The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-19
SONGS OF CIVIL WAR
WERE NoRTHE MARTIAL POEMS
 FINER THAN soUTH's.
Willis D. Boyd, Formerly of North Carolina, Aruuses Interest in the
 Subject 1t New York.
 -Livsly Discussion.

fgurativeiy speaking, thrown a bombshell Into the camp of the Confederate veter- ans or New York by announcing, in a paper to the camp. that "the North has turnished more tine martial poeGns than
 MT. Dowd made the assertion at a meeting or camp f1re'' of the Veterans Association In Tuxedo Hall. As soon as the words had left his lips he realized that ne had said something for which he would pc immediately called to strict ac- count. Five minutes after the reading ot his paper the veterans were in the midst or bitter argument on the sub- lect, soma taking Mr. Dowd's view and others hercely attacking him.
 since then many of them have been sending MT. Dowd literature either sup. porting or attacking his statement, The veterans are thoroughly aroused and pro pose to have the dispute settled at the
 Mr. Dowd stands firmly by what h. said. but he finds he was unintentiouaily plunged into a auestion which has not been raised since the civil war. but nev- ertheless question In which all veter. ans of the North and South are inter.
 Little About the. Civil War.
 Many articles were written prior to thu Evolutionary war on the subject of na. uonat poetry. but since the civil war very little has been said or written about mar. tial verse growing out of the civil war Daws a n s sspps psper Of ees ss eSss0n s.; M Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe. The Confederate veteran whc took issue with hisn cited Maryland. Ny Maryland" as an offset to ''rhe Bat talns that sMaryiana. Nv Maryiaid'' s wa was not inspired by the civil war. having been inspired before the war.
 He admits that many sons and daugh- ters of the South have since the war wsfit- lads. but he contends that % with the D sx. eeption of Dixie none Of the Southern, cd nationally. s ..'r Clement Dowd of North csru,sna. who who was for years the law mariner of g. B. Vance, North CarolinAs war Governor. Mr. Dowd being the son of Confederate Confederate Veterans Camp of New York. and ss such, he was invited to ad- dresS the veterans at their last meeting He talked to them from the standpoint of man who was. not In the war, but South. and viewed the result as he thinks a progressive Soatherner should.
 Couldn't Do 1t Of Tore.
 He says he was outspoksn and he does not believe that a man could have read his paper before an association of South. ern soldiers twenty. years ago and have
 "in the first place." he said, "r must frankly avow that have no regrets that the Confederacy failed and that the Union was made more indissoluble at Appo. mattox. Of course. do not mean thas I a Ysn Az 70 ttA Ira. diwiduals who struggled 50 heroically and failed so gioriousV in the lost cause, but for the cause itself I have no regret.
 It seems to me that the war was in- evitabie. and that It's termination as the South wished 1t would have been most to both sections. Had the Conf ederacy survived, slavery would have In the South, and this incubus would have kept dormant to this day much of the vast energy which is now world.
 ''Asain. had the contsderacy triumphsd, there would have been a permanent alien alton or people who are now united In one great family group, bound tightly by the trials of many wars stretching back through the centuries It Is far better that those who had common cause be- fore the civil war should have been obliged by the outcome of that struggle to continue in the working out of thsr
 Best Was Not Lost.
 There was one thing about the lost cause which WAS not lost and which must be of imperishable honor to the soldiers of the Confederacy and their descendants, end mt to ,as the whSis country The the main cause of the struggle might have been; however inevitable 1t was that secession should fall, that siavery should be terminated and the Union preserved, Southern soldiers stood for A principle which has done honor to the human race for thousands of years and without which It could not long endure.
 The South fought for local self-gov- ernment. home rule and the right of the Individual to be left alone. This was the cause that made Leonidas and the sol- diers of ThermopyiAe immortal. which crowned England herself, in her prepara- tt ns to defeat the tnvincible Armada. with imperishable glory, and rendered the names of Washington and Lafayette sym cnym5us with high citizenship.
 There are today two great forces in the world struggling for its control. one the power of expansion, of dominance Of tion, of individualism, upholding the right of man to do as he pleABes with his own. so that he hurt not another In the use of the same.
 This last, say. was one of the prin-
  federacy. which did not perish and of which we have just cause to be proud in this day and time.
 North Furnished More War Poems.
 "One of the many things about the war period. which has particularly forced H. self upon my notice Is that the North so many fine martial poems and he South so few. Notable among those of the North was The Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe.
 Who is 1t today in this country that can most Justify sing this hymn? Is 1t the man who walked under the Stars and Bars from Bull Run to Richmond and aid down his arms, believing his cause lost. or Is 1t he who is now insisting lpon maintaining our nag by force over ,erfs in the Philippines, and who has 10 sympathy for the Irish or the Boers struggling for their iiberty7
 T rejoice as a Southern man to en. .ertain a hope for the freedom of all nen everywhere. and I am glad that 1t .an be said of those who suffered iu the lays that tried mems souls that what Iver they may have thought about slav- ny in those times they are now in favor # emancipation of all men who are in bondage. and freedom, whether in Ire- and. the Philippines. the Transvaal or in l Il