The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-05-21
CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR

Hon. John H. Reagan, of Texas,
the only surviving member of the
Confederate cabinet, is attending
the reunion at New Orleans this
week. A few days ago Judge Rea-
gan delivered very able speech at
Fort Worth on "The Cause of the
War Between the ssStates," from
which we take the following:
Comrades, Ladies and Cent?
men: answer your requestF
statement of the cause. of TIL Sar.
: It would be PleasaBt'to speak of the
heroic valor of the Confederate
soldiers, of the skill and intrepidity
of their officers, of the patriotism
and wisdom of the members of con-
gresS who enacted the laws for the
Confederate government, OF the
great and patient labor of the Con-
federate cabinet and their assistants,
of the mastery craftsmanship, self
sacrificing devotion and sublime
courage and constancy of President
Jefferson Davis and of the matchless
devotion, services and holy prayers
of the woman of theSConfederacy for
the success of the cause in which
their fathers, husbands and sons
were engaged. But for the present
! must forego the discussion of these
interesting themes and call your
attention from the glories of the
past to the questions of future
interest.
During.the war, l8oIto 1865, and
ever since there has been studied,
systematic effort on the part of
those who were our adversaries to
prevent and falSify the history of
the causes which led to that war,
and the conduct of the war, and to
educate the public mind to the belief
that it was causeless war, brought
aboutby ambitiousSouthern leaders.
And it is much to be regretted
that this policy has had a large
measure of success. This has been
brought about largely by the base
less assumptions in acts of congress,
and the doings of the executive
department, in the action of the
State legislatures and of political
conventions, the declarations of
public speakers, and by the writer's
in newspapers and magazines.
1t will be the purpose of what |
shall say today to show the great
wrong and injustice done to those
who supported the Confederate
cause by this systematic falsifying
of the great facts of history on this
subject.
In proposing to do this we must
recognize the facts that that great
war ended nearly forty years ago,
and that we are now fellow citizens
with those who occupied the other
side, living in the same government
under the same constitution, laws
and flag and interested as they are
in the peace of the country and the
welfare of all its people, with no
desire to revive the passions and
prejudices of the war and with an
earnest wish for best fraternaI rela-
ton between the people of the two
sections of the country. While this
is our earnest wish we can not
consent to a perversion of history
which would brand the defenders
of the Confederate cause as rebels
and traitors, and teach that false
hood to our children and to posteri-
ty. And we are led to hope that
in after times, when the passions of
the war have subsidized,
and when the prejudices en-
gendered by it have died out, that
none of the people of this great
republic will wish such stain to bel
attached to any part of their fellow
citizens. However this may be. it |
is a paramount duty. on our part to
preserve and perpetuate the reall
history of the causes of that great
est war OF modern time, and these
!