The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-01-27
IF LINCOLN HAD LIVED.
Watterson's Tribute at COnfed-
crate Veterans Banquet.

New York. Jan. 27.-The thirteenth
annual banquet of the Confederate Vet
Grams camp of New York, held last
night at the Waldorf Astoria was made
memorable by eloquent eulOgies OF the
great figures of the south and the
north during the civil war, declared by
men who themselves had fought in the
armies opposing them.
Charles Francis Adams. Of Massachu~
sets. a soldier of the union, responded
to the toast of Robert Z Lee and Col.
Henry WaTtersons soldier Of the con-
federacy, paid tribute to the character
Of Abraham Lincoln. The third toast
tc Jefferson Davis was responded to by
/ William Hepburn Russell. formerly Of
Missouri and now commissioner of ac-
counts of New York city.
Upward of 500 comrades of the camp
and their guests were present and tne
presence of many women lent brill
hancy to the banquet.
Commander Henry Z. Owen presided.
with Mayor Low on his right and Col.
Watterson at his left. Others at the
guest table were. George H. Taylor,
commanding Alex Hamilton post; J. Ed
ward Graybill, president George society;
fayette post; Col. Samuel D. Paul, lieu
tenant commander Confederate Veter>
ans camp of New York: Augustus Van
Wyck, president Southern society;
Roger A Pryor, regent Virginia So
clety; D. L. SnOdgrass, former chief
justice OF Tennessee: James H Parper,
past commander Confederate Veterans
OF New York; Gen. Thomas H, Hub
bard, of New England society; Walter
S. Logan, regent Empire State Society
Sons OF American Revolution: w w.
F'ulter, president North Carolina So
ciety; Rev. George S. Baker, chaplain
Confederate Veterans of New York, and
Rev. J. hewitt Steele. president Mary
land soc5et=z
The opening toast to The President
and the Army and Navy of the United
SIaT6E-A Prince nj
the World and but the Servant of
Free People was drunk standing, amid
great a92lause. the orchestra rendering
Hail Columbia" This was followed by
the toast to General Lee, Mature made
him and then broke the mold
This was succeeded by the rendering
OF the Bonnie Blue Flag" and songs
OF antebeIum DAYS bv Mrs HOllingS-
worth Warkins, formerly of Louisiana.
In responding to the toast to Abraham
Lincoln-.He Was Not for an Age, but
for All Time"-Colonel Henry Waiter
son said:
Jefferson Davis. than whom there
never lived, in this or in any land, d
nobler gentleman or a knightlier SOL
dler-JeffersOn Davis, who, whatever
may be thought Of his opinions and ac-
tions, said always what he meant and
meant always what he Said-JeffersOn
Davis declared that next after the sur
render at Appomattox, the murder OF
Abraham Lincoln made the darkest day
I
people of the south. Why? Because
Mr.. Davis had come to a knowledge of
the magnanimity of Mr.. Lincoln's heart
and the generosity of his intentions.
If Lincoln had lived, there would
have been no era of reconstruction, with
its repressive agencies and oppressive
I legislation. If Lincoln had lived, there
would have been wanting to the extrem-
ism of the time the cue of his taking
off to spur the steeds of vengeance. For
Lincoln entertained, with respect to the
rehabilitation of the union, the single
wish that the southern states-to use
/ his homely phraseologyz should come
/ back home and behave themselves and,
I If he had lived he would have made this
wish effectual as he made everything
effectual to which he seriously addressed
/ himself
His was the genius Of common sense.
I OF perfect intellectual aplomb; he
/ sprang from southern pedigree and
was born in Kentucky. He knew all
about the south, its institutions, its ira
I dItIOnS and It's pecuIarltieS. He was an
4 old-time Wing of the school of Henry
I Clay, with strong emancipation leaning,
never an Abohtionist. If slavery be
not wrong he said, nothing is wrong
4 but he also said and reiterated it time
and again. I have no prejudice against
i the southern people They are just what
we would be in their situation If slave
ry did not now exist among them they
would not introduce It. If it did now
give it up.
From first to last throughout the
angry 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
its progress there was scarcely a day
when he did not project his great per-
sonality between some southern man or
woman and danger. Yet the south does
not know, except as a kind of hearsay,
that this big-brained, big-souled man
was a friend. q 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 help
less the dying and the dead. But per-
using the after-stOry of those dread
days Mr.. Davis knew this and died do
ing full justice to the character of Alb
raham Lincoln