The National tribune., 1906-08-16
ANNUAL GRAND
REVIEW OF THE GAR.
0,nntinned frnfn naca twoN

Continued from page two.)
munications concerning the proposition
to erect at or near Andersonville a
monument in honor of Capt. Wirz, who
was in charge of Andersonville Prison.
Most of these communications were
appeals addressed to me as Command
er-in-Chief, imploring me to take steps
TO prevent the erection of such a mon
ument. and urging me, if necessary to
that end. to lay the matter before Con-
gress. or to bring it to the attention of
the President.
Needless to say the comrades thus
appealing to me had given very little
consideration to the question of the
power of the Commander-in-Chief in
this matter, or the Courts or Congress,
or the President of the United States
himself. The slightest research as to au-
thority would have shown them that no
such power exists in either of the quar-
terS named.
Andersonville is the property of the
Woman's Relief Corps, and of course
on that property no monument to Wirz
will ever be permitted. but on the other
hand there is no legal power in the
Nation to prevent anyone SO disposed
from purchasing a plot of ground con-
Tiguous to Andersonville and erecting
thereon any monument they may
desire to-
The veterans of the Confederate
army are not, to any appreciable de-
gree interested in this movement. 1t
has its impetus and force among the
woman of the South. j first learned of
the movement early in the year. and
quietly and earnestly canvassed the
matter with quite number of promi-
nent eX-Confederates, for / recognized
on the first mention thereof that such
matter carried out would do more to
Interrupt the flow of good feeling be-
tween the North and the South and
would roll back more effectively the
waves of reconciliation than any other
one matter which the mind of man
could conceive of.
At first a number of Confederates
whom l talked with about the matter
secuted the idea of there being any
probability of any such thing being
done. My answer to that was that
considered it "a serious movement, be-
cause their women was interesting
themselves in it, and L had noticed that
they generally danced to the music set
by their women.
good many of them had no hesita-
ton in privately telling me that they
agreed with me that the erection of
the memorial to such a character as
that possessed by the Fiend of Ander-
sonville could have no practical result
except to smirch TO greater or less
degree every memorial erected
throughout the South to the real rep
resentatives of valor in the Confederate
army.
As one who welcomes with joy every
movement calculated to assauge the
lingering pains of that mighty conflict,
I deprecate to the last degree any
movement of the kind proposed and l
think that il is due to ourselves to our
great organization, and to the truth of
history, that this Encampment should
place on record before the public at
large a most forcible but dignified pro-
test against any such impious shaft be-
Ing permitted to raise its head towards
high Heaven
Some of my correspondents of the
gentler sex in the South have under
taken to Justify the movement on the
asserted ground that more Southern
prisoners of war died in Northern pris-
ons than there were of our comrades
who died in Southern prisons. 1 am
not prepared to dispute The truth of
that statement, but if it be g. true state |
ment the natural inquiry arises Why"
And the intelligent, complete and truth |
ful answer is found in the fact that the |
men of the South whom we took pris-
oners were, to a large extent, in an
emaciated condition when captured;
they were poorly clad and shod 1t is
q AoSl must luliE programmed III every
article written from the Southern
standpoint regarding the cost of that
war that their men frequently suffered
from great scarcity or total absence Of |
rations. Almost every Southern writer
has dealt more or less with a meal
made from roasted ear Of corn.
These prisoners of war coming to US
JUS poorly nourished came from the
Junny climate of the South to be of ne
cessity exposed to the greater rigor of
the severer climate of the North, and
they sunk, many of them, into death
under physical conditions which moth
Ing could prevent. Our men, on the
contrary, who went TO their death in
Southern prisons entered them in splen-
did physical condition. There is no ex-
cuse before God or man for the fate
that befell them.
The subject is one which I deprecate
extremely the necessity of calling to
public attention. 1t is a matter which
I would much have preferred that the
hallowing effects of time might have
wiped from the memory of man, but
nnder the circumstances, standing
where l do, / have felt 1t would be
rowardly not to make mention of this
matter as 1 have.
Pensions.
On the subject of pensions I have
communicated to the Order at large
pnder date of May last. in Circular
No. 2, when / said: When / was elected
1t Denver last September told the En-
campment that the will of the Order
as expressed at that meeting, would be
the law and the lode star of my admin
lstration. At the same time ] told you
that l should not have the disposition
to, fguratively speaking, run my head
against a stone wall" I told you that
] was in hearty accord with the ex-
pressed desire of the Encampment for
the service-pension law, which would
give $12 per month to every survivor of
the Union armies receiving less than
that, or none at all, and also heartily
In favor OF the proposed amendment to
the law increasing the pension of Wild
ows from IS to S12 per month. At the
same time l. stated that there were
three men sitting In the Encampment
upon whom I should call for counsel
and assistance in laying the matter
properly before President Roosevelt.
named IN that connection Gen. Gren-
Vile NJ. Dodge, of Iowa; Past Com
mander-in-Chief Gen. John C. Black,
President of the L. S. Civil Service Com
mission, and Past Commanders l-Chief
Maj. William Warner, u. S. Senator
from Missouri. Acting in accordance
with that announced intention, when
returned home to Washington I had an
interview with President Roosevelt told
him as near as l could exactly what had
been done by the Encampment. and
what l had said to you. When / named
the three men TO him he said: That's