The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-17
Dr. Cave of St. Louis Deliv-
 CTS Eloquent Annual Grafton
PROMISES MEMORIES
 OF WAR WILL LIVE
Camp Shaver Is Compared To Gar- den of Paradise By General Gordon-Select Meeting
 Place Today

| | Little Rock, May 1s-Greetings from President Taft. to which message in kind will be sent in response tonnor- row the annual oration. delivered by R. C. Cave of St, Louis: addresses of welcome and the name of the committees
 made up today's proceedings of the re- union of United Confederate Veterans
 The death of a veteran--w E. Smith of Cookville. Tex.-oast a gloom over
 Camp Shaver. His death Is attributed to
 heart failure. snperlndueed by excite ment.
 The address of Gen. James F. Smith,. commanding the Arkansas division, open ing the convention, was brief. He re- ferred to the events of the war of 186l- | 65, the days of reconstruction the organ izaton of the veterans and the 21 years
 history of that organization.
 After the invocation by the Rev R. Lin Cave, chaplain general, the United Con- federate cholrs, led by Mrs. J. Griff Ed
 wards of Portsmouth, Va, sang southern songs.
 Gov. George w Donaghey of Arkansas
 welcomed the delegates on behalf of the | state Dr. H. H. Hartzog of the United | Sons of Confederate Veterans delivered an address of welcome, in the course of | which he reused the assembly to frequent | cheers by his promise to the veterans that their descendants would keep alive the memories of the war. | William M. Kavanaugh, who was 70 | have delivered an address of welcome Tn | behalf of the general reunion committees | of which he was chairman, was detained at his home by illness said to have been brought about by the stress of work at | tending the final preparations for the | l..f. alro incl Had orfF Junius Jordan, in behalf of the Arkan- | sas veterans; Mayor Charles E. Taylor, | of Little Rock, for the city, and Col George L. Basham, commander of Omer
 R. Weaver camp veterans. Little Rock
 Gordon Makes Reply To these addresses, through which ran the spirit of civic pride and desire to ac-
 cord honor to the old soldiers, the reply
 was made by the commander-n-chief, Gen GeorFe W Gordon, who rxaia. . Y lie city fer It's hosetaiifs anl the man. z her in which it's offering had, been accom- . plished. though attended. According to
 the speaker. by personal incopvenience to whole families.
 Your generosity overwhelms usA said
 General Gordon.
 For you, my comrades, has been pDe- pared the most ideal camping groun6 ever found at any reunion. l do not think 1t would be irrevorent for me fos
 
 i den we might have imagined in far-of | paradise
 The appointment of committees and | announcements completed the first ses- 7 | sion, and after a recess of two hours the convention re-convened to hear the annual oraton.
 Quoting tine scriptures and Shake
 speare, as well as other poets: appealing to history, as well as the constitution | of Yhe United States, citing such author | and setting forth
 what he termed "the principles on which the union, as formed by the fathers, was founded" R. c. Cave, of St. Louis, de- liyered the annual oration and said tnat
 he accepted "the changed conaitions
 brought about by the war between the
 sections" but while wishing it under-
 stood that he was merely discussing tho | facts of history, he finally declared;
 "I hold that the responsibility for tho war. with all the blood and treasure that it cost. and all the desolation and rum that it wrought, justly rests upon Apra- ham Lincoln and his advisers. | The speaker began with a tribute to the lsouth he discussed the memories kept alive by reunions of the veterans and their descendants, he deplored any efforts to keep alive bitter sectional feeling, and said:
 Tribute to South
 "T most earnestly desire 10 see the lDoOple or DOtn Secllous fuitu ny tht SPifs of fraternity and harmoniously working together for the welfare of our common country: but don't think the men of the south should be asked or expected to sac rifice the truth of history and go down to posterity branded as rebels and trai- tors to secure that end.
 I Mir Cave declared a fallacy the theory that references to war history in the south frightened away capital from the north. asserting that northern money usu- ally goes where 1t will yield its owners ] larger returns than elsewhere. In support | of the theory that financiers are non-sec1 tional he declared that investors of New England loaned their money to Great Britain during the war of 1872 rather than furnish 1t to their own country. which the speaker said was in sore straits for funds at that time.
 Constitutional governments administra-
 ton, according to the speaker, brought
 about the war of the early eos and he asserted that the south stood for the con- stitution against the north. Slavery, he
 declared to be but an incident in the con troversy preceding Lincons sending of
 warships to enter Charleston harbor. which. he said caused the bombardment
 of Sumter and precipitated the war. Lin
 coin again exceeded his authority under
 the constitution declared the speaker, when he called out the militia and called for 75,oOo men to invade the south and
 but for this wilful procedure, 1t Is safe I to say there would have been no war" Here the speaker paid a tribute to 2 the bravery of both northern and i southern soldiers but said the fact re- , mains that in the war the soldiers of the south won the large measure of glory"
 An Old Soldiers Memories r When the Confederaey fell, according , | to Dr. Cave the republic as formed by f the fathers, perished, the states were s robbed of their independence and be-
 came subject provinces of a centralized r national authority "and they tell us , that this is best. and it may be so, but I beseech you to pardon an old Confed- crate soldier, who is perhaps blinded . by memories that some times fill his eyes with tears, if he cannot see it so; , and believing as history teaches, that
 patriotism is most ardent and freedom = most secure in small communities,
 would today rather have his own state I as his crowned queen and owe to her , his highest political allegiance. than
 be a subject of the miGhtiest richest
 and most glorious empire that ever : --->-~~----