Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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r p ESTABLISHED 1865. NEWBERRY, S. C., TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8,1908 CE A ON ROBERT E. LEE. +A UNION MAN PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE NOTBD CONFBDERATE. Charles F. Adams' Response at a Ranquet Given by the Officers and Members of the Confedeaate Veteran Camp of New York. New York, Jan. 26.-Charles Fracis Adams, in his address at the Confederate banquet tonight on Robert E. Lee, said: "Mr. Commander, Officers and Members of the Confederate Vet erans Camp of New York: A NewEnglander, by birth, descent, tradition, name and environmant closely associated with Massachu setts, I was a Union soldier from 1861 to 1865, and the one boast I make in life was, and is, and will ever be that I also bore arms and confronted the Confederacy, and helped to destroy it. Formerly of the army of the Po tomac, through long years I was in tent on the overthrow of the Army of Northern Virginia. "So far, moreover, as that great past is concerned, have nothing to regret, to excuse or to extenuate, I am yet here on this day to respond to a sentiment in honor of the mili tary leader once opposed to us-a Virginian and a Confederate. Nor, all this being thus and so, if asked why I am here, would the an swer be far to seek. Primarily, as a Massachusetta man, I confess to a feeling of special kindness towards two other States of the Union-two of the original thirteen, above all the other present. forty and live-South Carolina and Virginia. Those, with Massachusetts, I hold to have been, essentially, pivoted States. Com munities peculiarly prolific of men the exponents of ideas-from them have gone forth those migrating col umns which met in fierce grapple for the maintenance and the ascendency of that in which they believed. "So, if I may be permitted, first to say a word personal to myself; when, the other day-scarcely a month ago -I was called on to speak in Char leston to an andience of South Caro linans, I responded at once; and I did so because my heart went out to them as those of my countrymen to whom I had once been most bitterly opposed-countrymen still, though I had come to know that, as foemen, they were men of whom it behooved us most to take heed. As exponents of their ideas-right and wrong Massachusetts and South Carolina were peers. They had not followed; they had led. "And so-as I told them-fully conscious that I was walking on ashes still hot, in the very crater of what had within all our memnories been the most terrific volca.no of a century-walking there amid aul phurous memories, I chose for my theme the constitutional ethics of se cession. In a wholly dispassionate spirit, I addressed myself to it as a purely academic quest ion; but I wanted to know whether the time had indeed come when the old friend. ly feeling was restored, and the foes of a former generation could again talk together calmly and as brethien over issues once burning. The re ception of what I said justified my faith in those to whom I said it. Never have I met with more cordial welcome-never did I receive a more fraternal response. "Next came the Confederate vet erans of New York; they called, and I am here. At this banquet given in honor of the memory of Itobert E. Lee I am asked to respond to a sen timent in his honor, and, without reservation, I do so; for, as a Massa chusetts man, I see in him exemupli flied those lofty elements of personal character, which, typifying Virginia, mad~e Washington possible. Thue possession of such Analities by an op ponent cannot but cause a thrill of satisfaction from the~ sense that we also, as foe no lees than as country men, were worthy of him, and of those whom he typified. It was a great company, that 0old, original thirteen; and in the front rank of that company Virginia, Massachui satta nd ulnth C1rolina stood ,.on spicuous. So I recognize a peculiar fellowship between them-the fel lowship of those who have both con tended shoulder to shoulder, and fought face to face. "This, however, is of the past. Its issues are settled, never to be raised again. But, no matter how we may discuss the rights and wrongs of a day that is dead-its victories and defeats--one thing is clear beyond dispute--victor and vanquished Confederate and Uionist--the de scendants of those who between 1861 and 1865, wore the gray and of those who wore the blue-enter as essen tial and as equal factors into the national life which now is, and in future is to be. Not more so Puri tan and Cavalier in England-the offspring of Cromwell and Stafford's descendants. With us, as with them, the individual exponents of either side became in time common prop