The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-27

do this, notwithstanding our sufferings and our losses, if we could have called from their graves, our fathers, our brothers, and our husbands, to come and share in common with us. the hardships and the struggles Incident to the restoration of a fallen and de- stroyed country; but our voices could not be heard whence they had gone lover the river to rest under the shade of the trees" and all we can do for them. for ourselves, Is to speak in praise of their virtues, courage and heroism, and bedeck their humble rest ing places with the flowers of spring time, and always to remember them with loving affection, and shed tears who gave their lives for the cause, and whose eyes closed in death, with hope still lingering in the heart, that the cause for which they had sacri- feed so much, would yet triumph.
 Love for Soldiers.
 Others may do as they please, but as for me, while life lasts, shall not for get the Confederate soldier, either fallen or yet surviving.
 When 1 look into memory's picture gallery I see 80 many things to stir the better impulses of my heart. that I derive therefrom both pleasure and glorious country, warmed by the Southern sun, bedecked with the beau tiful Southern flowers, peopled by a peaceable and law-abiding population,
 
 leges secured to them under the Con- stitutiOn, and laws enacted by our common forefathers, I see all these threatened with overthrow andede-- struction. When forbearance had ceased to be virtue. l see the aged and the young, and the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, rushing to the defense of homes and firesides. How well l mind me of the days when the boys marching to the music of the fife and the drum, to the fields where problems as momentous as death were to be decided by the are bitrament of the sword. They were decided against us as already indicat- ed.
 that, barring the heartaches, the grief, the tears, the loss of property, and the struggles for a livelihood, that the trou- bles growing out of the great civil strife like the clouds after the storm, had measurably passed away, but in this, as subsequent events show, they were vastly mistaken. They had over estimated the magnanimity of those with whom the great struggle had been waged. They believed that having been overcome by the sheer~4orce of numbers, they would be permitted to rest in peace. and pursue the even tenor of their way. in the great strug- gle to build up their country and re- claim the waste places. In this thsy were mistaken. As I have already said, they over estimated the magma ulmltY ana generosity OI lhe pSOple with whom they had the struggle, and they underestlmated the venom and envy and spleen and hatred of that same anniversary.
 Crime of ReconstrucflOn.
 The contention had been throughout the struggle. that the Southern States were not out of the Union, and when that question had been submitted to the arbitrament of the sword, and had been decided in favor of the Northern contention, and the people of the South had been Invited to send representa- tives to participate fin the administra- ton of public affairs, then It was that they were snubbed and denied q place in the Union, which their forefathers had aided so wonderfully. as we shall presently see, in creating and maintain ing, and the crime of the ages was com nitted by them in enacting in Con- gress the reconstruction laws, laws which had for their object and only purpose the maintenance of the power of the Republican Party, and the hu- initiation and shame of the Southern people. The boast was made from Maine to California, and from he Great Lakes to the Gulf, that the bot tom rail should be placed on top in the effort to accomplish this vile purpose The best men of the country were met