USA > Mississippi > Lowndes County > Columbus > A history of Columbus, Mississippi, during the 19th century > Part 12
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MY FRIENDS-There is much of pathos in this occasion and scene to-day. Our patriotic and noble women are making their annual pilgrimage to deck the graves of our heroic dead and pay a tribute to defeated valor and manhood, men who died for their beloved Southland, and have no other reward than our love and the tender recollection of that love they bore for their homes and firesides, in the gigantic drama of a war, which for four years shook the American continent and held the attention of the world. So long as this beautiful memorial custom is continued, it will teach the generations of the future the story of the matchless, unfading and undying honor which the Confederate soldier won.
In this large audience the survivors of the great struggle are but a handful, a small representative of the 2,201 soldiers who went from Lowndes county. All around them are the young people who have grown up since the war. Many have been born and come of age since these men laid down their arms. It is forty-one years since they took up the struggle and thirty-seven years since they were compelled to lay it down. More than a generation have lived and died by laws of nature.
People have almost forgotten the great war, even during the life-time of some of its survivors; have forgotten that three and a half million of men were soldiers and marshaled in hostile array; that over one million of men lost their lives, and $10,000,000,000 of money was spent and property lost;
GEN. STEPHEN DILL LEE, C.S.A. (1833-1908.)
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have forgotten the devastation of our land, our burned cities, and destruction of our property; have forgotten the great social upheaval in the freeing of the slaves.
We survivors are in the midst of new generations, new duties, new responsibilities, and in the exacting demands of the present we have little time to think and talk of the past. In fact, my comrades, we are almost strangers, living amid a new people.
This is one occasion, however, when it is appropriate to recall some of the plain facts of history for the information of our children who are to take our places. They should know that our motives were pure and manly, that in the great civil strife the South was guided and controlled by a sense of duty and actuated by patriotic spirit, and did not in a cowardly and base manner submit, while most sacred consti- tutional rights were ignored and pledged guarantees trampled underfoot. So I propose to recall some matters which should never be forgotten by the people of the South: "Our nation cannot afford to have the people of the South lose their self respect or future citizens of that large and most promising section of the country, the South, brought up with- out that pride in their ancestors, which leads to noble and patriotic action. Those who endeavor to undermine the faith of Southern youth in their ancestors, and to perpetuate teaching in this country which indicts a noble people, an integral part of the nation for treason and rebellion, are the real enemies of the republic, the plotters against its glory and the perpetuation of its liberties."
There are those present who recall the political excite- ment which for forty years preceded the war. Our fore- fathers, although they tried to compromise the great differ- ences between the North and South, failed, and our country both North and South was a boiling caldron of excitement. The discussions of the tariff, states' rights, and slavery had reached the most remote hamlet in the most sparsely settled sections; both sides had been worked up to fighting heat by inflammatory speeches. Everybody was almost crazy to begin fighting, having despaired of any settlement, except by the arbitrament of the sword, and when they got at it, it meant
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business as the record shows, and we had incomparably the the greatest war of modern times.
I will deal with facts of history today, and will not theo- rize on cause or facts.
There were many differences which brought on the con- flict, and, perhaps, the most irritating cause was slavery and its extension in area of territory, and both North and South were responsible for it, morally alike. The institution of slavery has existed in all ages, in Bible history, and before the discovery of America, and from 1619 to 1840 it existed throughout the world, and the slave trade was carried on by all civilized nations till the year 1800. Spain, England, France Holland, and New England engaged in it. The ships of all nations were in the slave trade, but no Southern colony or state ever had a vessel so engaged. Queen Elizabeth, of England, made money out of it by being a partner with her great naval officer, Hawkins, and slave trade was carried on for 274 years. For much of that period it was regarded as a service of God. A New England deacon, who heard of the safe arrival of a slaver with 700 human beings, fell on his knees and thanked God that so many savages and cannibals had been brought to learn how to work, and know the only living and true God.
