Year: 1872

TConclusion of the Speech OF Hon.
Mr. Bavard of Delaware in tho
United States Senate. May 2l.


Mr. President, lot me relate an
incident and o different feeling


from which moro is TO be hoped.
and which believe contains the
true germ from which a feeling of
union will spring up again that will
bird cur states forever in the bonds
of u common brotherhood. This
incident como to my knowledge
while in the State of Georgia, and I
believe it to he in all respects strict


Untrue, md il illustrates that spirit
which alone can be l,oked to as n
means to restore the feeling offra.
ternity and national brotherhood
which would form Mt once the hap.
piness andt he strength and safe.
guard our Union of States.
and without which the Union is
but mockery and u delusion, des.
tined to perish at the first rude
shock it shall receive in foreign
war. When the war closed in
1865, an officer of the Southern
army found himself, like thousands
of his compatriots, without dollar,
and on il way homo to his family


Not far from Atlanta he found his
aged mother and family, people
whom in 1861 he had left in inAu-
ence, surrounded by all the luxury
and refinement that inherited
wealth and cultivation for genera


tions in the Same family can alone
produce. He threw himself from
his weary horse and entered the
door of his dwelling. The aged
mother, wife, sisters, little children
were all there. Death, which had
held his harvest among the brave
men on the field of battle and in the
Northern prisons, had spared the
weaker ones. There suffering had
becn to live The; hnd seen not
only !uxnries which .heir mode OF
living had made habitual swept
away by the breath Of war, but ev'
en- the necessurics IF life had gone
and when my informant found
these ladies' and children, and once
20 tendenly cared for, they had
been living for ten days on dried
okru and salt. This hud been theil
sole subsistence. Unable to relieve
their desperate condition, he re
mounted his horse and rode back
to the town of Atlanta to solicit
food to keep his family alive:
am credibIy informed there wa'
not a head of horned cattle g sheep
pig or chicken in the county out
side of the camp Of the UniteG
States army. On his way to At
lanta he met colonel of the Uni
ted States army, who, without
knowing him personly, mentioned
his name Historic in Georgia and
Carolina { and inquired his way to
his residence. My informant dis
closed himself to the officer, and
finding his purpose, told him his
condition, and accepted such II 10


an of money as enabled him to pur'
chase from tho United States com
missary at Atlanta the neccssarieA
of lif, for his family. | will rot re-
count how. with energy and cour'
age, he struggled with varying sue


cess to make living for those who
were dependent on him, but the
election of Bullock, ard the ap
pointmcnt of his State officials
forced him to abandon the practice
of law, whero merit and ability
could not compete with corrupt IA
vortism. About this time he
wrote tu friend in the North let


ter descriptive rf tho condition oi
Southern men like himself. honest.
~ endeavoi ing to act as faithfn citi


zeus of the government of the Uni


ted States, and finding no conf


dence exhibited in their good in.
,entions. but on tho other hand ro


buff and discredit, while thieves
samp,followers and ignorant and
vicious negroes were placed ia
power over them. This letter
found its way into print in some o.
tho Northern papers. among others
I believe, in the New York Tribune
A few weeks after the letter wa.
written, my informant received by
mail letter postmarked Boston


Mass. He opened it and found in
closed check for 81, 900 and a few
lines from the writer, stating HI
had seen the letter referred to anc
desired, US a Northern man to aid ;
follow citizen in distand Stat,
struggling in such bitter adversely
The writer's name was totally un


known to him, and he thought i


must be mistake Or u cruel hoax
He submitted tho check to a bank
er, who ut once informed him i


was good for its full amount. Ii,
however. thought that there mus


BIZ some mistake, wrote to Boston
stating the arrival of the letter will
the check, but his fear that his mo
tive in writing which drew fortl
the remittance had been sup
posed to be misunderstood


that he might have been supposct
to bs what was known as a"Uniol
man" in the Southern accepiatiOI
of that term. or repentant rebel
disposed TO gain favor with the sue
cessful party by condemning hi
own past course. He told that b


was neither f; that he bad been al
original and conscientious believe


in the right and duty of secession
in 1861, and had no regrets, exccp
for his failure; but that he accept
ed his fate and was ready to kee


the government that had conquer
ed. A reply from Boston to Ihi
letter assured him that the write


had earnestly advocated the prose
cution of the war, and during tn


war would have held him an enc