The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-20
TRIKING ADDRESS or CHAS FRANCIS ADAMS ON LEE

PEELED any Southern student, IL would
have been considered fractional matter.
He would plead most earnestly with me
always that I should attend more to my
studies and less to athletics and never
a harsh word during the entire period
Terrible War Penalty
Placed Upon South.
Tt remains to assign due weight and
value to these precepts and this great
example at Just that juncture and from
Just that man. And here, bearing In mind
the common countryside community I'd
which 1 belong as we'll as that now
address-I feel tread on dangerous
ground. What ! must necessarily say
will very susceptible of INSTRUMENTATION.
Speaking, however, In the true historical
spirit, rs throughout ! have sought to
do, must deal with this topic also as
best I can
Because no blood flowed on the scaffold,
and no confiscations of houses or lands
marked the close OF our War OF Secession,
1t has always been assumed by us Of thu
victorious party that extreme, indeed un-
precented, clemency was shown to the
vanquished, and that subsequently they
had no good ground of complaint or suffi-
cient cause for restiveness.
That history will accord assent TO this
somewhat self-complacent conviction Is
open to question. On the contrary, 1t may
not unfairly be doubted whether peo-
Pile PROSTATE after civil strife has often
received severer measure than was in
flicted on the so-called reconstructed Com
federate State during the years immedi-
ately succeeding the close Of strife.
Adam Smith somewhere defined Rebels
and Heretics as those unltcky per-
sons who. when things have come to II
certcn degree of violence. have the mis-
fortune to be of the weaker party.
Spoliaton and physical suffering have
immemorally been their lot The Con-
federate. 1t is true. VIXEN he ceased to
resist. escaped this visitation in its usual
and time approved form. Nevertheless,
he was by no means exempt from 1t.
In the matter Of conflscadon, 1t has been
computed that the freeing of the slaves
by act of war swept out of existence props
erty valued at some two thousand mill
lions; while. over and above this. Il sys-
TEN OF simultaneous reconstruction sub
iected the DISTINGUISHED master to the
rule of the enfranchised bondsman. For
community conspcuous1y masterful. and
notoriously quick to resent affront, to be
thus placed by allen force under the civil
rule of those Of different and distinctly
inferior race. only lately their property.
is not physical torment, it is true, but
that 1t is mild or considerable treatment
can hardly be commended.
Yet this-slave conhscation, and recon-
struction under African rule-was the
war penalty imposed on the States OF
the Confederacy. That the policy in
spired at the time a feeling OF bitter
resentment in the South was no cause
for wonder. Upon 1t time has already
recorded a verdict. Following the high
precedent set at Apromattox 1t was dis
tinctly unworthy. Conceived in passion,
1t ignored both science and the philosophy
OF craftsmanship: worse yet, 1t was un-
generous. Lee, for Instance. again set
ting the example, applied formally for
amnesty and a restoration of civil righta
within two months of his surrender. His
application was silently ignored; while
he died "a prisoner on parole the suf-
frage denied him was conferred on his
manumitted slaves Verify. 1t was not
alone the base Indian of the olden time
who threw a pearl away richer than
all his tribe"l
a.