The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-22
. DIsTURBIyG INCIDENT.

! The only thing that in the least disturb
I ed the very pleasant reunion at Atlanta.
/ Of the veterans of the Northern and
| Southern armies which took part in the
! battles around that city during the Civil
War was that part OF the speech OF Gen.
! Shaw, commander of the Grand Army Of
the Republic, in which he said that the
keeping alive of sectional teachings as to
the justice and right of the cause OF the
South in the hearts Of the children of the
South" was all out of order. "unwise and
unjust and utterly opposed to the bond by
which the great Chieftain Lee solemnly
bound the South in his final surrender"
Naturally, Gen. Gordon would not
listen quietly to such a senti-
ment He and all other Confederate Veter-
ans believe that the cause for
which they fought was just and right, and
entertaining that belief why should they
not teach their children that the cause of
the South was right? Gen. Shaw, since he
has been at the head of the Grand Army
of the Republic, has shown himself to be,
in most respects, generous and consider
ate, but rather narrow in his views re-
spectng matters pertaining 10 the Civil
War. He is thoroughly convinced that the
North was right in that war; but
that conviction does not entirely satisfy
him. He wants the Southern people TO be-
lieve that the North was right. He is
not willing for them to have the satisfac
ton Of thinking that the cause for which
they contended was right.
And there are great many Northern
people who are disturbed in pretty much
the same manner that Gen. Shaw is. They
will never be happy as long as the South
persists in maintaining that her cause in
the Civil War was a righteous one. They
are In perpetual state of unrest in regard
to it. They are the ones that keep alive
whatever sectional feeling there is.
The Southern people are not teaching
their children their view of the issue be-
tween the North and South for the pur-
pose of keeping alive sectional animosites
OF with the expectation that the questions
which were settled by the war will ever
become live questions again. They simply
wish their children to understand that
they fought for what they believed 10 be
right And why should they not teach
their children this? The Northern people
teach their children that what the North
contended for was right. Why should
not the Southern people exercise the same
right? What would Gen. Shaw and the
Grand Army of the Republic think If Gen.
Gordon, in an address at the North,
should say that he greatly deplored the
fact that the Northern people were teach
ing their children that the things for
which the North contended in the Civil
War were right?
The greater part OF the war literature
comes from Northern sources 1t has
come from those sources ever since the
close of the Civil War If the Southern
people should cease teaching their chill
dren that the cause of the South was a
just one. while the Northern people con-
tinued to teach that the North was in the
right, how long would it be before the
Northern view OF the war would prevail
throughout the South? The youth of the
South would get the idea that their ia
theirs fought in a bad cause, and they
| would fail to understand why they made
such sacrifices for that cause.
The Southern people are not contentious
as to which side was right. They are
willing that the Northern people shall
have their views on that question But
they want their children 10 know that
they believed that the views they enter
tained respecting the constitution were
right Gen. Gordon took a much broader
view of the subject than Gen. Shaw when.
in response to the latter. he said: Let us
settle it on a basis of that Immaculate
truth that both sides were fighting for the
constitution of their forefathers.''