erty, and equally the glory of all. "So I am here this evening-as i have said, a Massachusetts man as well as a member of the Loyal Legion to dj honor to the memory of him who was chief among those once set in array against us. Of him, what shall I say ? Essentially a soldier, as a soldier Robert E. Lee was a many-sided man. I might speak of him as a strategist; but, of this aspect or the man, enough has perhaps been said. I might refer to the respect, the con fidence and love with which he in spired those under his command. I might dilate on his restraint in vic tory; his resource and patient endu rance in the face of adverse fortune; the serene dignity with which he, in the end, triumphed over defeat. But, passing over all these well-worn themes, I shall confine myself to that one attribute of his which, recog nized in a soldier by an opponent, I cannot but regard as his surest and loftiest title to enduring fame. I refer to his humanity in arms, and his scrupulous regard for the most advanced rules of civilized warfare. "On this point, two views I am well aware have been taken from the beginning, and still are advanced. On the one side it is contended that warfare should be strictly confined to combatants, and its horrors and de vastations brought within the narrow est limits-that private property should be respected, and devastation and violence limited to that neces sary to overcome armed opposition at the vital points of conflict. This by some. But, on the other hand, it is insisted that such a method of proce dure is mere cruelty in disguise- that war at best is hell, and that true hu mauity lies in exaggerating that hell to such an extent as to make it unen durable. By so doing, it is forced to a speedy end. On this issue, I stand with Lee. Moreover, looking back over the awful past--replete with man's inhumanity to man-I insist that the verdict of history is distinct. That war is hell at best, then make it hell indeed-that cry is riot original with use-far from it, it echoes down the ages. Take Eu rope for example. Let me cite two instances, ieparated by half a cen tury, and two( nlames which have come down to us loaded with execra tion andl sunken deep in infancy the instances--the repeated and com plete devastaition of what was known as tho Palatinate, once (during the war of Thirty Years and against the order of Louis Fourteenth-the names Tilly and Melac. "You have heard of Tilly, and of the sack of Magdeburg. Tilly fully believed in making wvar hell-fast, furious anid bloody. His orders were to kill and barn, burn andl kill, and b)urn and kill again. He wanted no prisoners-arnd nlone were made. The more his subordinates killed nod the miore they burned, the better he was pleased0(. He wished the Pala tine to be made a howling wilderness. It is a familiar story-a lamentation aind an ancient tale of wrong; and you remember its outcome. Even today, as we read the story of those horrors cent"ries gone, wve thrill with vindictive pleasure when the humane (Gustavus Adolphus sprang into the arena, anid bore down hell's advocate in hupeless defeat and irrevocable dleath. "Again, fifty years later,.h sbame gospel of hell is proclaimed and en forced. Once more the Palatinate is devastated by sword and fire. War is hell-then make it hell, indeed and have it over. They did make it hell--but was it over? Was it short ened even ? A French general, Melac by name, acting for Louis XIV, re peated Tilly's work; he could not im prove it. He also believed that to carry on war, disguise it as we may, it is to be cruel. It is to kill and burn, burn and kill; and again kill and burn. The 'great monarch' de sired him also so to bear himself as to leave on the inhabitants of the Palatinate an impression that future generations would know he had been there. He did so bear himself. "What was the result? Hell was indeed let loose; but so was hate. Was the war made shorter? No; not by an hour. It was simply made needlessly bitter, brutal and barba. rous. To this day the ruins of Hei deiberg remain Melac's monument. Remembered to be cursed-pillored with Tilly-his name is in the Palat inate household word. Six genera tions of men have since passed, and, today, with those of the seventh, Melac is a name there given to dogs. Many of you have doubtless stood, as have I, on the still shattered and crumbling battlements of Heidelberg, looking out over the peaceful valley of the Necker, and listening to its murmuring flow. Thirty years ago I was there, and I vividly recall a little incident srikiugly illustrative of the exact opposite of what I am here today to say of Lee. A portrait of Melac hung in the gallery of the eastle It hange there still where I saw it again a year or two ago; but when I saw it first. ir. 1872, it bore an inscription, an inscription eloquent of hate. Melac had, in March, 1689, blown up the castle, burned the town, and devastated the surrounding country-given future generations to know he bad been there. A Frenchman, he made war hell to the German. Nearly two centuries later the turn of Germany came. Then, in 1870, devastating France, they inflicted on the French the misery and shame of the Sedan; they besieged and captured Paris. Two years afterwards, in 1872, 1 read this inscription in letters large and black beneath the portrait of Melac at Heidelberg: '1869. Vergolten. 