The progressive farmer., 1902-03-18
HOW PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT "sLAN-
DRRs" OUR CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS,

.I |
So says one of our North Carolina
exchanges. Now, if this exchange
or any other paper wishes to attack
Mr.. Roosevelt's political record or
political views, we shall have moth
ing to say as to the matter. But
since we have noted in another COL
umn Mr.. Hays deserved tribute to
the Confederate soldiers, we cannot
pass unnoticed this effort of a
Southern paper to make it appear
that the President Of the United
States Is attempting 30 tear open the
old sores of sectional bitterness.
What did President Roosevelt say
that called forth the distorted state
ment that we have just quotedP
He was addressing the Grand
Army of the Republic, and he ex-
pressed the opinion that the defeat
of the Union forces and the triumph
of the secession principle would have
resulted in state of governmental
confusion and chaos-''anarohy," he
said. For if you look up Webster's
definition of anarchy, you will find
this: "Absenoe of government; the
state of society where there is no
law or supreme power a state of
lawlessness political confusion
hence, confusion or disorder, in
general" Clearly therefore the word
anarchy does not imply the abomi-
nable things which we, by reason of
the f1endishness of some of their
number, associate with the term
anarchists.
But with reckless disregard of
truth, some of our Southern papers
of the baser sort, have seized on this
expression of Mr.. Roosevelt's, twist
ed it out of all resemblance TO it's
real meaning, and have given it TO
their readers in the shape we have
just seen. And some of our honest
contemporaries (among them, no
doubt, the one from which We have
quoted) have accepted these distorted
statements as truth and rehashed |
them for their own readers.
1t being beyond contradiction
therefore that Mr.. Roosevelt did not
speak of the Southern soldiers as
anarchists, " let US deal fairly with
this man, the head Of our Nation.
Let us say what we please about his
political views, but let Us not accuse
him, unless there is reason for the |
accusation, of slandering the heroes
of the Lost Cause. So instead of |
picking up an incidental phrase and
trying to make it insulting by put
ting on it the worst construction
possible, let Us take the simple
direct statements made by the Presi-
dent and judge by them what are his
real feelings toward the South and
it's people.
Nor are such simple, direct state
ments hard to find.
Is was only last June that he, writ
ing TO citizen of Georgia, said: II
am extremely proud Of the fact
that one of my unoles was an ad-
miral in the Confederate Navy and |
that another fired the last gun fired |
aboard the Alabama. 1 think the
time has now come when we can all
of Us be proud Of the valor shown on
both sides in the Civil War"
Let not those who are moving
heaven and earth to find some trace
of q slander for our Southern SOL |
diers pass over this ; nor should they
neglect similar statement in Mr..
Roosevelt's 8 book, "American Ideals" :"
"We are the richer for each grim
campaign, for each hard fought bat
tie. We are the richer for valor dis
played alike by those who fought 80
valiantly for the right, and by those
who, no less vaiiantly, fought for
what they deemed the right"
An even higher tribute to the men
who wore the gray and so their peer
less leader may be found in the "Life
of Thomas II. Benton" in which Mr..
Roosevelt speaks of the individual
inferiority of the Northern com
pared to Southern troops, and adds:
''The world has never seen better
soldiers than those who followed |
Lee; and their leader will, undoubt-
edly, rank as without an exception
the very greatest of all the great
captains that the English speaking
peoples have brought forth-and
this, although the last and chief of
his nntagonists. may himsalf claim |