The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-02-21
THE NATIONS sITTER-ENDERs

velt in nearly every southern news !
paper and last Sunday was set apart /
in every southern state to commem- |
crate his virtues.
The place of his birth and that side
Of his character that subjected him |
to violent criticism in his lifetime, |
are all forgotten He is only remem |
bered as an ardent, red-blooded Am
erican citizen.
So when President Garfield and
President Mckinley were assassina- /!
ted the south was as deeply touched
as any other section of the country
and every affection was shown toI
their memories.
Lincolns birthday is observed in
the south the same as in the north
and in our schools in city and rural
districts, recitations are heard eu-
logizing him.
1t has been nearly fifty years since
southern democrats made Horace
Greeley leader of their parts.
Yet in the halls of congress and in
nearly every republican newspaper,
the speeches and editorial utterances
are nearly as sectional as they were
Immediately after the close of the
civil war
While the south is lamenting the
death Of Colonel Roosevelt and near
ly every speech in congress from
southern members breathes the spirit
of unification and patriotism, republi
can politicians go back to Anderson.
vile and the civil war period.
A recent article appearing in the
New York Herald has called forth
the following statement from a wri
ter in Savannah signing himself "a
Southern Reader"
The article reads as follows:
1T was with genuine surprise and
regret that | read the article on Wirz
and the Andersonville prison in the
Herald for Sunday, January 26. It
is matter of surprise because the
light Of day and truth has illumin-
ated the subject for so long now that
1t is strange that such an article
should have been written or publish
ed. 1t is matter for regret. because
the north and south have Just been
united in great struggle The south
has 6nnn hnr Ft,u
that struggle to a successful conclu-
sion 1t is pity to publish such
calumnies now when the recent war
had done SO much to bind the sec
ions together.
Are there really still enlightened
people III the United States who do
not know that the south was not de.
teated until her armies were facing
starvation and were ragged, barefoot
ed and without medicine and equip
ment? They could not give the An
Jacksonville prisoners what they did
not have to give, And is there really
ignorance of the facts that the FEEDER.
al government made medicine con-
traband of war; that the Confeder-
ate government did everything in its
power to arrange for exchange of !
prisoners without success?
"The federal government gave as
an excuse that IF we commence a /
system of exchange we will have to |
fight until the whole south is eXter- |
They evidently preferred i
to sacrifice those men in southern |
prisons rather than free the COnfed- |
crate prisoners. so at their door lies !
he blame.
"Of course the prisoners at Ander-
sOnville were not properly fed. had |
10 medicine and no tents, OF course |
hey died in the hot southern climate |
% which they were unaccustOmed.
The southern soldiers. women and |
lacked proper food. they
lacked medicine and they lacked |
clothes
One ponders long and curiously |
over the strange fact that Mr.. Stan
on. secretary OF war gave the stat |
sites that twelve per cent Of the Con !
prisoners died in northern
prisons and nine per cent of federal |
prisoners died in southern prisons, al /
though there were more federal pris-
)ners captured than COnfederates.
Who deserves hanging for that Pc
culiar fact?
The north did not lack food. tents,
medicines or anything What was the /
reason for it?
The capture, trial and hanging Of
Major Wirz is q dark hlOt OF the !
pages of American history And the !
giving of that as a precedent f0r pun /
shing such a creature OF William Ho- !
nenzollern is an insul, to the entire
south"
l have read as many newspapers asI
/ could lay hands on and the Con
gressional Record quite faithfully and
with the lone exception of eX-Presi-
dent Taft l have not seen a single
utterance that might be termed gen
timely patriotic emanating from any
rom blipaD source