Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-06-01

JUNE I, 1907
have Deen mistaken in our judgment.
If those southerners were not honest
In their advocacy of state rights how
can you account for the actions OF
Robert Il. Lee? Study the history OF
the man any way you will, and you
will find him noble, true hero through
and through. He certainly did not en-
ter the southern army for fame. Had
he stayed In the northern army he
might have been commander of all the
United States forces. He knew he was
slated as the successor Of Winfield
Scott. Surely that was fame enough
for any man. He did not enter the
southern army for mercenaiy motives.
He was already wealthy in his own
right. and Arlington Heights, his home,
was lust across the Potomac. He knew
that IL he entered the southern cause
his property might be coniscated ana
his homestead demolished. Yet with
out hesitation he sacrificed an honora-
BILE position, land, family homestead
and money, and threw them all into
the southern cause. Then study the
life of Robert +. Lee after the civil
war. Even amid poverty, after his
great pillared mansion had been ex-
changed for an old tumbledown negro
hut. not fit for an Outhouse or cattle
pen. he was brave enough to refuse TO
take n position offering a great finan-
cial income, because he did not want
to do another an injustice.
Accepted the Decision.
These flags were returned to the
southern states for another reason
not only did the north realize that the
southerners were honest men, but they
found that they were reconstructed
men. The southern leaders Loyalty ana
gracefully accepted the decision of the
sword and regarded It as decided for
ever. They were willing to confess
that under no conditions would they
ever attempt to get their slaves back
again. These great facts were the
mighty means Of welding the hearts OF
the American people together even
more strongly than they were united
| before.
Now. let us impartlally consider the
slave question, which was indirectly
the cause Of that civil war. Way back
in the time of Thomas Jefferson the
Sage Of Monticello advocated the
emancipation Of the negro slave. But,
though Thomas Jefferson was In many
WAYS the strongest statesman the south
| ever produced, all the planters rose up
in arms Absurd! Absurd! they
| cried. "You free the slaves and the
cotton plantations will be ruined. We
| must have the slaves or die" This
was the stand Of the south. Most OF
the southerners deprecated the holding
of slaves. but they did not see how
the plantations could be cultivated
without them. Yet no sooner were
the slave. emancipated than the plant
ers rubbed their eyes and awoke to
the fact that the plantations were bet
ter off with hired labor than when
cultivated by slaves. They could make
more money out of their cotton crops
by hiring field hands than by owning
them. The result was that, whereas
before the war nInety-nine southern
men out of a hundred wanted slavery
TO exist. today, If put to the southern
vote. ninety-nine men out of. q hundred
would refuse to take back their slaves
even If they could This Is a sociolog
icnl fact Of the southern labor problem
with which every intelligent American
student is we'll conversant.
A Dead Issue.
Second fact: When the god of battles
decided the civil strife the southerner
almost to a man were ready to accep
that decision. When Finland was con
ouered by the Russians in 1909 and Al
soce and Lorraine were conquered b.
Germany in 1871 and Spain and ltal.
and Holland and Naples and Westpha
lia were conquered by France IN tn
Napoleonic wars these people wer
| | compelled to bend the knee at ID
, ! stroke of the sword, but they ant
. their conquerors never became one
Finland today is no more Russian ina
! it Is japanese. Alsace and Lorraih
t I may pay their taxes to Germany pu
their hearts are In the Tuileries. \
sooner did Napoleon abdicate than ID
, | kings and queens whom he had Ut
: posed were gladly welcomed back
q their people to their vacated thrones
. Not thus was the ending of the CIV
war. The southern people are not
2 subiugated people. They are not PEI
o ple trembling at the sound OF the cal
y ! mons explosion. They are peop
who had an issue. They said, Let
decide this issue once for all at IL
connon's mouth" And when the 90
, of battles decided against them thef
!. reople said, The issue Is forev'
n dead" The northerner said: her
:, mon of the south, here are your nag
i We have no differences today. Tai
n them back as heroic emblems OF yo'
I. glorious deeds on many battleheld
r. Take them and keep them for yo'
+ children to look upon with reverend
4 and awe. They are yours and not our
&c We are all brothers, Of one race al
|, one nation" Oh, today thank COO III
r. these questions are all settled and tn
r. all the old heartburnings are owe
10 The returning OF the southern nal
d proves 1t.
There was still another reason wi
id those old flags were returned. !
=? sooner was the war over than Z
,a southern men began to work side
id side with their northern countrym
le for the upbuilding of the nation. Th
le dropped the sword for the piow' I
no | oun fo- the moving machine. u