Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-06-12
The Confederacy and The Union


DR.. VIM. N. Scott read the following
strong presentation of orthodox Con-
federate sentiment at St0newall Jack
son Camp recently. 1t is an editorial
from the Times Dispatch of June End,
and was very heartily applauded.
In Sundays paper weprinted a COM
munication from Hon. A. G. Heer-
mans, of Christiansburg, IN which he
took to task those Confederates who
say they are not glad that the Confed-
crate cause failed and that the South
was whipped back into the Union. DR..
j. William Jones, at our request, re-
piled to Mr. Heermans, but there are
a few points which we wish to add.
In order to appreciate the situation,
the point of view must be changed.
We must go back to Appomattox.
Supp ose the Confederates had then
known what was in, store for them.
Suppose they could have foreseen that
the. emancipated slaves were to be
clothed with the right Of suffrage and
turned loose upon the South, with car
pet baggers from the North to lead
them. Suppose they cou'd have fore
seen that white men were to be disfran-
chised and that the affairs of govern
ment were to be put into the hands of
this black-and-tan horde. Suppose
fhnxr oil tho +
RACES, the plunderlng and the debau-
cherry of reconstruction, including the
attempt to pass the force bill and kind
red measures. Suppose they had fore
seen the terror of Southern women as
black fiends prowled around. Would
they have surrendered ? Would they
not have preferred death to such hui
initiation and suffering as this accurs-
ed regime promised ?
And now, let us again change the
point of view. Let us come down to
the present time, and let us take a
look backward. For a Confederate to
be glad that the South failed is for him
to be glad in spite of the curse of re-
construction. He must bring himself
up to the point of saying that be would
rather for the South to have passed
through the ordeal which we have re-
called, and the horrors of which cannot
be exaggerated, in order to be once
more part of the Union, than to have
triumphed in a noble cause and set up !
an honorable government Of her own. !
Again, the South was right in the
position she took, and Charles Francis ]
Adams and other fairminded men at |
the North confess it. The South un- |
derstOOd the situation, and the North |
Was led by set of fanatics, who were
not only wild, but ignorant. But re-
Gently press and people at the North
have confessed that the Fifteenth |
was a stupid blunder, and
could not be enacted in the presant
state of public sentiment. And shall |
now say that they are
glad the true and honorable principle
for which they fought was crushed by
Northern arms I? Can any rational and
upright man ever feel joy in his heart
that he failed Of triumph in good
cause
To be glad that the Confederate
cause failed is to confess that the South
was wrong; that Lee and jackson and
all the rest of them were traitors, and
met the fate they deserved. We have
no hungering and thirsting after
but before we would make
such cowardly and unrighteous con-
fession. we would go to the stake cry
ing, 'Hurrah for Southern rights and
The men who fought for them!" We
recant nothing. We have never doubt
ed the righteousness of the Confeder-
ate cause any more than we have
doubted the righteousness Of the Chris
tian religion. Believing with all our
heart and mind in the principles for
which the South fought, and remem- |
bering all the evils of negro suffrage |
and reconstruction, we cannot say and |
will never say that we are glad our no
BILE cause failed.
There is in this expression no taint |
of disloyalty to the flag of the Union, !
which is now our flag. 1t is not that |
we love Caesar less, but that we love
r )me more.
That ThrObbing Headache.