Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-27
New York Confederate Camp Holds Annual
Reunion and Banquet.
SOLDIERS PRAISE OPPOSING LEADERS
Lee, Lincoln and Davis Held Up ms
High-Minded Men by
ideas They Believed to
he Right.

= bRRNolhh AAtAus.
Charles Francis Adams OF Massachusetts,
a soldier of the union. responded to the
toast OF Robert E. Lee and Colonel
Henry Watterson, a soldier of the Con-
federacy, paid a tribute to the character
of Abraham Lincoln. The third toast 20
Jefferson Davis was responded TO by Will
lam Hepburn Russell, formerly Of Mis-
souri,, and now commissioner of accounts
OF New York city.
Upward of 500 comrades of the camp and
their guests were present, anG the pres
ence Of many women lent brilliancy to the
banquet.
Commander Henry E. owen presided.
with Mayor Low at his right and Colonel
Watterson az his left, Others at the guest
table were:
George II Taylor, commander at Ham
Iton post; J. Edward Graybill, president
commander Lafayette post; Colonel Sam
uel L. Paul. Lieutenant commander c.. V.
OF New York; August Van Wyck, president
Southern society; Roger A. Pryor, regent
Virginia society; d. l.. Snodgrass, former
chief justice Of Tennessee; James II. Park
General Thomas n. Hubbard of New Eng
land society, Walter S. Logan, regen En-
pire State Society Sons of American Rev
G. V. OF New York, and Rev. hewitt Steele,
president of Maryland society.
The opening toast to THE President and
the Army and Navy OF the United States
a Prince Among the Rulers Of the World
and but the Servant Of a Free People,
was drunk standing, amid great ap-
plause, the orchestra rendering Hail, CO.
lumbia." This was followed by the toast
to General Lee, Mature Made Him and
Then Broke the Mould"
Lee Gentleman in War.
In responding Mr.. Adams said:
Reckless of life to attain the legitimate
ends of war Lee sought to mitigate its hor-
rors. opposed to him at Gettysburg, l here,
forty years later, do him Justice. No more
creditable order ever issued from b COM
mandin general than that formulated by
Robert E. Lee as, at the close of June,
1865, he advanced on a war of invasion.
greater disgrace" he then declared,
can befall the army, and through IL the
whole people, than the preparation of bar
barous outrages upon the innocent and de-
fenseless. Such proceedings not only dis
grace the perpetrators and all connected
with them, but are subversive of the dis
cipline and efficiency of the army and de-
structive of the ends of our movement. II
must be remembered that we make war
only on armed men, Lee did not, like
lilly and Melac, exhort his followers to
XIII and burn, to make war hell. He did
not proclaim that he wanted no prisoners.
He did not enjoin IL upon his soldiers as a
duty to cause The people of Pennsylvania to
remember they had been there. thank
lAGdNGh ne at itdSN was III all III a
and not a Tilly nor a Aielac. "
While war atybest is bad, yet its neces-
sary and unavoidable. badness was not In
that campaign enhanced. In scope and
spirit Lees order was observed, and l
doubt II a hostile force ever advanced in
retreat, leaving behind 1t less cause OF hate
and bitterness than did the army OF North
ern. Virginia in that memorable campaign
which eliminated at Gettysburg. Because
he was a soldier Lee did not feel II incum-
bent upon him to proclaim himself a brute
or to exhoTt his followers to brutality,
six months ago, in a certain academic adj
dress at Chicagoi L. called to mind the fact
stood in the yard tof Parliament house in
London, close to that historic hall of West
minister from the roof of which his severed
head had once locke down. Calling to
mind the strange changes of feeling evlnced
by the memory Of'that ~grinning skull and
the presence OF that image of bFonze=-re-
membering that Cromwell, once traitor and
regicide, stood now conspicuous among
England's worthiest and most honored-I
asked, Why should it not also In time be
go with Lee? Why should not his effigy,
erect on his charger and wearing the In
sigma OF his confederate rank, gaze from
his pedestal across the Potomac at the Vir-
ginia. shore, and his once dearly loved
home at Arlington? He, too. rs one of the
precious possessions of what is an essential
factor in the nation that now is and is to
Ny suggestion was met with an answer
to which 1 would now make reply. 1t was
objected that such a memorial was to be
provided for from the national treasury,
and that Lee, educated at West Point,
holding for years the commission of the
United States, had borne arms against the
nation. The rest 1 will not here repeat.
The thing was pronounced impossible.
Now, let me here explain myself. l never
supposed tnat Robert E. Lees statue In
Washington would be provided for by an
appropriation from the national treasury.
l did not wish 1t; l do not think 1t fitting,
Indeed, l do not rate high statues erected
by act Of congress-, and paid for by public
| money They have Small Significance.
Least of all would suggest such a one in
the case OF Lee. Nor was 1t so with Crom-
W Wsei Its Il is sh by a as a Of Pr'Y Parliament snaei piSf sol
when the time Is ripe. should 1t be with
Lee. and the time will come.
This was succeeded by the rendering OF
the Bonnie Blue Flag" and songs of ante
bellum days by Mrs. Hollingsworth Wat
kins. ormerly of Louisiana.
LincOIn's Love for south.
In responding TO the toast to Abraham
Lincoln, HE Was Not for an Age, but fol
All Time" Colonel Henry Watterson said
Jefferson Davis. than whom there never
lived, IN THIS or In any land, a nobieI
Cared that next aeI Sfter the Surrender Sde at R Se,
pomattox, the murder of Abraham Lincoln
made the darkest day In the calendar fol
Why of Because Tse M she BB sSRiss had Sf s come sU to !
knowledge of the magnanimity of Mr.. Lin,
coins heart and the generosity of his in.
t~entions.
IL Lincoln had liv~d there would hav,
been no era OF reconstruction, will its re-
pressive agencies and oppressive legisla
ton. There would have BEEN wanting &C
the eXtremism OF the time the cue of hi
taking of TO spur the steecs of vengeance
for Lincoln entertained, with respect L
the rehabilitation of the union, the singl,
wish that the sOuther states should com
back home. and behave themselves" and 4
he had lived he would have made this wisl
enectual, as he made everything efectua
to which he seriously addressed himself.
His was the genius OF common sense, o
perfect intellectual aplomb. He spranL
from a southern pedigree and was born II
the south. He knew all about the south
Its institutions, it's. traditions and III
peculiarities.
From first TO last throughout the angr!
debates preceding the war, amid all IN,
passions OF the war itself, not one Vindic
tive, proscriptive word fell from his tongu,
or pen, whilst during its progress ther,
was scarcely a day when he did not pro
Ject his great personality between som
southern man or woman and danger. Ye
the south does not know, except as a kin
OF hearsay, that this big-brained, big-soulei
man was a friend, a friend at court, whsl
friends were most IN neeu, having the vii
of brutality and rapine whom the histor
OF all wars tells Us the lust OF victory, tn
smell OF battle, lures from their hiding I
prey upon the helpless, the dying and tn
dead. But, perusing the arter-story o
those dread days, Mr.. Davis knew this an
died doing full Justice 90 the character o
/, Abraham Lincoln.
The years are gliding swiftly by. Onl
a little while and there shall be no ma
3 living who gaW aaryfca on either side a