The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-08-08

commemorative of the service of the
Confederate Navy on the Mississippi
river and it's tributaries during the
CyiI War, Senator Dixon, of Montana,
. native of North Carolina, made a
speech upon North Cardinals part in
the Confederacy. That speech has
been widely commended. and it is
given as follows in the Congressional
Record:
Tuesday, July IS, 19i1.
Mr.. Dixon: Mr.. President. it is
much easier at times to vote in ac-
cordance with your feelings Of senti-
ment than it is in accordance with a
strict sense Of public duty, and I ON
TESS that this bill raises q question in
my MIND which makes me somewhat
halt betWee two opinions. I am a
member of the Committee on Military
Affairs, and this is the first time I
knew that this bill had ever been re-
ported to the Senate. That probably
is on accoun of my dereliction of
duty in not attending at all times
every meeting of the committee.
1t is a little difficult for me person
ally to express my real feelings re-
garding a matter Of this kind. am a
Southerner born, Mr.. President. My
mothers people erved in the Confed-
crate army, while my fathers kins-
men. some of them. served in the
army for the preservation Of the
Union. ] think, without a feeling of
egotism, that / can therefore look on
the period of the Civil War with as
broad and catholic a spirit as any
patriotic American citizen can do.
Personally, I lave only the greatest
feeling of admiration for the heroic
men who laid down their lives for the
lost cause of the Confederacy. I oub
whether in all history there is any
more superb example Of devotion to
what they believed to be a principle
than that which inspired the people
OF the South from 1861 to 1865. At
the same time the principle for which
they contended was eternaliy wrong.
tt was one of the questions which rise
from a great disturbance Of mems
minds. not questioning any mans
feeling of right or wrong in the mat
ter, But looking back As years to
that period. we know that the prin-
Cipie for which the South commended
was wrong, that it would have been
fatal 10 the very existence of repubi-
can institutions.
I further want to supplement that
10y referring to something the Senator
from Iowa (Mr. Cummins) said a few
moments ago. / remember two years
ago this summer visiting the battle
~ u Ielly SDulS III GULL 0hS 1
the Senator form Iowa (Mr. Cum
mins) and the Senator from Nebraska
(Mr. Brown. / do not believe I have
ever spent a day where my feelings OF
pure patriotism were SO enlightened
and ennobled as the IL hours that we
spent on hat battle field that morning
and afternoon. I remember when We
reached the point on Cemetery Ridge
where Pickett's charge broke through
the Union lines 1 was telling the Sen
ator from Iowa the story of the
TWenty-sixth North Carolina Regi-
ment that was recruited in my own
county and in which charge some Of
my own kinSmen laid down their lives.
II was with a feeling Of pride that /
told him the story of h record Of the
TWenty-sixth North Carolina Infantry,
which held the record of both armies,
Federal and Confederate, for loss in
battle during the Civil War; and when
We eaCh the point where the big
bronze book lay open at the little
cIump of trees, with the line under
meath on the pedestal High tide at
G~ettysburg,' telling on one side the
story of the valor and bravery and
heroism Of the men h wore the
gray and on the opposite page Of the
bronze book the valOr and heroiSm
and devotion of the men who wore
the blue, I took off my hat-not met
aphorically, but physically-for il
seemed to me that We stood on holy
ground.
At that point, in passing. ] want tx
correct a little error that has crepi
into the school histories and maya
zines and newspaper history OF this
country relating to that phase of the
Civil War.
The ordinary school history anC
magazine article refer to hat heroic
charge Of heroic men as the charge o.
RICKETTS, E~irginians. General George
Pickett was himself a Virginian. Blu
as a matter of cold fact and aetua
history the majority of the men whe
constituted Pickett's division tina