Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-10-28

woven the parts in this drama or
Nations restoration! The same year
OF 1889 that saw Grady lain away
with loves laurels on his proud and
noble brow. saw another son OF
mother of Georgia and The South en-
tered in the career of national service.
In that year Theodore Roosevelt fol-
lowing his impetuous appeals for bet
ter political morals at the Baltimore
civil service conference, was appoint
ed by President Harrison to the CIVIL
Service Commission. and his nation
al career began. A son of the East
and the South, but already adopted
by the West. he had become a devout
admirer Of that son of the South
whom all Of the Nation had taken to
it's heart. Think Of them. you Geor-
gians, you men and women or the
whole South-think of their services
and careers-and tell me, for such
sons as these would you wish to pro-
vide a lesser stage than that of the
limited country on which they play
ed their parts? I know you would
not, and never will. For geniuses
lsuch as these you furnish, you must
at least let us afford a fitting scene
and setting. No "pent-up Utica 1or
such as they.
The other day there came into my
hands a volume of the letters OF
group Of eminent Georgians of ne
Civil War and reconstruction period.
In the main, they represented the
correspondence of Alexander II.
Stephens, Howell Cobb, Robert
Toombs, and Gov Joe Brown only
recently published, they proved fas-
cinating reading as l turned the
pages and felt myself admitted to the
very inner thoughts which these
leaders of the Confederacy were
thinking in the years Immediately fol-
lowing the war. Especially was 1
interested in the extensive cores
pondence between these southern
leaders ard prominent men OF the
north, which was carried on at that
period. 1t was nothing less than as
tonishing to note how little of bit
terness, Of resentment, of hatred, ana
recalcitrancc was manifested on
either side. With almost no cXcep-
ton. they breathed the fine spirit or
chivalry; of readiness to accept IN
whole heart and good nature the ar
bitrament of the war. They held
flavor of something more than resig-
nation. as if already the writer's We're
. realizing how fortunate it was that
union should have been preserved
They were all back in harness, work
i, ing for the restoration OF their state,
r their people. their preserved country.
They wrote thoughtful, earnest coun-
} sells as to the wiser policies in State
, and Nation, seeking always to make
: their friends in the north understand
, how complete and sincere was the
l south's acceptance of its place in the
: restored Union, how determined 1t
2 was to contribute its utmost to per-
r feet national accord. At times they
sounded the note of disappointment
that the north seemed slow to accept
their professions as in complete good
l. faith and be assured that they could
= be dealt with in complete confidence.
! But they were seldom impatient; they
. held their heads high, had no apol-
! ogies to make for the past, but were
/. looking clear-eyed to the future OF
; indiSsoluble union.
That was the spirit which made re-
: construction. despite bunglinS and
some exceptional manifestations OF
acerbity, on the whole so rapid and
!, effective a process, when measured
: by like incidents in human history.
, They wanted to be taken back into
= full fellowship. eve would rather
= have one immigrant from the north
: than fifty from Europe" wrote one,
. a few years after AppomattoX; and
, he urged his northern friend to mako
the northern people understand now
welcome they would be. Not even the
= unreconstructible hatred of Old Th@d
= Stevens could maintain an effecE
: front against such appeals as that.
The north did come to you. with olive
branch instead of sword; and rou
went to the north and west. and be-
came full partners in making that
: new empire which together we carved
: out of the trans Missouri --'ildcrncss:
: and now truly there can be deserted
. no sectional division of this land.
Recently, passing in motor car
. through a section where historical
-, interest has inspired the setting of
:, tablets marking Mason and Dixon's
= line, I heard group of highly intel
lgent people quarreling about its
geography, half of them insisting
> that it didn't belong there at all, but
: some hundreds of miles farther
south. Neither the aliases nor the
| election returns give us nowadays
dependable basis for judgment of
: what is South and what North; we
1 have been politically anneXing YOU
! when you were not politically taking
t us into camp-and we have been So
cially, industrially, economically in
vading and Selling as much of your
3 imperial opportunities as we could
, get our hands on. We have been
: pooling our capital with your brains
. and resources, and both sides earn
, irg good dividends on the transac-
r ton, and all the time jointly making
. a greater republic.
$ 1t would be hard to find a more
I fitting platform from which to preach
: a gospel of confidence, courage. and
; in your wonderful city of Atlanta
, In one of his speeches. think it was
I ! the one at the New England Society
: dinner-Henry Grady, turning to
, Cen. Sherman, who sat near him,
/ observed that Gen. Sherman was
considered an able man in our
, parts, though some people think he
-.