The Republican., 1909-06-17
OUR SOUTHERN LETTER.
A Jefferson Davis Episode, and Some
Reflections on the Growing To-
gether of the Sections.

United States.
In the century that is gone, I
say.
In the room where I write hangs
santeen and sword. These are
hentoes of the war. They are
of the generation that preceded me
and I have already passed the half
century mark. The war was fin
lshed before I could draw that
sword from its scabbard.
Some of those who fought the
battles still remain, but the big
majority has gone. OF those that
are left, the most that I know have
settled their differences with Ap-
pomattox. l find the old veterans
mingling with each other, but do
not often hear them fighting about
their fight. They fight the battles
over and over, but in a singularly
amiable tone.
Ny old friend, Hollingsworth,
of Ohio, who after 50 many ears
of effort that l thought he would
never make it finally crowned his
ambitions by getting to Congress,
has excited himself and given the
papers something to print by be-
ing shocked because the State of
Mississippi gave to the war vessel
named for the State a set of silver
dishes on which is memorial OF a
former distinguished MisSissip-
plan, Jefferson Davis, Mr.. Hollings-
worth thinks the country is afront-
ed by the tribute to the dead lead
'er of the Confederacy.
The war ended away back in the
middle of the last century. Davis
is dead. Mississippi is loyal and
a valued member of the Union.
Her people venerate their famous
ders as do any other people,
/ Congress has named ship Of
lr after the State.
It will not hurt that ship to
We craven on its silver plate the
me of former Secretary Of War,
was a gallant soldier in the
3.xican War, and for years 4
>ember of Congress, serving in
9TH branches.
Now, I had no personal acquaint-
an&e with Davis, but I am well
enough convinced that he is dead
an I'd beyond the power of harm to
tho country, so I would imagine it
is Nust as well to quit soaring when
his name is mentioned. The peo-
pie of his State have long ago been
accepted as members of the Union
and if we are to accept them fairly
it is without any privilege of kick
ing about their attitude inthe civil
war whenever that war happens to
be mentioned. Reconstruction
seems to me to have wiped out all
old scores, and there is where we
should re-establish things.
I have builded a little granite
monument above my own soldier
dead iua cemetery back in Penn
sylvania town. But as I write,
my little girl is visitor at the
hospitable home of one Of the
kindliest old rebel soldiers in the
world, and with her are two other
girls, of about her age, whose
people are also from the northern
side of the border defined by the
war. And the boys were there
last week for no place seems to
these youngsters quite so heavenly
(as over at their adopted Uncle
Johns. A sweet faced mother
from farther south presides over the
home, and paradise is made up of
her kind.
Are these children and the old
people worried about the picture
of Davis on the silver plate of the
United States war ship Mississippi?
Hardly. This old veteran, who
had his fling from the glamour Of
of enlistment to the discomforts
of nothern winter in a military
prison, goes fishing with the boys,
nd brings in basket of peaches,
and tells stories to the girls, and
war
Oh, gracious that was years and
xaorc aoo aud that &c IOpo aoo