The historian, Bancroft, says England kidnapped 3,000,- 000 slaves and sent them to her American colonies in 274 years. England put 600,000 negroes in Jamaica. Spain exterminated natives in the West Indies and put negroes in their places. The slave trade during that period was en- dorsed by patriots, crowned heads, and Christians. New England founded most of her early wealth of her people in the slave trade.
Now, I will try to show these young people that the South was not responsible for the institution of slavery, and so far as it led to the great war, not responsible for the shedding of blood and spending of treasure and desolation and ruin which overtook her, nor was she responsible for the inaugur- ation of the war.
The American colonies were under English rule till the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Slavery had been fastened on them by Great Britain and the nations of the
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world, while they were helpless. The record is plain, that both Virginia and South Carolina earnestly protested against their introduction and passed laws to prohibit and restrict the trade. In 1760 South Carolina protested and placed a duty on their introduction, and she was overruled by the king and parliament of Great Britain; Virginia passed twenty- three acts and sent over 100 petitions to royal authority against the introduction of slaves, and in every instance was overruled by the parliament and King of Great Britain. This was done often, till several millions of negroes were forced on the colonies. So we see slavery was forced on all of Eng- land's colonies prior to the Revolution, and slavery was in- herited from other nations, the most civilized nations of the world at the time, and when the colonies were helpless and unable to resist.
At the beginning of the Revolutionary war every one of the Northern states, including New England, recognized slavery and protected the slave owner, and slaves were bought and sold in them. This was the case when the Constitution of 1787 was formed, except that Massachusetts freed her slaves soon after the war. The Constitution of the United States (1787) sanctioned, recognized, and protected slavery, and provided for it in representation; in congress, in taxation and in immigration, and restoration of fugitive slaves in several articles and sections. It was sanctioned also in state constitutions. The constitution actually extended the slave trade twenty years after its adoption, and the States of Mas- sachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire voted to extend it for a longer period, to enjoy the profits of the slave trade, in which so many of their people were engaged. Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, in 1876, said: "We all know, the world knows, that our independence could not have been achieved, our union could not have been maintained, our constitution could not have been established, without the adoption of those compromises which recognized its continued existence, and left it to the responsibility of the states of which it was a grievous inheritance; and from that day for- ward, the methods of dealing with it, of disposing of it, and of extinguishing it, became more and more a problem full
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of terrible perplexity and seemingly incapable of human solution."
New England sold her slaves to the South. In three years, 1804 to 1807, 20,728 negroes by British and French and 18,048 by Americans. Slavery did not pay in the cold climate of the North and did pay at the South. To show how it was regarded during the Revolution and for a long time afterwards, Washington commanded the revolu- tionary armies and was the first president. He, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Polk and Taylor were all slave holders, and filled the presidental chair about fifty years.
But as stated, for forty years there were fierce agitation as to slavery mainly. There were always men and women who believed slavery was wrong all during the time it existed, and the sentiment of the world gradually changed. During the agitation Congress passed laws to enforce the provisions of the federal constitution, and to enforce the protection of slave property as other kind of property. The supreme court sustained these laws and the President tried to enforce them. But the antagonism became greater and greater, the unfriendly feeling more and more intense, and fourteen of the Northern states passed personal liberty laws, nullifying the constitution and the supreme court decisions, and refusing to give up fugitive slaves. The Anti-Slavery party came into power and the States were divided on sectional lines, the North against the South. The North being in the majority in Con- gress, and largely so in population and wealth, demanded that the South must submit. All compromises, many suggested, were rejected.
It was virtually demanded that the entire loss of the slave property should fall on the Southern people. Its value was $3,000,000,000. The people of the South had invested their money in slave property, depending on the sacred guar- antees of the Federal constitution. Slavery came by law, was protected by law. The South was no more responsible for it than the North, the whole country should have borne the loss. The remedy should have been a national one. Feel- ing ran so high no settlement could be had except by arms. Slavery was a part of the industrial and social system of the South; a sudden change would have bankrupted the South.
