The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-02-26


Mr.. Page NJ. Baker, editor of the New
Orleans Times-Den1ocrat, is in the in
terest of the reunion of the Veterans
of the Confederacy. The letter is con-
spicuously patriotic and is published by
request of Colonel ]. A. Harral, U. c..
", aide-de-camp on General Gordan's
staff and chairman of the press COM
mittee. The welcome which New Or
leans will accord to the old C0rn-fcdS
may be anticipated. Indeed, it may be
said that no city in the South can en-
terrain SO we'll as New Orleans, espe
cial1v when the guests are \eterans OF
the glorious Lost Cause-New Orleans
should be declared and fixed as the
place. at which all reunions of Confed-
crate Veterans shall be held hereafter.
Why not? The letter follows:
Indications are plentiful that the re-
union to be held in New Orleans May
70, 20, 2I and p, by the United Con
federate Veterans will be the most
worthiIy memorable event in the history
of the organization.
1t is now more than tWoscore years
since the people of the South, animated
with spirit than which there is moth
ing finer in human history, united as
one man in the effort to resist the in
vasion made by the Northern States,
to defend the traditional principle of
local self-government and to maintain,
in uni1npaired vigor, the idea of states
sovereignty Without in any sense seek
ing to stir the treacherous ashes of that
period of the national life, it is sufficient
to state that the Southern people were
then. as they have always been, actuat-
ed by motives OF disinterested patriot
ISM Responding promptly to the call to
arms the old, the n1iddle-aged and the
goung, "focked gaily to the fight" and
for four years of fercest war demon
strated that they were willing to die for
an idea. Discriminating critics of his
tory now recognize that the Confeder-
ate soldier fought only for what all
freedom should be willing to- fight. 1t
is now clear to all that the spirit of he
that 1oseth his life Shall save 1.-THE
spirit of greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his
friend gave impulse and character to
the Confederacy from the moment
when Mr.. Davis was inaugurated at
Montgomery to the hour when General
Lee surrendered at Appomattox. n
/ 1t is right that the people of the
South, of the Union and of the world,
know this. There was a time when
Americans Of the Northern States
failed to comprehend the real signih-
canoe of the Confederacy; a time when
they failed to appreciate the controlling
motive of the Confederate soldier; a
time when the lingering animosities of
war blurred the historical perspective
and made it difficult, if not impossible,
for Federal and Confederate to appraise
p
accrately one another's character. That
time is now happily passing, if, indeed,
lit has not already passed. When Lee
surrendered at Appomattox a great
issue was decided. For four years Fed
eral and Confederate had struggled in
civil war Each side had spoken its
mind from the lannon's mouth. The de-
clanation was vociferous. the rhetoric
magnificent, the argument conclusive.
And when the foot-sore Confederate
soldier surrendered his gum, Wrt1ng the
hands of his comrades in silence, and
buttoning his parole in his faded gray
packet, as Grady has pictured him, be-
gan the slow and painful fomeward
Journey, he realized that the war was
over, that slavery was abolished, and
that heneeforth, the right to secede
from the Union could have no place in
the American polity.
This, however, was not the complete
significance of Appomattox. The. sur
render of Lees army, the parole of the
Confederate soldier, meant more than
the emancipation of race, more than
the political welding together of sep.
arate and individual States. It meant
that with the echo OF the last gun should
die every ignoble prejudice and mem
Dry; that beneath the repedding feat
ures of war should be discerned the
redeerning nobleness of both Federal
and Confederate; that a reciprocal con-
fidence should so1idify and purify our
political life; and, finally, that, as one
nation, we should become one people.
1t is not too much to say that this
larger significance of the titanic strug-
gle of forty years ago is now Under
stood and appreciated throughout the
Union. Recently, and especially within
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