The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-24
VETERANS IN SESSION.
FROM FIVE TO SEVEN THOUSAND
MEET AT MACON.

DUPONT Query Delivers the Adj
dress of WeIcome-His words OF
warmth aud EIoquence.
Macon. Oct. 23.-The 5000 to 1000
Confederate Veterans. who gathered in
Macon last night and this morning 10
attend the state reunion, assembled at
the Auditorium at 10 O'Clock, and heard
the able addresses of Mayor Bridges
Smith, general commanding; c. A.
Evans, Hon. Minter Wimberly and
Hon. Dupont Query. They also heard
some of the best singing they had
heard in many a day, feature OF
which was "Tenting Tonight by the
Appleton Home orphans.
This afternoon the divisions met at
the three military armories, and off,
GERS were reelected for another year.
At 9 o'clock tonight they again gath
cred at the division headquarters and
sang the old war songs that gave them
comfort during the trying times Of the
sixties.
Tomorrow morning they will all as
semble again at the Auditorium and
have a business meeting Of the State
Association. After this they will fall
in line for the parade. They Will be
joined by the Sons of Veterans. The
sponsors and maids of honor of the
various camps will ride in gaily deco
rated carriages, and will be accom-
panied by military outriders. Recep-
tons etc. will be rendered on all
hands Three meals a day will be
served until tomorrow night, AMI
all of the veterans, who had
no boarding place before coming, will
be provided with a cot and covering in
one OF the halls. The County Court
House has been heated and thrown
open to catch the overflow.
The streets swarm with strangers.
some of whom have come several hun
dred miles, and in the crowds the pick
pocket is getting in his work. There
We're 5000 badges printed for the vet
Grams, who registered. That number
were used up before two-t thirds of them
had been supplied to-day, and the count
ceased.
1t may be safe to say 1000 or 5000
are here besides numberless sight
seers, for it must be remembered two
attractive wheels are turning at one
and the same time-the Elks' Fair and
the reunion. Gen. Clement A. Evans
was unanimously reelected comman-
der of the Georgian division. He very
gracefully accepted. The various
brigades held reunions in different
parts of the city during the afternoon.
The address Of welcome by Hon. Du-
pont Query was as follows:
Comrades: In the name and by au-
thority of the Col r. A. Smith
Camp of Confederate Veterans
and the Sidney Lanier Chap
ter of the United Daughters of
the Confederacy. l welcome you as the
honored guests of this occasion; not
only to it's privileges and pleasures, but
to our hearts and homes.
You come not as the possessors OF
wealth or position or power, but as the
survivors Of the bravest and best SOL
diery the world has produced and as
the heroes of the greatest battles in
the annals of war.
You come among a loving and
grateful people, who are capable of APP
preciating you for what you have been,
for it is here now as il was before and
since, that there is to be found the
highest type of Southern manhood and
Southern womanhood, true manhood
and a true womanhood, that are not
only loyal to the duty of the present
and the hope of the future. but equal
~ so to the glory of the past.
What is more, you come among a
people who are capable of appreciat-
ing you for what you have been since
the war and for what you are now
When that struggle ended the
Southern soldier became as a rule one
OF the best of American citizens. He
know from the teachings of his con.
science and of the original gospel OF
American free government, that he
was no rebel and the United States
government was wise enough TO sig
Nifty its acquiesence in this correct and
just view by its release of Davis, the
president from Imprisonment, and its
failure TO prosecute Lee, the comman-
der-in-chief
The South fought for the truths Of
the Declaration Of independence and
for the provisions of the Federal Con-
stitution.
use of the general government Of
which il had control, waged successful
revolution.
The conviction OF Davis or Lee or
any % their followers of treason, would
rot only have been a prostitution of
the law and of the constitution. but
violation of the plain truth of Amer
lean history.
No Acknowledgement of such guilt
has ever been made by the true man
hood OF the South or required by the
true manhood Of the North. Mr. Nc
kinley, though in his young manhood
he had fought on the other side, was
brave and Just enough as a public man
and while President, to proclaim to the
nation and to mankind, in effect and
in immortal words. the guiltlessness as
well as the valor of the soldiery on the
Southern side of the mutually patriotic
and heroic struggle.
The Southern soldiers returned to the
patritism of peace, not as hirelinss
whose occupation was gone or as con-
quered and Inundated rebels seeking
safety in retreat and obscurity, but as
heroes of honest and honorable war.
and they We're at once the Drawn of
our agriculture and industry, the back
bone of our business and commerce.
and the brains of our professions; the
luminaries of church and the lights of
state.
The individuals of the great mass of
them in their lower spheres, followed
the humble and blessed example of the
peerless Lee in peace. as they had his
matchless leadership in war: they did
the best they could under the altered
conditions for themselves and their
loved ones for their country and for
God and humanity.
They have made no impatient clamor
or political warfare for pensions.
of