BLEWETT LEE
was born near Columbus, Miss., March 1, 1867, and is the only child of Gen. Stephen D. Lee, C. S. A., and Regina Lily Harrison. He received his earlier education at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi, of which his father was President, graduating there in 1883, after which he was a student at the University of Vir- ginia, going from there to Harvard, where he graduated in 1888, A.M., LL.B. The following year he studied in the Universities of Liepsic and Freiburg, Germany. Returning to the United States he became private secretary to Chief Justice Fuller, of the Supreme Court, sub- sequently settling in Atlanta, Ga., for the practice of law. In 1893 he was made professor of law in the Northwestern University, and later filling the same chair in the University of Chicago. In 1902 he was appointed General Attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad, and June 15, 1909, General Solicitor of the entire system, succeeding Hon. J. M. Dickinson when the latter was made a member of President Taft's Cabinet.
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It was the main property of the South. When Great Britain and other nations freed the slaves in their colonies, it was done by gradual emancipation, and the owners were compensated for their loss, but the South, though not responsible for it was forced to stand the entire loss.
The issue was forced on the South. The guarantees for the protection of their property had been brushed aside and they were face to face with the proposition, whether they would submit to the ultimatum of the North, which meant the loss of their property, or fight to preserve the sacred guar- antees of the constitution. Like a brave and chivalrous people the South decided to battle for the constitution as handed down by her forefathers.
I state here that even we of the South would not have slavery restored. The sentiment of the world is against it, and we, too, feel that way now. But let our own children know that we did not fight to maintain slavery, but for con- stitutional rights. Slavery was being extinguished in the border states, and in a little while would have disappeared, but our northern brothers, after getting rid of and getting paid for their slaves, wanted to force us to get rid of them at once and bear the entire loss. No chivalric people would have ever submitted to such arbitrary loss of property, and it was the misfortune of the South that it was forced on her, and she had to bear the loss of war and her property also.
This brings us now to a few facts as to secession and nullification. "New England historians always represent their section as loyal to the union and abhorrent to any scheme of nullification and dis-union, and no terms of vilification or obloquy are too severe for the South, and yet secession had its genesis in New England, and in not a few instances, when her material interests were apparently endangered, has she insisted on her rights of resistance even to nullification or separation. And the reproach of dis-union has been slipped from the shoulders of the North to those of the South."
Threats of dis-union were made by high officials in Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut in 1786, 1794, and 1796. Gov. Plummer in 1805, affirmed the purpose of New England lead- ers-whose names he gives-was to dissolve the union. John Quincy Adams states that the plan was so matured that a
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military leader was selected to carry it into execution. They called the Hartford Convention into existence. This con- vention of delegates appointed by the legislatures of three of the New England states, and the delegates from counties in Vermont and New Hampshire, said: "In cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infractions of the constitution, affect- ing the sovereignty of the state and the liberties of the people, it is not only the right, but the duty of such state to interpose for their protection in the manner best calculated to secure that end." This was while the armies of Great Britain were on our soil, and when the walls of our capitol were blackened and marred by the fires kindled by our foes. This covers the whole doctrine of nullification.
Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, advocated it in Congress when the admission of Louisiana was considered in 1811. Mr. Quincy said: "I am compelled to declare it my deliberate opinion that if this bill passes, the bonds of the union are virtually dissolved. That the States which compose it are free from their moral obligations and that it will be the right of all so it will be the duty of some to prepare definitely for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must." -(Curry).
Mr. Adams said: "The two postulates for dis-union were nearly consummated. The intervention of a kindly provi- dence restoring peace to our country and to the world averted the most deplorable of castastrophes, and, turning over to the receptacle of things lost upon earth, the adjourned con- vention from Hartford to Boston extinguished (by the mercy of Heaven may it be forever) the projected New England Confederacy."
