The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-27
Confederate Veterans of New
 York at Annual Banquet
HENRY PATTERSON 4 GUEST
When Called Upon the kentuckian Paid a Beautiful Tribute to Abra- ham LlncoIn-Union Veteran
 Talks on Life of Lee.

alNo Oh EiiC VI ESSs
 New York, January 26.-The thirteenth annual banquet of the Confederate vet eran camp of New York, held tonight at the Waldorf Astoria, was made memor- able by the eloquent eulogies of the great leaders of the south and north during the civil war, declaring men who themselves had fought in the armies opposing them.
 Charles Francis Adams of Massaehu- setts, a soldier of the Union responded to the toast of Robert E. Lee" and Col. Henry Watterson soldier of the Confectionery, paid tribute to the eharac- ter of Abraham Lincoln. The third toast to Jefferson Davis was responded to by William Hepburn Russell, formerly Of Missouri and now commissioner of ac- counts of New York city. Upward of 300 comrades of the camp and their guests were present and the presence Of many women lent briliancy to the banquet
 Mir. Wattersons Speech.
 In response to the toast "To the Mem ory of Abraham Lincoln" Henry Wat terson spoke in substance as follows:
 Jefferson Davis than whom there never lived, in this or in any land. nober gentleman and a knightlier soldier Jefferson Davis who, whatever may be thought of his opinions and actions, said always what he meant and meant always what he said-Jefferson DaVls declared that next after the surrender at Appo- mattox, the murder of Abraham Lincoln n f1,a yaptJ Ju.r ,a1a Inr for. the south and the people of the south Why? Because pr. Davis had come to a knowledge of the magnanimity of MT. Lincoln's heart and the generosity of his intentions.
 If Lincoln had lived there would have been no era of reconstruction, with its oppressive agencies and oppressive legis- lation. If Lincoln had lived there would have been wanting to the extremism of the time the bloody cue of his taking off to mount the steeds and spur the Hanks of vengeance. For Lincoin entertained. with respect to the rehabilitation of the union, the single wish that the southern states-to use his homely phraseology- should come back home and behave themselves,' and, if he had lived he would have made this wish effeetual as he made everything effectua to which he seriously addressed himself.
 Genius of Common Sense.
 His was the genius of co~ o~lmon sense. Of perfect intellectual aplomD he sprang from Virginia pedigree and was born in Kentucky. He knew all about the south, it's institutions, it's traditions and it's peculiarities. He was an old-line whig of the school of Henry Clay with strong emancipation leaning never an abolitionist. If slavery be not wrong," he said nothing Is wrong" but he also said, and reiterated it time and again. q have no prejudice against the southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us we would not instantly give it up."
 Prom first to last throughout the an- gry debates preceding the war, amid all the passions of the war itself, not one vindictive proscriptive word fell from his tongue, or pen, whilst during it's progress there was scarcely a day when he did not project his great per sonality between some southern man or woman and danger.
 Was a Friend to South.
 Yet the south does not know, except as kind of hearsay, that this big-brained, big-souled man was a friend, a friend at court, when friends were most in need. having the will and the power to rescue it from the wolves of brutality and rapine whom the history of all wars tells us the lust of victory, the very smell of battle, lures from their hiding to prey upon the helpless, the dying and the dead. But, perusing the after-story of those dread days, Jefferson Davis knew this and died doing full justice to the character of Abraham Lincoln.
 
 About Offer to Pay for Slaves.
 "The story that he offered payment for the slaves-so often affirmed and denied is in either case but quibble with the actual facts. He could not have made such an offer except tentatively, lacking the means to carry 1t out He was not given the oportunity to make it, because the Confederate commissioners were un- der instructions to treat solely on the basis of the recognition of the independ- ence of the Confederacy. The conference came to nought It ended where 1t began. But there is ample evidence that he went to Hampton Roads resolved to com init himself to that proposition. He did, according to tho official reports, refer to it in specific terms having already for muated a plan of procedure. This plan requires no verification. It exists and may be seen in his own handwriting. It embraced a joint resolution to be sub mitted by the President to the two houses of congress appropriating four hundred millions of dollars to be distributed among the southern states on the basis of the slave population of each according to the census of 1860. and proclamation to be issued by himself as President when this joint resolution had been passed by congress.
 No Controversy Among Students.
 'There can be no possible controver- sy among honest students of history on this point. That MT. Lincoln said to MT. Stephens, Let me write union at the top of this page and you may write below it whatever else you please Is referable to MT. Stephens statement made to many friends and attested by a number of re- liable persons still living But, that he meditated the most liberal terms, includ- ing payment for the slaves, rests neither upon conjecture nor averment but on in- disputable documentary support. It may be argued that he could not have secured the adoption of any such plan; but of his purpose, and its genuineness, there can be no question and there ought to be no equivocation.
 Indeed. payment for the slaves had been all along in his mind. He believed the north equally guilty with the south for the original existence of slavery He clearly understood that the irrepressible conflict was q conflict of systems not a