The Atlanta constitution., 1900-05-07
Bill Hrp'S Letter
(wri..An for Tia Weekly Constitutior)

and SlanderS StlIl live. lie was aS i"SS4i
a fanatic as old John Brown and no doubt
Old John imbibed from him his first .es-
sons IN hatred of the south and slavery;
Whlttier's poems are before me ana
thirty-seven of them are waillngs Tor
the slave and malignant stings against
the southern statesmen, ncuding Oa'-
houn, and the southern people He was
an intense secessionist and when leNas
was admitted he prayed in verse for a
,yawning gulf to open and separate tne
north from the south. When Daniel Wen
ster made his last and greatest speech
at Capon Springs, in which he detended
the south and declared that we had the
right to withdraw from the union Wheh
we believed the federal compact hal
been broken. Whittier flew to his inkslahd
and wrote this of him:
$50 fallen, So lost! The light withdrawn
Which once he wore;
The gory from his gray hairs gone
For evermOre.
Let not the land once proud of him
Insult him now. ~,
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim,
Dishonored brow. -
All else is gone; from those great eyes
The soul Is fled
" lien faith is lost ana ncnor dies
The man is dead.
Then pay the reverence or olu days
To his dead fame;
Walk backward. with averted gaze
And hide his shame.
That is part of the tribute he paid TO
the immortal Webster. the grandest fig
ure in New England history.
But l was not troubling myself about
the gifted o,d fanatic. | was Illuminating
about Chauncey Depew. who is not dead
and who every little while bobs up serene
ly to get little more fame as a humor-
ist. Ii seems that when General Early
passed through Frederick City. in Mary
land. he paused ,ong enough to exact
from the good people the sum of $2O,UOO
for army PURPOSES for as Whittier wrote
of them, they were "a famished horde,
and now that city has applied TO congress
for a refunding of that money and one
reason they give Is that an old woman
In her ninety-sixth year waved the union
flag at the rebels and Stouewall Jackson
ordered his men to fire at her and they
fired and broke the window glass and
ridd.ed the flag and knocked 1t out of
her hand and she picked it up and waved
it again. That's the poetic yarn that
Whittier told about Barbara Freitchie and
a committee from Frederick Clty has
been before congress and said ii was
50. Chauncey Depew heard Ii all and
said X was worth $4,000 to have the
truth of the story established and he nod
ded his head approvingly and said that
old barbara was one Of the idols of his
childhood, and when he played around
his mothers knees his heart throb5ed
with sympathy for the gray-haired old
woman whose patriotism defied the enc
mics of his country The old Rip Van
Winkle / reckon that Is one of his
latest jokes, for he was born in 1884, and
was twenty-eight years old when our
army was In Frederick City. and he WAS
then playing around his mothers knees
In the New York Legislature.
DR.. j. William Jones, OF Richmond. the
highest authority on confederate history.
has published in the March number of
The Confederate Veteran another expos
ure of this wanton malignant myth about
Barbara Freitchie. and does so only be-
cause the poem has gotten into some
southern schOolbooKS and he wishes to
brand with falsehood this vile SANDER on
StOnewall Jackson. The whole miserable
thing was investigated not at Washing
ton. but on the spot at Frederick City.
and it was established years ago that no
confederate troops passed i'll sight of the
Old womans house; that no flag was
waved; that Stoncwall jackson was not
then with his troops, ands that old Bar
bara was bcd-ridden ad paralyzed and
could not have waved "A mag II she had
had one. The DANES nephew, NaleriuS
Ebert. has published hts certificate that
the flag story is all myth without the
slightest foundation, and that his Old
aunt was at that time bed-ridden and had
lost the power of locomotion. Ebert was
there at the time, and was the admin
istrator on ner estate when she died and
never heard Of any flag. and yet one of
the rascals who is after that money testi-
tied that lie had the flag at home at his
house. The very last curse i'll the Bible
Is against him who maketh OF loveth
lie, and It makes no difference whether
he is a poet, priest or senator. he will find
himself in awful bad company in the
world to come Years ago this myth was
exploded in The New York sun while
Dana was living, but now that he is dead
il has come to light again i'll its columns.
That papers motto used to be II You see
II I'm The Sun it's So" but now If you see
II In The sun it's not SO, would fit II bet
ter. | wish that every confederate sol
dier and their children and grandchiI-
dren would subscribe for The Veteran
and Keep up with the best memories of
he ost Cause-a cause for which We are
stin proud, for ii gets brighter and purer
as the years roll on. Some months ago
DR. Andrews, the great educator, de-
clared and published that every principle
the south fought for had since been be-
fore the supreme court of the nation and
decided in It's favor-and recently not
able New England minister has declared
that negro ge was a miserable blum
der. and that the fifteenth and sixteenth
amendments 10 the constitution should be
repealed.
Well, time is good doctor, and the
south is on the upgrade. The republic
an party may he reelected. but the south
cannot be wOrsted. The day Will come
when pensions and back pay Will be given
our old soldiers and our confederate wld-
ows, and our northern slanderers Will
take off their hats and apologize. We
are trying hard at my house to be re-
concied-to forget and forgive and be
calm and serene when holding social In
tercourse with those who fit on the other
side and we get along pretty we'll as long
as they meet us on halfway ground, but
as for these vile slandcrers who keep on
lying and rubbing 1t in, We are very much
like my lamented friend, George Adair.
said about preacher in whom he had no
confidence: "Well, he may get to heaven.
for the grace of God Is very great, but If
I get there I'll not hunt him up to say
howdy-I don't want to live on the same
x.-fth Tft,,' IL. y