. Lee.
All honor to the President of the
United States, himself a soldier in that
struggle, who has the boldness to say
that the time has come when the graves
of the thousands who wore the gray.
vast numbers of whom sleep in Northern
soil, at Elmira and Johnson's Island,
Fort Delaware and Point Lookout, no
less than at Sharpsburg and Gettys-
burg, should be as reverently cared for
by the general Government as those
who wore the blue. That, he says,
should be done in commemoration of
American valor exhibited on the fields
of immortal renown, where great queS-
lions were brought by grim destiny to
the cannoon's mouth. My God, how
vast the revolution in thought. Once
these holy relics Of the dead were cast
ont from Arlington, and brought i'll
tears to yonder hill for rest among their
kindred. Now the Chief Magistrate
proposes that the springing grass and
returning flowers shall adorn the sleep
ing ground of the brave, and the morn
ing and evening gun in the ages to
come speak the voice of honor TO those
who died at the post of duty.
The men who obeyed the mandate of
their State went under the clearest con-
victions of duty. No mercenary aluDi-
tions inspired them-the vast majority
in North Carolina had never owned a
slave. When their scanty pay was hrst
distributed many were surprised, FOR
they had not thought of pay. They
went cheerfully because North Caro-
lima needed them, and in turn. her rep
resentatives pledged the faith and hon
or of the State, to take care of the
disabled and the widows of those who
were deprived of support.
The soldier boys who marched so gal
lantly away, and never failed to laugh
or cheer, until the combined power of
numbers, money and steam crowded them
out of Petersburg, have worked
on uncomplainingly year by year. They
have never sought, and do not today
wish TO touch a dollar of national pen
sions, despite the ill-advised suggestion
to the contrary, although they have paid
their part of the fund for the more
fortunate men in the Union army. They
have been nobly Independent, grandly
self-reliant. Who has not seen the
one-armed and one-legged veteran at
his daily toll?
He felt that the people had many calls
upon the State revenues; he knew that
the pension fund was shrinking in its
share TO each. as the number who re-
quired it's help increased with age and
oncoming infrmity, reopening wounds
and means dwindling away from in
ability to labor as in former years.
But his necessity has reached a eli
max. Three times ten and seven years
.n~hare passed since 1861. Even the boy
of 20 is now nearly go years of age,
and the older men are closing ranks
rapidly as they reach the sleeper descent
of the hill of life. They look to one
another to touch elbows, and behold
today one old comrade is gone, and
tomorrow it will be another. There are
no recruits; there is no CONSUMPTION tC
swell their ranks; not all the wealth OF
the Indies can buy the honor of having
worn the gray, ragged and torn, pow
der-blackened and blood-stained as il
was.
Think of the roll of the Generals in
either army as it was, and as it is, and
you will see how we are marching in
each others footsteps, into the silent
land, for the final roll call of the JuGg-
ment.
Lee Camp reported to the General
Assembly of Virginia that they esti'
mated 1902 TO be the year of heed tc
provide for the largest number of vet
Grams, after which it must steadily di
minish. If this be correct, North Caro-
lima has only three or four years in
which to provide for the maximum
number of her disabled citizen soldiers
before it must rapidly reduce.
If the pledges of 1861 are to be re
deemed, there should be not days
longer delay.
Let us glance very briefly at the eff
forts of our sister States of the South
In September last, the Secretary of the
Confederate Veterans Association o
arolina correspondent with thu
financial State officers, and reported a
the annual meeting in October:
Several of the States have never or
ganized Home, preferring to give thu
whole amount in pensions to those il
need. In others the appropriation from
the State is supplemented by monies re
Z ceived from voluntary organizations, al
in Maryland; and again, by appropria
tions from the several counties .as il
louisiana where the parishes add t
the nDeral amount given ny Lue IoldCe
In Kentucky the whole subject is lef
to private beneficence, the State havin!
been greatly divided during the war.
Georgia has been appropriating $500,
900 annually for a number of years TO
pensions. The State has not assume,
the care of the Home, but it is STATED
that voluntary organizations are to fl
IN the building donated for that pur
pose, but never used.
Alabama is without a home. but sh,
taxes her citizens five cents on the hun
dred dollars taxable property in thu
State, based upon the assessed value TO
State tax. Mississippi is discussing tn
creation of Home, and gives S15,O0
annually to about 1000 pensioners.
Arkansas gives $4,000 to LIS pen
sioners, being about $50 to each. AM
100000 to the support of her Home
which has seventy-fve inmates.
Maryland, which has only small
number of needy Confederate veterans
gives $500 to the Maryland Line Con
federate Veterans Home at Pikesville
and $4,000 per annum to the Home TO
Confederate Mothers and Children.
South Carolina has never organized
Home. but has increased her pensions 7