Year: 1873

to the same subject were referred 70 INT


Committee on Business. as was also re$1ll
ton Of General r. D. Lilly to appoint cota


mittee from each State, of which the vice.
president of that State should be chairman.


to ecllect material fora true history of the


war. ,oH


4 Pending motion of Colonel Johnston to


request General Early to make his address at


4 o'clock this evening, General Early made


some facetious remarks, in which he said


that he objected to running against circus


or fancy ball. 1t being replied that be had


better 60 before THAI after the ball, general


Early yielded the point, remarking that he


had grown of late very harmonious.


Regrets at the necessity of their absence
were received from Generals Hood and
Pickett, and the Convention adjourned until
4P. III. s


AFTERNOON SESSION.


The Convention assembled this afternoon
in the large ballroom, which was crowded
to its utmost capacity. a-tsg
In introducing General Early, Governor
Lctcher said that he was as remarkable for
intellectual vigor as for heroic gallantry
during the war.


General Early was greeted with loud ap-
plause when he came forward. Amer cor
dial welcome to bis comrades from other
States, he spoke ably for the importance of
preserving the truth of history in general,
and of the late war in particular. He denied
that success is a criterion of right, and cited
various historic examples in refutation OF this
theory. He denied the proposition that
we had submitted everything to the
arbitrament of the sword, and had lost alb,
and drew vivid and amusing picture Of the
newly-pledged loyalist trying to keep step
to the music of "John Browns Soul is
Marching On" He believed that day of
retribution to the North would come, and
that the present demoralized condition of
the politics of the country was but token
of the coming storm. The South cannot
escape the verdict of history. We will go
down to posterity either as rebels and trail
tors or as patriots, and we must see to it that
the record is right He would not trust
either our enemies or the non-combatantS
among ourselves to tell the story for posterity.
He alluded to various misreprese entations
on the part Of northern historians, and
dwelt especially upon the claim they make
that the Confederates outnumbered the Fed
erals in nearly every battle Of the war. He
scathingly reviewed the claim of Mcclellan
that Lee outnumbered him before Richmond,
and of General Humphrey that Lee out
numbered Meade at GettySburg-triumph
antly refuted them by facts and figures, and
said that he wondered that some northern
man did not claim that Lee outnumbered
Grant at AppomattoX. He quoted from
Halleck's and Pope's dispatches illustrations
of how northern history is manufactured. He


was very severe upon so.called southern his


tories written by non combatants, facetiously
showed the difference between fighting battles
on paper and in the field, and insisted


that the true history of t he war is yet to be


written by southern men who fought it. He
insisted that we had examples of true hero
ism unsurpassed in all the annals Of history,
and touchingly compared the devotion Of Il
southern mother in the Valley of Moorteld,
who devoted noble boy to the service of


the country, with the story of Cornelia the
mother of the Gracchi. He admitted that
there was dark side to the picture in the
lives of those who skulked during the war,
and OF those who, with good war record,
had deserted to the enemy since the war !;


but eIoquently argued that a people who had
given to the world Stonewall Jackson, Al


bert Sidney Johnston, and Robert L. Lee,
with living men worthy to be their COM
peers, need not fear to have their true his
tory given to the world. He said that this
Convention was called to put OH foot some


plan by which these grand ends can be ac-
complished. "


The above is a bare outline, and gives only
very imperfect idea of General Early's ad.
dress, which abounded in good things, and
was frequently interrupted with rapturous
applause.


at the conclusion of General Early's adj
dress the Conv ention adjourned until 10
O'Clock tomorrow. FIAToR.