The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-10

N'llCa2O, ADIll 49,
81 yet of the Hamilton Club, which is
,eld each year on the anniversary of
he surrender at Appamattox, was held
tonight in the Auditorium Hotel A
i ;arge number of guests were present,
and many came from distant states.
Ex-Congressman Francis w. Cushman
4 of Tacoma, Wash, was to have dellV-
cred an address, but was unable to be
,resent because of the death of his
8 father. The other addresses were by
! Ienry Watterson of Louisville, KY,
4 Rev. Thomas p. Cree Cedar Rapids,
4 owa. and Edward L. Hamilton of
i Ticbigan. Col. Watterson spoke, in
4 art. as follows:
81 want to talk to you tonight, not
as a Democrat to Republicans, but as
an American to Americans. | nave
\ llways resisted and resented the IDEA
4 that rhrty lines are lines of battle; that
\ party issues are >proclamatlons OF war
4 Our government rests upon the theory
4 that we are equal shareholders in
= common property.
'The 18th of April, 1861, Sumter fell.
4 The 9th of April 1865, Lee surrendered
The four years intervening between
those dates, marking the beginning and
Il he end of the most momentous struS-
4 lie of modern times, witnessed such an
a utpouring of blood and treasure, such
isplays of courage and endurance,
81 Ich sacrifices for opinions sake, as
tagger human credulity and beggar
II like the powers of computation and
.capitulation Never in any preced-
80 war was there so little of public
n yrong, so much of private generosity;
\ or ever were the results of any war
90 complete and final. Elsewhere upon
j the surface of the earth traces may
yet be seen, sometimes yet lurking in
| the hearts of men sensibilities may be
J found, of strifes, religious, or racial
4 international or civil one, two and
three centuries agone; in America not
Vestige except what springs from
y associated charities and reciprocal min
4 istratiOns of patriotism and beneVo-
4 lence Northern men and women mark
and decorate the last resting place of
3Southern soldiers who died in federal
4 risons. Confederate officers sit in both
ouses of Congress and upon the bench
II / the national judiciary, and have re-
eatedly served in presidential cabi-
ets and represented the country
broad. At least, two Confederate
Il generals wear the uniform of the Unit
ed States army, glad to be assured that
dies shall wave over their graves The
thief magistrate of the United States
is half Southerner and all a rebel;
God bless him, and may the Lord keep
him in the path of wisdom and vir-
tllei
Il CHANGED to be in Europe a little
While after the war. Such trihing dis
\ notions as Federal and Confederate
ere unknown: All of us were Yam
ses. Then and there, l took a bee
ne in the direction of the bunting,
nd have been smuggling beneath it's
olds from that day to this. / do not
elieVe in slavery. l did not believe in
ecessiOn. Heavens, if 1 had! But
hat is the use specializing about in
1njectural possibilities? The doctrine
secession did not originate at the
i outh, but at the North; it was not
n he South that brought the negro from
africa, but the North. In the very
\ BEGINNING the seeds of dissolution
we're sown. The makers of the con-
a titution left the exact relations of the
ederal government to the states and
thea states to the federals governs
'ent open to a double construction.
"A claiming thence the right to secede,
] ancey followed after Pickering, JEFF
erson Davis after Gouveneur Morris.
uriously enough. this right Of seces-
ion, such as it may be, stands yet in
! he constitution unchallenged and un-
bridged.
II did not come here tonight TO ex-
lott myself, or to join in the ex-
nange of immaterial compliments,
oWever agreeable. came because 1
ought l might contribute something
the common stock of information
'uching the present relations of the
[orth and the South. There is al
eady peace between the sections
4 |eVer since the creation of the gov
n rnment has there been a greater uni
4 ormity deeper effusion of national
4 ointment. We are not merely a
7 nited people, we are homogeneous
4 eople. Mississippi and Massachu-
etts are convertible terms, and it
eeds only few weeks, and a change
~ ralment, to convert a typical Yer
lonter into typical Texan.
The justification for this is the po-
teal entity, the partisan quantity,
noWn as the Solid South. 1t is, let
lie entreat you to believe, a specious
i Justification. 1t is the fault of the Re
publican party, not of the white peo-
lie of the Southern states, that the
n outh is solidly Democratic. From the
"a cath of Lincoln to the advent of Nc
4 ,inley, the Republican party threw out
o friendly signal to the whites of the
)uth, made no effort to establish it,
y If in the South on any sound, endur-
4 lring basis. 1t was known to the
)uth only through it's reconstruction