The National tribune., 1906-11-08
THE MONUMENT TO w1Rz.

| hiNC stNIioieti stiiic. hS NSis ce-''
friends that the South has are the vet
Grams of the Grand Army of the Re-
public. Certainly men who fought four
years to maintain the National integrity
| and to keep the South in the Union
must necessarily have desires much
stronger than any other men for the
prosperity and happiness of that sec
ton and its being made contented
| and happy part of the land we love.
The veterans have shown this in every
way, particularly by going down intn
the South by thousands and devotins
their lives to building up that section
| to a plane corresponding with that Of
| the rest of the country. There are tens
of thousands of them now in the South
doing much of the best work that is
being done to develop the wonderful
natural resources of the region. To a
great degree Florida, especially, owes
its rapid development to the Union
NStcidh WIZ nave Dullt dl3
canals. planted orange and lemon
groves, instituted the pineapple indus
try and the trade in early vegetables,
all of which has added so much to the
wealth of the State. Except for the
pioneer labor of the far-seeing. enter
prising comrades Florida would be to-
day what it was before the war-a land
of swamps and alligators, with only a
few poorly-paying cotton plantations
and other industries struggling alone
far behind the procession: What is true
of Florida is true in more or less de-
gree of all the other Southern States.
Everything that has worked for The
warmest encouragement from the men
who composed the armies which
marched over that country and who
as they camped and fought thru Dixie
saw the wonderful possibilities, waiting
only for the hand of thrift and enter
prise to develop them.
That The National Tribune has had
much to say about the horrors of An
dersonville, Salisbury and other South
ern prisons has not been in rancor to-
ward the Southern people. who We're
never held responsible for them but TO
bring to just recognition the heroism of
the men who endured those horrors
and to point out convincingly and eff
fectively the cost to those men of saw
ing the Union and making possible all
the blessings which the country at large
now enjoys. We have felt that the
Southern people, as a people, were not
to blame for the atrocities of its pris-
ons because those people were engaged
in great war which engrossed all their
energies and distracted their attention
from such minor things as the man.
agement of the military prisons. The
responsibility for those monstrous
crimes lay directly at the door of the
cabal of Secession politicians who had
wickedly and wantOnly brought On the
war and plunged peaceful land into
the terrors of internecine conflict At
the head of this cabal was jefferson
Davis, who indubitably had guilty
knowledge of all that occurred and di-
rected and sanctioned it. His chief
agent was Gen. John H. Winder, then
who as Provost Marshal of the South
ern Confederacy had made himself de-
tested thruout the South. Henri Wirz
was one of the vile tools in carrying
out their designs. but in addition to
doing what they directed him he sup
plemented crimes of the worst kind
upon his own volition and responsible
ty. This, in its briefest form, is the
whole case against Wirz.
We have always wished for the credit
of the men who fought bravely and long
for the Southern Confederacy that this
gruesome story should be forgotten,
except what was necessary to know to
illustrate the grand heroism and forti-
tude of the victims of worse than the
horrors of the Inquisition inflicted upon
them by Davis, Winder and their sateI-
lites. But the subject will not down.
Misguided women in the South will in
sist on bringing 1t to the front, parad-
ing it and inviting public attention to
all the terrible details. They will not
be satisfied without having the most
repulsive, shameful chapter in the his
tory of the rebellion brought out into
the broad sunlight of history for public
review and consideration. An Asso-
ciated Press dispatch from the little
village of Americus, Ga, dated Oct. 81,
reads:
''At the annual meeting of the Geor-
gia Division, United Daughters of the
Confederacy, to-day a report of Mrs.
A. B. Hull, of Savannah, the President
who last year inaugurated the plan to
erect a monument to Maj. Henri Wirz
the Andersonville Prison keeper, was
read, in which she speaks of opposi-
tion to the plan in some sections as
follows:
There was never any object un-
dertaken by our Society that has met
with such widespread interest, such
loyal support and such violent antag-
onism. The latter has taken the wild
est form, indulged in the most insane
abuse, not sparing in any way the wo-
men of the Georgia Division or the
South in general, and we have answer
ed never a word, but have simply gone
on and proved our case and mean to es-
| tablish the truth forever. when we un-
vail our monument. A campaign of
education ii has verify been. for / do
| not believe any of us knew how ignOr-
ant We were of the history of that
| period until we went into this matter,
as we have been obliged to do in order