The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-06-16
u ngratefQl Southernors
They Are Lacking in Gratitude for the Mapnanimty Of
the Government They Tried to Disrupt.


had been engaged in such an effort to
destroy the government. The Rebel
army had acted outrageously with the
| Union soldiers who had been taken
prisoners of war. Thousands OF war
prisoners were shut up in unsanitary
quarters with the deliberate purpose
| to cause their death by Ill treatment
and starvation.
| General Winder at Andersonville,
Istanding at one end Of the line of the
! graves of 10000 dead Union soldiers,
!! said boastfully: There lies the evil
dence OF more effective service to tn,
| Cnnfederacy than was ever effected BY
any twenty of Lees best regiments Of
!! soldiers" This is fair sample OF
! the chivalry Of the Confederate army
actuated by the spirit Of the Cause,
Even the Daughters OF the Confeder-
acy in Georgia have lately caused q
monument to be erected in honor OF
Dr. Henry Wirz, the brute IN charge
of the stockade wherein 10000 Union
| soldiers were confined in stockade
without shelter. half starved and kept
| in insanitary quarters with the ptr-
pose OF effectually incapatiting them.
Wirz was responsible for the whole
sale murder Of nearly $4,000 helpless
Union soldiers. He was hung for
murder therefor. The Daughters OF
the Confederacy in so doing show
| themselves to be of the same stuff as
Wirz. Contrast that with the govern
ment causing the erection of monu-
ments to the Rebel dead who died in
Union military prisons.
The southern people are such a
puerile, inconsiderate lot. They go at
things in such haphazard fashion,
without considering the cost or how
the end will be. In firing the inccnsid-
crate shot at Fort Sumpter, sounding
the death knell of million OF men,
they were like the child who tickled
the hoofs of mule with stick. The
child, however. learned to have better
sense. They were like the inconsider-
ate youth who undertook to drive the
fiery steeds of Helios, thereby setting
fire to the world. They did not CON
slider that they were hurting the
southern people into maelstrom that
would swallow them up. The mass Of
the southern people did not desire a
conflict. they were reused into It bv
unwise leaders who knew not what
they were doing. To hear the rain al
Standardization of the leaders now ii
may be realized the soft pap by which
they were beguiled. that one southern
soldier was more than equal to four
northern soldiers. and nonsense ike
that IS eagerly swallowed.
By systematic effort all over the
south It is sought to justify and plori,
fy the rebellion. Histories are falsif,ed
garbled and facts are misrepresented
SO as to throw around the confederacv
q gloss of glory 1t does not deserve.
It is like the efforts OF the anarchists
70 glorify the acts of the Chicago
pomb-throwers as being glorions
act in resistance to law and order
It Is like the prisoners in Sing Sing
prison. New York, in their publication,
Inc Star OF Hope, were to attempt to
gior1fy the prisoners as being brave
and fearless in their defiance of law hy
saying Of them as is probably true
that some of the best intellects in the
state are imprisoned here as victims
OF their principles; that they have the
perfect right to ignore the rights 3,
other people as to their persons and
property in their efforts to be indie
pendent themselves.
/ don't know as the Confederate vet
Grams can do any harm in their sci,
glorlfication but to themselves. Will.
they may show themselves to be ser
penis full Of venom, It can't bite an5
hurt anyone else.
JAMES H. ANDERSON.