The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-27
6. Y. B0CACKI,

i've of the-ends of our movement. It must be remembered that we make war only on armed mem. Lee did not. like Tilly and Melac, exhort his followers to klll and burn. and kill and burn. and again kill and burn; to make war hell. lie did not proclaim that he wanted no prlson- CTS He did not enjoin upon his soldiers as duty to cause the people of Pennsyl- vania to remember they had been there I thank Heaven he did not. He, at least, though a Confederate in arms, was still an American and not lilly nor Me lac.
 And here, as a soldier of the army of the Potomac. let me bear my testimony to such of the army of Northern Virgin ia as may now be present. While war al best is bad; yet its necessary and un- avoidable badness was not In that cam paign enhahced. In scope and spirit Lees order was observed, and doubt if a hostile force ever advanced in an enemys country, or fell back from it In retreat | leaving behind 1t less cause of hate and | bitterness than did the army of Northern | Virginia in that memorable campaign which eliminated at Gettysburg. Because | he was a soldier, Lee did not feel 1t in cumbent upon him to proclaim himself brute, or to exhort his followers to | brutality. | have done. Some six months ago, in a l certain academic address at Chicago, called to mind the fact that statue of Oliver Cromwell now stood in the yard 
 to that historical hall of Westminster l from the roof of which his severed head | had once looked down. Calling to mind the strange changes of feeling evinced | by the memory of that grinnlng skull l and the presence of that image of bronze remembering that Cromwell, once trait l or and regicide, stood now conspicuous among Englands worthiest and most l honored--T asked why should it not also | in time be so with Lee? Why should not | his effigy erect on his charger and wear | ing the insignia of his Confederate rank, | gaze from his pedestal across the Poto- mac at the Virginia shore, and his once l dearly loved home at Arlington. He too 1 Is one of the precious possessions of what is an essential factor in the nation | that now is, and Is to be.
 My suggestion was met with an answer l to which l would now make reply. It was objected that such 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 I will not
 here repeat. The thing was pronounced | impossible.
 | Now let me here explain myself. I never supposed that Robert E. Lees stat Jue in Washington would be provided for | by an appropriation from the national | treasury. did not wish 1t; do not think | 1t fitting. Indeed. I do not rate high statues erected by act of Congress, and paid for by public money. They have | small significance. Least of all would l suggest such one in the case of Lee Nor was 1t so with Cromwell Ills effigy | is a private gift, placed where It IS by act of Parliament So, when the time is ripe, should 1t be with Lee. and the time will come. When 1t does come, the effi- gy, assigned to its place merely by act of Congress, should bear some such in- scription as this:
 ROBERT EDWARD LEE, Erected by Contribution of
 those who
 Wearing the Blue or Wearing the Grey,
 Recognize Brilliant Military Achieve.
 ments and Lofty Charactmer, Hon.
 or Greatness and Humanity in
 War and Devotion and Dig
 1ity in Defeat.
 This was succeeded by the rendering of the Bonnie Blue Flag" and songs of antebellum days by Mrs. Hollingsworth Watkins, formerly of Louisiana.
 In responding to the toast to Abraham Llncoln-"He was not for an age. but for all time"-Col. Henry Watterson said:
 Watterson on Lincolin.
 Jefferson Davis, than whom there never lived, in this or in any land, nobler gentleman and a knightlier soldier-Jef- ferson Davis who. whatever may pc always what he meant and meant al- ways what he said-Jefferson Davis de- clared that next after the surrender at Appon attoX the murder of Abraham Idn- coin made the darkest day in the calen- dar for the South and the people of the l South Why? Because Mir. Davis had come to a knowl adg. of the magnanimity of Mir. Lincols's heart and the generosity of his intentions.
 If Lincoln had lived there would have been no era of Reconstruction, with it's repressive agencies and oppressive legis- Iation If Lincoln had lived there would have been wanting to the extremism of the time the cue of his taking off to spur the steeds of vengeance. For Lincoln en- tertained with respect to the rehabilita- tion of the UniOn the single wish that the Southern States to use his homely phraseology-''s should come back home and behave themselves and, If he had lived he would have made this wish ef- fectual as he made everything effectual to which he seriously addressed himself.
 His was the genius of common sense. Of perfect intellectual aplOmb. he sprang frCm m Southern pedigree and was born in the South. He knew all about the South, its institutions. its 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 he not wroRg he said. nothing is wong but he also said and reiterated time and again, T have no prejudice against the Southern people They are just what we would he in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them. they would not intro duce 1t, If it did now exist among us, we wc uld not instantly give 1t up.
 From first to last throughout the angry