The National tribune., 1906-08-23
THE wIRz MONUMENT.

| one OF the annoying Things az tne
National Encampment was the project
of the United Daughters of the Con-
federacy to erect monument to the
brutal Wirz, of Andersonville infamy.
There was much division of sentiment
among the comrades as to the propriety
of taking action upon this. While such
monument is the deepest and most
| fragrant insult that can be offered to the
loyal people of the North, great many
| felt that it was the act of a little set OF
unreconstructed old women in the South
who hate the yankees with viru-
lence that only old vixens can feel. and
that it was better to treat the matter
with silent contempt. Nothing can pre-
vent their erection of a monument of
some kind. and nothing would go far
ther toward building such a monument
than to have these old shrews feel that
they were doing something to nag and
irritate the loyal people of the country
1t would be grateful sop to their. in
famed vanity by tickling them with
the idea that they were getting promi-
nence and distinguishing themselves by
"aggravating' the Yankees. With this
belief the majority of the Committee
on Resolutions voted to lay the resolu-
ton on the table, but under the elo-
uuent presentation OF the matter by
Commander -in-Chief Tanner and Com
rade Ketchum, of Indiana, it was de-
cided to appeal to the good sense and
Ii af T,it tnI fnln at q
Veterans to suppress this ill-timed in
suit to the North and this firebrand TO
set afame again the bitterness of sec
tiOnal feeling. 1t is to be hoped that
the United Confederate Veterans will
take action to prevent their misguided
women from doing an act that cannot
help having the most injurious conse-
quences.
The case of the promoters of the
monument is based upon absolute false
hoods. They claim that Wirz was exc
cuted because of his steadfast refusal
to implicate Jefferson Davis in the hor-
rors of Andersonville. This is absurd
on its very face. The completely of jeff
Davis in that colossal tragedy is fully
established by evidence outside of
Wirz-by the reports of his own in
spectors, whose reports set forth fully
all the cruelties that were practiced
there and which cost the lives of $4,000
Union soldiers. Wirz was not executed
for oheying Jefferson Davis's orders or
the orders of any of his Immediate su-
periors. but he was justly hanged for
private, personal acts done of his own
wicked volition and in utter violation of
the laws of war. These acts were proved
upon him by the testimony of more
than $50 witnesses who saw him COM
nit these crimes.
In the gigantic tragedy of Anderson
vile the miserable little personality of
Wirz was as Insignificant as that of
Czolgosz in the awful tragedy of the
death of Mckinley. In both cases it
so happened that miserable little ras-
cal was able to do lncalculable wrong.
verse why personality so contempti-
BILE is capable of such gigantic wrong.
and the people who would build a
monument to Wirz are of the same type
and class as those who would build one
to the assassins Of Mckinley, Garfield
and Lincoln. They belong to the same
order, and the proposition of the Daugh-
ters of the Confederacy puts them in
the same despicable array as would be
those who would perpetuate the men,
ory of the infamous CZolgosz or Guiteau.
They only reveal themselves as lost to
all the feelings which should animate
men and women.