The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1920-04-11
C0NEEnEELTE .0NI.ELI

At the meeting OF the mayor am,
board of aldermen. Wednesday night
in the Municipal Administration Build
ing, permission was granted to tn.
United Daughters Of the Confederacl
to move the Confederate Mpnumen
from its present location in Cour
House Square te the intersection Of
Main and Market Streets where IN,
drinking fountain now stands. tn,
drinking fountain viii be moved {,
the campus Of the Stephen D. lie,
High School.
The primary object in moving the
Confederate Monument is to get il
centrally located so that it may be
in plain view Of all persons who pass
through the heart of the business dis
trict Of Columbus. The present loca-
tion is not inappropriate, however
The Court House typifes Justice, and
the cause for which the Confederate
soldiers fought was a just cause. But
greater number Of people pass and
re-pass the intersection of Main and
Market than they do the streets sur
rounding the Court House.
The Confederate Monument is
something we are all proud of.
1t does not merely stand as a
monument to the memory of
men who fought a good fight in a
righteous cause. Neither does it stand
merely as an ornament to the city.
1t stands as the representation of a
principle principle as high as
heaven and as eternal as the stars.
The heroism Of the Confederate SOL
der is the most priceless heritage
the South possesses. 1t is something
which should be handed down from
father to son, and from father to son
again until the end Of time. The
children, as they pass along the
streets, and as they grow from child
hood to manhood and womanhood, are
to gaze with admiration upon this
monument and draw from it nspira-
ton for lives Of heroism, patriotism
and fidelity. Our fallen heroes are
dead, but the principles for which
they struggled, for the vindication of
which they sacrificed their lives, for
which they suffered defeat, and to
which they chung until death, still live.
The fanatical howlings Of the aboli-
tionists, the tumult and thunders of
the Civil War, the fierce mouthings
of the organizers of reconstruction,
and reconstruction itself-that foul
and black disgrace of humanity all
are departed, sunk to silence like
tavern brawl"-but the constitutional
principles upon which the Southern
Confederacy was founded, for which
the followers of the Red Cross Flag
contended with the sword, still survive
in all their living power; and when
they shall have been (if every really
destroyed, this republic will be trans
formed into one Of the most oppres-
-sive and offensive oligarcies that has
ever arisen amongst the civilized
nations of the earth.
Hence the United Daughters of the
Confederacy are to be commended for
their zeal in keeping alive the fires
of patriotism in Southern hearts.
They deserve and should receive the
support and encouragement of all our
people in the very commendable am
bition to have the Confederate Monu-
ment placed where il will be seen by
the greatest number of people. The
new location will be ideal. Standing
in the heart of busy city on a busy
street it will be an eyer-present re-
hinder Of the fact that a half-cen-
tury ago something over a half-mil-
lion patriots took up arms against
tyranncal North, thus proving unmis-
takably that they held honor to be of
more worth than life itself, and that
they considered faithfuness to duty
the most sacred of all obligations.
-------~-------