The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1917-04-08
we Bart.sts. Metpod1sts and Presbyte-

we Bart.sts Metnod;sts and Presbyte7
iians are.
Mr. Editor, is it criminally wrong
for tie old Confederate Vets, of Macon
and Bibh county, 70 held Memorial
services, to slow tina: southern man
| hood, southern womanhood and south
ern valor still lives? Your paper is
only one of the papers in the state,
which has held up to ridicule these
old tattered soldiers, these men OF
the battle fields, these men who faced
the invading armies from 1861 to 1868.
AS son of veteran | ask permission
to speak for them.
When the Georgia Legislature last
year passed the "VeaZy Bill' provid-
! ing for the inspection of covenants,
etc, Bishop Kelly rose up in his wrath,
and in an article in a Savannah pa
per, and in the Morning Star, week
| ly Roman Catholic paper of New Or
| leans, he denounced the legislature,
the governor and the Georgia people
generally, in a very bitter and UNI
christian way His article in the Star
! for September 2, carried in large let
tiers his heading: Right reverend
Benjamin j. Kelly Scores Bigotry and
Cowardice of Georgia" Then the sub
heading reads as follows: "The Val
liant and Patriotic Bishop Of Savan-
nah, True American That He Is, Rises
to the Defense of the Constitutional
Rights of His People, as the Infamous
| Covenant Inspection Bill, Passed by
| he nf Ipn0T1nt
Illiterate Backwoodmen, is Signed by
the Poltroon Governor of the State"
In your editorial Protest" you eX-
! tol Bishop Kelly as a good and accep-
table man to appear in the home city
Of Governor Harris, a Confederate
Veteran himself, to deliver memo
rial address to the Old Vets Now,
| Mr. Editor the good Book warns us
| to be submil live to the powers that
| be, and to pray for them that are in
authority. How does this compare
with the bitter denunciation by your
old petticoat Bishop hurled at our own
representative, Col. Doris, who voted
for the VeaZy bill In writing to the
| Star (Catholic) he said: "You have
already expressed your wishes and
the opinion of all decent honorable
persons on the recent action of the
Georgia Legislature in passing the
Convent Inspection Bill"
According to Bishop eKily, all per
sens who do not agree with him in
/ this matter are not decent and hon
orable." He further says in the ar
ticle: There must be only two class
es Of people who could possibly sup
port such a acknowledgement per-
sons and bigots, and this state enjoys
quite considerable majority of both
| classes"
After hurting this insult into the
| faces of the people of Georgia, can
you wonder that the Confederate vet
Grams of Macon would object to cor
| ferrng upon him the honor Of Nc
mortal Day orator? Besides this
| Governor Harris is also q veteran. as
much so as Bishop Kelly. We believe
never seen where Bishop Kelley has
apoligized for calling Governor Har-
ris a "Poltroon Governor" and now
| he has the boldnesS to come to the
home of Georgia Confederate Soldier
! GOvernoE.to receive this, honor offered
| him by a few misguided women. The
veterans did not object to him ION
account of the fact that he was a
Roman Catholic" as you undertook to
| place these old vets, their sons and
daughters, but on account of his fla
| grant insult to Georgia's governor. and
her people, for which he never opolo-
gized.
In a petition signed by sixty Con
federate veterans and addressed to
Mrs. Walter J. Grace, president OF
the U. d. C. chapter of Macon, on
February 9th, we find this paragraph:
Bishop Kelly represents system an
| tagonistic to the laws of our land 1--WE
cite the great Encyclical Letters Of
Pope Leo Mi, wherein the declarar
| ton is made that it is crime to obey
| the laws of the state, if they are at
variance with the papal laWs), and
as Bishop Kelly has so well proved
| his allegiance to this above authority
| by defying the laws of Georgia, we
! feel that it would be embarrassing for
| him to deliver an address on patrio-
| tism to the constituency of the mem
bers Of the general assembly of the
state of Georgia, when he classed
N M m I'M ~ - IN n MI m MI ~ m ~ nv r WI r9 Es FE