1871.' They had indeed been given cause to remember; nor had they for gotten. The debt, two centuries old, had been computed with interest; and payment exacted in blood and1 flame. "As an Americon--aa an ex-soldi er of the Union--as one who did his best in honest, even fight, to destroy that fragment of the army of the Confederacy to which he found him self opposed-I rejoice that no such hatred attaches to the name of Lee. Reckless of life to attain the legiti mate ends of war, he sought to miti gate its horrors. Opposed to him at Gettysburg, I here, forty years later, do him justice. No more creditable order ever issued from a command ing general than that formulated and signed by Robert E. Lee as, at the close of June, 1863, be advanced on a war of invasion. 'No greater dis grace,' he then declared, 'can befall the army and through it our whole people, than the perpetration of bar barous outrages upon tbe innocent and defenseless. Such proceedings not only disgrace the perpetra' ore anid at; connected with them, but are subversive of the discipline and efliciency of the army, and destruc tive of the ends of our movement. It must be remem,bcred that we make war only on armied men.' Lee did not, like Tilly and Melac, exhort h1:s followers to kill and1 burn, and burni and kill and aguin kill and burn. He did not proclaim that he wanted no prisoners. He (lid not enjoin it upon his soldiers as a dnty to cause the peop)le of Pennsylvania to remmmber they had been there. I thank heaveni he did not. He at last, though a Confederate in arms, was still an American, and not a Til ly nor a Molac. "And here, as a soldier of the Army of the Potomac, let me bear my testimnony to such of the Army of Northern Virginma a may nw be present. While war at best is bad, yet its necessary and unavo idable badness was not in that campaign enhanced. In scope and spirit Lee's order was observed, and I doubt if a hostile force ever advanced in an enemy's country, or fell back from it in retreat, leaving behind it less cause of hate and bitterness than did the Army of Northern Virginia in that memorable campaign which culmina ted at Gettysburg. B3ecauso he was a soldier, Lee did not feel it incumb ent upon him to proclaim himself a brute, or to exhort his followers to brutality. "I have paid my tribute. One word more and I have done. Some six months ago, in a certain academ ic address at Chicago, I called to mind the fact that a statue of Oliver Cromwell now stood in the yard of Parliament house in London, close to that historic hall of Wostminster, from the roof of which his severed head had once looked down. Call ing to mind the strange changes of feeling evinced by the memory of that grinning skull in the presence of that image of bronze-remembering that Cromwell, once traitor and re gicide, stood now conspicuous among Englanc's worthiest and most honor ed-I asked, 'why should it not also in time he so with Lee? Why should not his efligy, erect on his charger and wearing the insignia of his Con federate rank, gaze from his pedestal across the Potomac at the Virginia shore, and his once dearly loved home at Arlington ?' tie, too, is one of the precious possessions of what is an essential factor in the nation that now is, and is to be. "My suggestion was met with an answer to which I would now make reply. It was objected that such a memorial was to be provided from the national treasury, and that Lee, educated at West Point, holding for years the commission of the United States, had borne airms against the nation. The rest I will not here re peat. The thing was pronounced impossible. "Now let me here explain myself. I never supposed that Robert E. Lee's statue in Washington would be provided fe by an appropriation from the national treasury. I did not wish it; I do not think it fitting. Indeed, I do not rate high statues erected by act of congress, and paid for by public money. They have small significance. Least of all would I suggest such a one in the care of Lee. Nor was it so wvith Cromwell. His effigy is a private gift, placed where it is by act of parliament. So, when the time is ripe, should it be with Lee, and the time will come. When it doe come, the effigy, assignedl to Uts place merely by act of congress, should bear some such inscription as this: "ROBE~RT ED)WAIRD LEE. Erected by Contribution, Of thoso who Wearing the Blue or Wearing the Gray, Recognize Brilliant Military Achievements and Lofty Chara cter, Honor Greatness andl Humanity in WVar, and Devotion and Dig. nity in Defoat.'' CHILD EATBN BY BEiAls. A Gruesome Story that Comes from Virginia. Richmond, Vai., Jan. 29.