The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-05-28

whose doubled fist is pummeling and
beating him. has an honest heart or
straight hair in his head, But after
the battle Ii over. after time has cooled
the blood. after our adversary may
have been laid away in his silent grave.
then Ne are able to look at our past
actions and those of our enemies as
through another's eyes. Then we see
that both Of us may have been honest
IN our ideas, but both or one of lis may
have been mistaken i'll our Judgment.
If those so,itherners We're 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 mercena. v motives.
He was already wealthy in his own
right, and Arlington Heights his home,
was Just across the Potomac. He knew
that If he entered the southern cause
his property might be contiscated and
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 tumhlcdown negro
hut not fit for an clubhouse or Il cattle
pen, he was brave enough to refuse TO
take position Offering Il 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 We're honest men. bat they
found that they were reconstructed
men. The southern leaders loyalty and
gracefully accepted the decision of the
sword and regarded it rs 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 We're the
mighty means of welding the hearts of
the American people together even
more strongly than they We're united
before
Now, let us impartialiy 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 We're
| the slaves emancipated thap 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 ninetynine southern
men out of hundred wanted slavery
| to exist, today. If put TO the southern
vote, ninety -nine men out of hundred
| would refuse to take back their slaves
| even If they could This Is n sociolog
| ical fact Of the southern labor problem
with which every intelligent American
student is we'll conversant.
| Dead Issue.
| Second fact: When the god of battles
| decided the civil strife the southerners
| almost to a man were ready to accept
| that decision. When Finland was con
quered by the Russians In 1900 and A.:
SAGE and Lorraine werd konquered by
Germany I'm 1871 and Spain and Italy
and Holland and Naples and Westpha-
lila were conquered by France in TN
| Napoleonic wars these people We're
compelled to bend the knee at the
stroke of the sword but they and
| their conquerors never became one.
Finland today Is no more Russian than
| 1t Is Japanese. Alsace and Lorraine
may pay their taxes to Germany. but
their hearts are IN the Tuileries. No
sooner did Napoleon abdicate than the
kings and queens whom he had de
posed were gladly welcomed back by
| their people to their vacated thrones.
Not thus was the ending of the civil
war The southern people are not a
subjugated people. They are not PEG
pie trembling at the sound of the can
mons explosion They are people
/ who had an issue. They said, LET US
decide this issue once for all at the
lannon's mouth" And when the god
Of battles decided against them these
people said. 1.-The issue Is forever
/ dnad Tho unrth prupr said. Here