The annexation of Texas brought out the same spirit in New England. In 1845, John Q. Adams, Truman Smith, and other congressmen from the Northern states declared, in a joint letter, that the annexation of Texas would justify a dissolution of the union and would lead to that result. Mas- sachusetts at session in 1844-45, followed by other New Eng- land states, resolved that they were not bound to recognize the annexation of Texas as obligatory to them. The acqui- sition of this immense Texas addition was designed and ac-
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complished by Calhoun, Jackson, Polk, and their political associates."-(Curry.)
It may be stated also that fourteen of the Northern States, by their personal liberty laws, nullified the provisions of the constitution, the laws of Congress, and the decision of the supreme court of the United States, with reference to the return of fugitive slaves. So it appears that New England and the North are not spotless as to secession and nullification of the laws of Congress, and that any obloquy which may attach to the South for secession and nullification, also at- taches to the North for originating and claiming the right, while the South at a later period, to protect her interests, exercised that right.
The war began in 1861, and it was the most desperately fought of all wars in modern times. The loss of life and money surpassed anything the world had ever seen. Over three and a half millions of men were marshaled in the opposing armies, the North putting 2,865,528 men in the field and near 800 vessels of war. The Confederates put about 700,000 men under arms, the Northern armies outnumbering the Southern armies by over 2,000,000, and 674,628 men were killed, mortal- ly wounded or died before the close of the war; and it may be safely said that over 1,000,000 men directly and indirectly lost their lives in the civil war. It cost the country, North and South $10,000,000,000. The great odds in men, money, material, and resources forced the Confederates to resist with utmost desperation and expose themselves vastly more than had been the case before. The Confederate army had 325,000 men, half of the enlisted strength, buried before the close of the war. Had the Federals lost in the same proportion, they would have lost over 600,000 men killed, instead of 359,528. Over 2,000 battles were fought, the Confederates disputing nearly every foot of the territory of the South.
The losses of those actually engaged in battle surpassed anything known in war. European armies lost three per cent. in battle. The Union army lost five per cent., while the Confederate army lost ten per cent. There were 238 battles fought on Mississippi soil, and 27,500 men were killed or died. Mississippi put 78,000 troops in the field, 8,000 more than her voting strength. In the battle of Gettysburg 45,444
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men were killed and wounded. In that battle one Union regiment, First Minnesota, lost eighty-two per cent. in killed, wounded and missing-one Confederate regiment, Twenty-sixth North Carolina, lost eighty-seven per cent. At Waterloo, the loss was ten per cent .; at Marengo, fourteen per cent., European battles. At the Wilderness and Spott- sylvania the loss was forty per cent., American battles. Out of the Confederate army of 700,000 men, seventy general officers were killed. Out of the Union army of 2,887,000 men, fifty general officers were killed. A distinguished Union writer and soldier says of the Confederate struggle: "The conduct was extraordinary in heroic aspect."
I want the young people to listen while I tell them who these old veterans are. They will soon all be gone, as every year lessens the number who engaged in these exercises. Then the sons and daughters of the Confederacy will have to treasure their memories.
My comrades, I greet you with affectionate regard. I an proud I am a unit in your band of comradeship. We were comrades in battle. We will be comrades to the end. Ours has been an eventful generation. No generation of the cen- turies has had its manhood tested under so many varied conditions. Before the War we took part in the great polit- ical campaigns which brought on the war. We were tried in prosperity before the great conflict. We were tried in the great war. Some of us were at Gettysburg when 43,449 men were killed, wounded, and missing-at Murfreesboro when the loss was 23,504-at Shiloh, 23,000 lost-at Chickamauga, 32,000. We were on nearly all of the battlefields of the war. We fought until over one-half of our enlisted strength was under the sod. No such record in any war! We were tried in prosperity, in victory, in defeat, in sacrifices, in tribulation, in humiliation, and in prosperity again.