-Private advices from Bedford. this State, say that a few (lays ago three black bears attacked the children of a mountaineer named Parker, living on the road from Mono to Arcadia, on the .J ames river, and killed and ste his 2 year 01(d baby. Mr. Parker's three children wore playing in the edge of the wvoods only a fewv hun dred yards f'omn the house when the bears mnado their appearance. Thel animals were very bold, and the two elder children ran to the house, but forgot the baby. The father andl mothter rushed to save the little one, but thme bears had torn the head from the bodly of the child and1( were devouring it. During t be wint er black bears have b)o0n very I rout.lesome in ihe mountains and have preyed onl hogs and1( cattle to such an extent that owners have beeni forced to keep their stnok homs, MR. ROOSEYELT'S "NEGRO" POLICY. IS IT NOBLE HUMAN SYMPATHY OR PLAIN POLITICS. A Striking Editorial Utterance Published in the New York Evening Journal Jan uacy 26th..-A Few Searrhing Ques. tions;For the President to An swer and Which Lead to the Conclusion that Roose velt the Politician Has Absorbed Roosevelt the Statesman. [New York Evening Journal.] Mr. Roosevelt, president of the United States, has declared himself the negro's friend. That is a very noble declaration. The negro has a hard place to fill in this world. His education began many thousands of years later than that of the race with which he competes. He is in a very weak minority-r^t only in num bers, but in equipment. He suffers the disadvantage of having filled a place of confessed and helpless in feriority. His present so called equality is the result of commercial war and territorial rivalry-not of human justice fully developed. Therefore he who sincerely and (isinterestedly befriends the negro is a real man, unselfish and humane. Mr. Roosevelt acts--when he doeun act-aggressively and noisily. He has declared himself the negro's friend and protector. He declares that negroes must and shall have their share of offices (in the South, where the objection to negro equality is strongest). The president's atti tude is noisy and aggressive as usual. He appointed as postmistress in the South a certain colored lady. She was in every way respectable, and worthy. But the people objected and made their objection apparent. The lady-with a tact which Mr. Roosevelt perhaps does not quite understand-refused to oppose her interests to the wishes of an entire community and abandoned her post. Thereupon the president abolished the postoflice absolutely. He said to the objecting whites, "You (lee ' to accept my appointee. your ridiculous preju against my will. You sI ut 1. postoffice." That community act al ly has no postoflice and the business and social life of the place suffers in consequence. That seems a little like Russia, and a little unlike America--but that is not the point. In another Southern community, of large business interest, the presi dent has appointed a nepro a. col lector, a place most important to all the mercantile interests. He has put a colored man in a place which com pels all the white merchants to meet that colored man on terms of abso lute equality. T1hat seems a very line and democratic thing--superli cially. But let us look at the matter from various sides. We must be guided in practical life b)y p)ractical conditions. We must pay attention to what actually exists. Mr. Roosev.elt says in substance: "The law declares the negro the equal of any other man. I insist that he shall be every mani's equal. 1 refuse to recognize any diatmoction of race or color." if that were true, it would be0 fa natic, but interesting and honiorab)le -however impractical. But is it true? Suppose that a female member of Mr. Roosevelt's family became en i gaged to marry a negro. Would Mr. Roosevelt remember his views in r-e gard to absolute equality ? Would lie ap;ply to a caise near to hinmsel f the fine generalities which lie applies to white men in the South ? No, ho would not. Eyery man knows that, right or wrong, there does exist a race priojohe ie in this count ry. Everyb)ody knows that Mr. Rtoose volt would absolutely forbid a mar riage engagement between a negro atnd a member of his own family, lie would not for one