Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1902-11-14
DR.. PAGE ON THE coNFEDERACY.

Some criticism, With great JusGioo
and reason, has been made OF Dr.
Thomas Nelson Page who at a Confed-
crate reunion recently subscribed to
the sentiments of Longstreet, Rosser
and other Confederate generals VINO
have recanted their actions during
the civil war, apologised, and worn
sackcloth and ashes for some time, by
asserting that the COnfederacY ought
not to have succeeded in that war.
Seeing that DR.. Page has not joined
that coterie for Office sake. it is more
and more surprising that he should
have uttered such sentiments, even II
he entertained them. He would have
been leading no dual life had he clos
eted such thought in his breast and
kept it as prisoner there forever. lie
would not have lost many friends and
admirers who have read his books
containing war stories, and thought
they saw through his characters man
who believed in the justice of the cause
of the south. We blush when we find
there is one among US who thinks our
sacrifices were laid upon an unholy
altar, and that the blood of the south
was shed in an unrighteous cause. To
assert that we should have lost is to
say we were wrong. When there are
those who do so forget themselves, and
give way to that gush INDUCED in so
often of late for the sole purpose, we
believe, of making the gusher solid
with the northern people with whom
he associates, we look upon him as we
do upon son who has risen above the
cabin where be was born, and grown
ashamed of the mother who gave him
birth,
We cannot see how DR.. Page could
have thought such thing. He has no
positive assurance he is right in the
assertion, he only reasons from condi-
tions as they now present themselves,
so why then join in that sentiment
which has been so strongly urged as an
excuse for northern devastation of our
country. and the killing of our people
in a malevolent, unjust and barbarous
war, a sentiment which is intended to
prove the north right, and the south
wrong.
May we not expect TO hear DR.. Page
proclaim that the north would never
have molested US but for the fact that
we fired on Fort Sumpter :? John
Brown seized an arsenal at Harper's
Ferry long before that. The selling
of Fort Sumpter was treason, the selz-
ing of the arsenal at Harper's Ferry
was Righteousness Itself as history is
now taught. Are we soon to see DIR.
Page calling John Brown a martyr,
and Gen. Lee traitor? George W.
Gable by his associations has reached a
point where he is ready to do so. Has
the contagion seized DR.. Pager We
trust not so virulently, but still some
unseen hand has prompted him to
administer beastly blow to his old
mother State and those which with
her defended their rights when they
were invaded, and all this for no ap-
parent reason, other than to curry
favor with his newly made associates
who were not brought up on corn
bread, sweet pota toes and blackeyed
peas.
The little man of the Bible, Bildad
the Shuttle, was one of three who went
to Job to mourn with and comfort
him. He was not the first to drive the
iron into his soul, because he was not
the first to speak, but these men came
as Jobs friends. They found him
suffering, his children dead, bis focks
his habitations gone, and
yet Job was unsullied in character and s.
in faith. Ii
In the midst of it all Bildad said: t
IF thou vert pure and upright, sure
ly now the Lord would awake for thee, !
and make the habitation of thy right '
eousness prosperous" In this spirit $
did he and the two other comforters !;
,hide this afflicted man. If
Then Job spake and said: "How a
ong will ye vex my soul and break me I
n pieces with words? Do all my in =
ward friends deepise me, and have all '
whom loved turned against me % a
When further told of his unworthi-
less, and the business of the sentences .
on him, sorrowfully he a
peaks and said: "If have done these h
hings then let mine arm fall from my q
boulder blade, and my right arm be q
roken from the bone" hi
The south is the Job of this nation.
he has been torn in spirit and in body. .
Ter friends-Eliphas and Zophar, and ~
ow Bildad, have come to comfort her. W
hildren of her loins have on some &C. tie
asiOns spurned her with kicks, and y
nd joined those who Knocked at her IN
nd scOffed, yet through it all she has 81
orne her affection, waxing stronger vi
her faith, more beautiful In her ne
lrity, more noble in her adversely. ia
efore she will recapt, before she will DO
g pardon, before she will disgrace mi
er dead, before she will strip the In
urels from the brows of her heroes. Fl
fore she will do as the comfortersl
Id Job to do, ''curse God and die, :" SEE
10 will LET her arm fall from the shoul. ny
IT blade, and her right arm be broken tai
ON the bone. 1t is sad enough to zol
we the enemies of the south revile exl
a norsoorte ber how mnob bill
y oio 81 wh
nen her own sons turn upon her. ses
hen Caesar saw Brutus, whom he Be
1ed so much, among the assassins, 70