The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-07-27
MAKES STRONG
REPLY TO BITTER
ATTACK OF SEN. HEPBURN
Plea for United People-Says That
If War Comes Again, It Will
Not be Started IN South.
Continued from first page.


did not sulk. They laid down the
musket and canteen and entered in
good faith all the armies of industry.
/ do not believe that man can be a
good citizen who will now stand any
where under the flag and attempt to
keep the sections of this union apart
Mr.. President, | am an American. |
believe in American ideals and Ameri-
can institutions. Every state in the
union is as much my state as Tennes-
see is my state, and the deeds of every
great American soldier in that war are
my heritage and the heritage of my
children.
Many times | have stood out there in
the rotunda before the statue of Ulysses
s. Grant, the leader of the union ar
mics, and my heart thrilled with pride
that he was an American, and | admir-
ed him for his genius in war and his
generosity to the south in peace, and
when | have turned away from him
and looked upon the statue of another
great American soldier, standing there
silent in the Hall of Fame in his Con-
federate uniform, / have won ered
how any American, whether in the
north or in the south, could be so OBJ
livious to those noble God-llke quail
ties of brain and heart which make
men truly great as the sneer at the
name of Lee
Mr.. President, the war is over. Time
has pulled down the forts and leveled
the trenches. Time has healed and
left but precious memories. The men
who wore the gray delight to honor
the brave men who wore the blue and
who met them in battle for the settle
ment of a controversy that began with
the republic. But they do not love the
men who never smelt gunpowder and
who now fight the war over again and
unlimber their batteries of bitterness
on the cemeteries of the south and up
on the statues and monuments to her
heroic dead.
The south has struggled to the front
in all the elements of industry. The
men who wore the gray are as true to
the flag today as the men who wore
the blue. Their sons have fought under
the stars and stripes since that civil
war. | was governor of my state when
the Spanish war came on, and when
President Mckinley called for volun-
teers was one of the first governors TO
put my quota in the field. 1 came
here to beg the president to let me have
more regiments. They joined the sons
of the men who wore the blue to fight
for their country.
During that war / was down in Mis-.
sissippi. l went into little town and
found coterie of young men bitterly
protesting against the sous of Confed-
crate soldiers marching under the fed
eral flag and wearing that blue uni
form. saw an old man sitting among
them. Finally he said, 'Young men,
do not wish to engage in your discus
sion, but followed the stars and bars
four long weary years. surrendered |
at Appomattax. | went home bare
footed and in rags, to find my country |
desolate and my home in ashes. swore
eternal vengeance against that flag and
against that uniform. But one day not
long ago saw a Mississippi regiment
up the street under that flag
and in that uniform, and | saw my
boy in the ranks ! rushed TO the col
onel and said to him, snake these boys
take off that uniform and let them
wear the gray in this war, and show to
the world how the sons of Confederate |
veterans can fight. But the colonel
smiled and said, No; they must wear
the blue and march under the old flag.
| went to my home still nursing my
revenge more than ever. But when
they brought my boy home ia his cof.
fin and bent over him and looked
upon him there in his blue uniform
and wrapped in his country's flag, in a
all the animosities of the past
and said, 'Henceforth that
is my flag that uniform is my uniform,
and henceforth this whole country is
my country"
Mr.. President, this is the spirit that
must now animate the people of this
The men of the south for
'orty years have contributed their part
10 build monuments to the federal dead.
they have contributed their part in
to the men who wore the blue.
Now, after forty six years have come
and gone, while we are building a
in the south TO commemo-
rate the deeds of the brave men who
the federal flag, is it asking
90 much TO build monument TO the
brave men who met them face to face
On the battlefield and upon the water?
Why not build it? The southern