The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-07-02

labor of their people turned to ashes
aggreSating not less than $4,000 0OO,-
200
This gives the total cost of the war
In dollars and cents to the whole coun-
try to tho present year. excluding the
value of the slaves and excluding in
terest paid on the national debt since
June 30, 1879. not less than SI5,50e,-
100000 sum which It staggcrs the
human mind to comprehend.
Let us see what could have been
done with this great sum had il been
applied to productive instead OF to de-
Dtructve purposes. IL would have en-
abled the government TO havo paid
sl,0oo apiece for every slave in the
country. double their actua, value, and
also to hnve provided $500 apiece for
each emancipaied slave---man woman
ana child--with which to begin their
lives of freedom, or to acquire for
them and settle them in land of
their own under the protection of
the United states. IL that course
for them. and after that was ac-
complished to have built a network OF
$4,000 miles of railroads nj $4,000 a
mile, about the then average cost OF
SUCH roads in the country, and in ad-
dition to that to have built 100000
miles of flrst-class turnpike roads at a
colt of $4,000 a mile. or 250 miles OF
such turnpikes in every average coun-
~ OF the country; and after that to
nave built and equipped Atty school
houses In each average county In the
country at an average cost of $4,000
each: and after all OF that expenditure
Tor the public benefit to have set apart
a fund of $4,000. 600. 600 rs permanent
general educational endowment fund.
the annual interest on which at per
per cent. per annum. would have been
Seo,0o0,o00 a year forever for the edu-
cation OF the children OF the country,
Such, In terms of constructive. crAa-
tive and beneficial expenditure. was
the prodigious cost to the country of
the adoption of the alternative of war
and of the revolutionary overthrow of
slavery.
But These Were the Least of the Items
of That Tremendous Price.
The fmmeasurably greater cost of
those results was :hc price paid in
the holocaust OF lives OF valuable cit
liens; in the unspeakabie suffering
and agony endured b. the women of
our land and the people at home. as
well ms ny the soldiers in the field and
In the hospitals; in the peril. the
strain. the shock and the harm to the
institutions and the Constitution OF
our undivided country; and last, but
not least bnleful. in the demoraliza ton
in public and in private life which at
tended and followed in the wake of
the war of arms-a price which Is be-
You'd any computation which can be
expressed in terms which the human
understanding can grasp.
|, and those who cherish these con
victions. must not be misunderstood
we fully and profoundly realize the
truth of the proposition that the Union
of these States should never he dis.
rupted; that this republic should be
one and indivislble--an indissoluble
Union of free and indcstructible States
We also rejoice. as we'll for tina
white man as for the black man. that
negro slavery has been abolished
What we claim is that these results
might and should have been accom-
plished in some better way than by
the waging OF cruel and destructive
war of coercion, and subjugation upon
the southern seeded states
For Virginia There Was No Election OF
War Peace.
Already. against her couusels and
entreaties. war had been begun. and
II was necessary for her either to take
part in what she believed and knew
to be an unconstitutional and unjust
war Tor the conquest of the seven Sc
coded States or else to meet with force
and arms the war OF subjusation.
which had been already begun by the
government at Washington.
Secession may have been a mistake;
resistance to coercion was duty
Without a moments faltering, with
courage and n self-ahnegation even
more glorious than that with which
IN the century before she had resisted
the attempt OF the British King to con-
quer Massachusetts, and impose des-
rotic rule upon all the American Col
onies. she threw herself into the dead
ly breach and met force with force,
and war with war For that decision
she and her sister Southern States can
nave no regrets. For the heroism of
their sons in the ordeals OF FIRE and
sword, and blood and death which fol-
lowed we are here to-day to make our
grateful acknowledgements
The Field OF Fame.
And presently. over yonder nearby
where now stands the Confederate
soldiers Home. there soon is to he
erected temple to commemorate all
the heroism and the sacrifices of the
men and women of the South in their
struggle for constitutional liberty. And
when the rapidly thinning ranks of
Survivors of that conflict shall no
longer need the refuge which fias
been provided for them there, may we
not hope that Virginia. and this city,
immortalized as the capital OF the Con
fedcracy and by its loyalty in peace
and In war shall set apart that entire
tract and beautify II as few other
spots on earth have been beautihed,
and dedicate II to all the glortes of
the Confederate South.
In this and other lands there have
beer attempts to create what have
been sometimes called temples of
fame" Let those hallowed precincts.
so beautified and glorified, be forever
known as The Field of Fame" and
he consecrated to the fadeless mem
cries of the Confederate South
And thither, under the shade of
lovely trees. and surrounded by beau
tiful flowers, which shall be planted
there by loving hands, let each of the
States whose soldiers fought under the
Stars and Bars of .the Confectionery
place the statues of one or more OF
their SONS who Were most illustrinIs In