The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-03-01

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the fortune to capture many distin-
guished men. One was Captain Co
burn, of Ohio. Another was General
Shafter. One of his prisoners he
said, expressed the hope that he
would be alive to see his captor safely
buried.
Then in a reminiscent mood he
continued:
But General Shafter must have
been very poor shot, for ! advanced
on him with my sabre and he shot
at me five times and never touched
me once. He gave me his pistol then
and told me it wouldn't do any good
unless | got his cartridges from the
baggage train.
Sure enough, three weeks after |
went with General Forrest, and while
the General took drink at the
station l went up and found the
cartridges. never used them,
though. I never fired a shot in the
whole war. l was the kind of a SOL
der who makes other people do the
fighting. If l had only had little
more sense might have stayed at
home and done it.
Throughout the earlier part of the
rebel" speech Senator Hepburn, who
recently detained against admitting
Lees statue to the Hall of Fame, sat
conspicuously reading book. AS he
went on Mr.. Gordon referred to his
intention to make peace and wipe out
the dividing line. When he had con-
cluded Mr.. Hepburn was one of the
first to go up and shake him by the
hand.
The old Confederate soldier said
that he was going back to his own
country, and that there, when he
would lie down and dream Of the days
gone by and the days he had passed
in Washington, D. c., he, like all 9TH
er Southerners, would sleep with the
sword of Damocles hanging over him.
The problem of the negro had yet to
be solved, he said, and he wanted the
aid of his colleagues in solving it.
He looked directly at Mr. Hepburn
and said.
81 am an old Confederate and you,
perhaps, are Union veteran. We
disagreed; you are the victor. But
we still think our generals good peo-
pie. That is all there is to it, though
we have with us yet some blab-
mouthed fellows who amt worth
cussin'.
"Our generals on both sides were
famous. We were conquered and
took the oath of allegiance. 1 can
raise my hand and say that have
never violated that oath, and l never
saw an old Confederate who had vio-
lated it. There is no North or South.
I stand here in my fathers house and
I T. am proud to be in it,"
Returning to the negro question, he
read poem to his old nanny to
show his sentiments. He told Mr..
Hepburn that he would like to take
| him South to his own home, show
him the life there and then return
with him to the Hall of Fame He
| added:
Then / will stand before the
statue of General Grant and you be-
fore General Lee. And will take
off my hat and yell for Grant, and l
think you will admit that Lee was a
pretty good fellow
AS for General Grant, / love him;
love everybody; l am the happy
man. But / am old, and though my
hair is still on, it is a-fallin'; leave
here before it drops out. I shall be
succeeded by a legal genius, Leroy
Percy"
While the applause still rung in
the ordinarily quiet chamber, Senator
Depew took the floor He said:
II have heard many farewell adj
dresses, and on Washington Birth
day / read one myself. But this is
unique in the literature of this house.
wish to say for the Senate, and I
am sure that every one will find his
sentiments when I say that in our
hearts we regret the departure of the
Senator from Mississippi No matter
what genius succeeds him he will
never be Senator Gordon"
/ Then the statesmen from both sides
of the chamber surrounded the Mis-
sissippan to attest to the truth of
Senator Depew's words.