The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1900-09-06
GENERAL GORDON
ON THE CIVIL WAR
And Its Constitutional Causes
and Effects.
ISLANDERS AND OUR FLAG
People of the Conquered Territories
Will Thank God for the Protection
of America-Iribute to the
Heroes and Heroines
ISLANDERS AND OUR FLAG

General John b. Gordon delivered a lee
ture on 1.-THE First Days of the Southern
Confederacy' at the Auditorium last night.
When General Gordon was introduced to
the audience he was greeted with enthu-
siastic cheers, and throughout the three
hours he was speaking the three hundred
OF four hundred persons present literally
applauded his remarks.
Seated on the stage when the curtain
went up at $3.50 o'clock were ten or twelve
Confederate Veterans and two or three
younger men. Amongst the veterans were
General Charles NJ Shelley, Colonel ]. F.
b. Jackson, Professor Samuel L. Robert
son, j. Lawler Darby, A. C. oxford. D. R.
Dunlap and Captain James E. Webb.
Captain Webb introduced General Cor
don with brief speech.
In beginning his lecture General Gordon
said there was not a day during the four
years of war between the North and the
South that he would not have gladly died
Tor the Confederate flag; but now he is an
American citizen, and would as gladly die
for the American flag. He said every son
and grandson of his capable of bearing
arms volunteered for service in the Span
ish-American war.
Touching on the results of the Spanish
American war, he predicted that the day
was not far distant when every Porto Ri
can, Cuban and Filipino would thank God
for the protection of the American flag.
Gordon Albanian
He said that while slavery was one of the
causes leading up to the civil war, it was
not the real cause; and not Union soldier
If questioned, but would say that he fought
for the salvation of his country and not
the destruction of slavery. OF the soldiers
of the South, so per cent. of them, he said
were not shareholders, and never hoped
to be.
The real cause of the war, said General
Gordon, were the different constructions
put upon the Constitution in the two Sec
tons; the South contended that the Union
was the creature of the States and that
creature could not dominate the creator;
that the Constitution declared the States
sovereign, Independent and free, and that
the South challenged and still challenges
not only the North, but all the world, to
find authority in the Constitution for in
vading a sovereign State.
The North contended that the Union
was intended to be perpetual, and that the
the Union; they claimed that sovereignty
was unit, the authority must reside in
one head and that American liberty would
vanish with the disruption of the Union.
These conflicting and irreconcliable con-
tentions were urged and argued on both
sides by agitators until the war of words
ended In war of bullets. For a quarter
of a century before the war of bullets the
war of words had dashed the country into
one great foaming, seething sea of strife.
General Gordon volunteered for the Con-
federacy from Jackson County, Alabama,
and went out as captain of the "Raccoon
Roughs," who fought through the Virginia
campaigns under General Lee. He told of
the battle of Seven Pines, where every
officer in his command but himself and
every horse and two-thirds of the entire
command were either killed or wounded.
He said there was no crime against lib
erty, but that every man on both sides
was fighting for liberty. He closed with
a beautiful tribute to the great generals
on both sides and to the heroic men who
fought conscientiously and bravely for
their country and their homes; and no less
a tribute did he pay to the women of the
South and the North, who were the in
spiration of the men,
At the conclusion of his lecture General
Gordon was given another ovation, and
before he could sit down scores of men
went up to shake his hand.
Yesterday afternoon General Gordon was
taken out for a drive around the city by
General Charles NJ. Shelley, General Fred
S. Ferguson and Major Willis j. Miner.