The response through our long lives has under all tests been honorable, brave, true, and clear as a bugle note to every duty. We can all recall our patriotism and the pure motives that inspired us; can recall the ardor with which we rallied around our flag, the indomitable heroism with which we fol- lowed it through desolation and danger to death; how we fought over almost every foot of our beloved Southland in
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over 2300 battles! Can recall our fortitude and patient en- durance after the war; how with integrity and manhood we stood firm to preserve our Anglo-Saxon civilization against negro, carpetbag, and scalawag rule, supported by the United States government and State goverments with soldiers and negro troops; how under enormity of provocation, in reversal of our social and industrial conditions, we kept quiet and bided our time, and never lost confidence in ourselves, but with dignity never gave our consent while it lasted, but at first opportunity reversed everything and took matters in our hands; how we have rebuilt our waste places and restored prosperity to our beloved Southland!
It is a great satisfaction to know that in all these trying times, that in the transition from prosperity to war, from war to bad government, from bad government to restoration of good government and prosperity again, we, surviving com- rades of the great conflict, have been the principal actors, who have followed these great changes, in a most eventful period of history making, and have always met every respon- sibility of war and peace and statesmanship. We have never sulked in our tents, never dodged a single of many issues presented to us, but we have met all like manly men with courage, nerve, and manhood.
We have been the connecting link of two or more gen- ations-have been the chief actors. God has spared our lives to see our country once more prosperous and happy, and like Simeon of old we are about ready to take our depar- ture. We are so nearly ready to cross over the river, over which so many of our comrades have already crossed, that some of us can almost hear the roaring of the waters.
I have spoken of the Confederate soldier; what shall I say of the Confederate woman, his partner and associate in the trying times? They were the greatest patriots in the war. They endured, in silent struggle at home, privations greater than the soldiers in the field. They waited, suffered, starved without a murmur, always with hope. "With more than a soldier's courage they endured more than a soldiers' hardship. The boom of every cannon blanched their cheeks, chilled their hearts, as they thought of their husbands and sons in the army, and yet for four long years they waited and
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suffered." They laid loved ones away with tears, and with tears sent their young boys to take their places. They had none of the excitement of battle, but all anxiety, enduring all the agonies of apprehension, the calmer waiting for cal- amity which might and generally did come. They stayed at home, they controlled and directed our slaves, with scarcely a man to protect them, raised provisions to feed the troops in the field, clothed them, and sent stragglers back to the front. In the trying ordeal of reconstruction, amid desolation, ruin, and poverty after the war, they never lost hope, and cheered the men during those dark periods. God bless our noble Southern women, the flower of the world!
And now, young ladies and gentlemen, what I have said is history and belongs to the past. It is, in brief, a heroic history of a great people. Now we live in better days, we have a re-united country ; it is a great country, possibly the most powerful and richest nation in the world; now we love to give loyal support to our country and do all we can to add to her glory or to increase her greatness and prosperity. To preserve and defend the record of your forefathers is not in any way incompatible with true and loyal allegiance to our government as the issues of the great war are settled and accepted by all.
I leave you with a quotation from the great historian Macaulay: "A people who take no pride in the noble achieve- ments of remote ancestry, will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants."
After the oration of Gen. Lee, the veterans received bouquets from the Daughters of the Confederacy, "Dixie" was sung and the exercises at the Court House were completed and the procession was formed for the march to the cemetery. First came the members of Isham Harrison Camp and visiting veterans, the Daughters of the Confederacy in carriages, the A. and M. Battalion of cadets, the Columbus Riflemen, and citizens in carriages. Arriving at the cemetery the graves of the old soldiers, as well as the monument perpetuating their deeds of valor and patriotism, were decorated, after which the various civil and military bodies returned to this city and the celebration was over .- Columbus Dispatch.
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