secondm( hesitate to admit that his objec-tion to the match was based ulponi race prejudice. You might remind him of human rights. You might praise the negro fiance, you might eveni prove that n.e... to be the moral equal of Abraham Lin coin and infinitely superior, mentally, to Mr. Roosevelt. Yet Mr. Roose volt would say: "I forbid the match because he is a black man." Does any friend of Mr. Roosevelt's doubt this statement ? If the statement cannot be denied --and it cannot-will it be said that Mr. Roosevelt is sincere in his atti tude toward the negro question in the South, in his refusal to recognize race prejudice? Perhaps you will say: "If there does exist a prejudice against t he no gro, all honor to him who begins the task of wiping it, out." But. Mr. Roosevelt's attitucde does not proniso to wipe out race prejudice. It prom isos- if it promises anything--to wipe out a certain number of no groes. Mr. Itoosevelt is deliberatoly accentuating prejudice against the negroes in the Sout h. And ho knows it. And the intelligent negroes know it. There is not the slightest doubt that the first white woen who landed here-- a more hlandful-wero going to rule here, despite any efforts of the Indians. The negroes can get decent treatment, only by the develop mont of good fooling. If there shall occur now, in the South, a series of out breaks again-.t i egro arrogance Mr. Itoosevelt v.ill be responsible. It seems appropriae for those who understand the feelings of the South to ask Mr. Roosevelt a few questions. Are you aware, Mr. 1{oosevelt, that the Rejpublican votes from the South in the ltopiblican presidential con vention of 111t.1 will be negro v;tes If you are aware of that feet, <di it have any connection with your Spart an attitude on nego equality Y Have you bein a conspicuous friend of the negro in the North, whence no negro delegates are sent to the convention Y In California, there exists against the Chinese, it prejudice most violent on the part of the whites. Have you appointed any Chinese as postmasters or collectors of ports in California? There are many Chinese American citizens in California, good voters, and very intelligent, law. abiding citi zons. Which of thet havO you se lected for public oflieo. Their rights under the constitution are ihe same as any negro. A Clhinese born here could be president. All the lIepublican delegates from California are white, and all of them are prejudiced against tlie Chinese race. Has that fact any relationship to the other fact that y ou havo skipped the Chinese in your splendlid piro gram of human equality V Are you aware of the fact that ini the South you can get negro (del0 gates, able to niominate you in 1904, and of the other fact that you can't get white votes V Do those two facts iinlumence you when you compel white merchants of the South to accept your views on the race question that you do not understanid V You invite a colored man anid his wife to (1in0 withI you at the White House. Djid you ever invite a colored man and his wife to dine with you and your family in your Madison avenue house ini New York city V You (lid not! Then, do you think the general public will believe that your sudden inviting of negroes to the White House is atnything but a fishing for the votes ef negro delegates? Do you really expect any body13 to dloub)t that you are (101iberately- offondinrg the D)emnocrats of the South, in the 1h01) of winning the votes of niegrc (dolegates?y Iliow does it happen that as to term poar and( accidental inhabitant of the niationi's White HIouse you loave behind the social customs t hat gov.. erned your own New York house ? We believe that the white men of t he South, dealing with a grave prob' 1om, and dealing withi it. most earn estly and honorably, are entitled tc put the above questions to Mr. R(oose, velt. And we are sure that those w~h< will most dooeply deplore thme presi dent's negro d(lolgato-'fishing excur sion are the intelligent negroes. What these men wvant is fair treat ment before thme laws, T1hey want chance to acqnire the educat.ion th. brings genuine equality. They want to live peaceably with their more numerous and necessarily more pow. erful white friends. They do not want a scheming politician to stir up race hatred in the hope of securing national delegates. TILLMAN'S MAGAZINE PISTOL A Description of It by a Man Who Has Seen It. Since the Tillman-Gonzales trag edy in Columbia there has been much curiosity concerning the wea pon used by Tillman, which was re ferred to in the papers at the time of the killing as a "magazine pistol." Qen. R. R. Hemphill, in a letter from Columbia to the Abbeville Me dium, describes it as follows: Last Friday afternoon I went around to the office of J. Frost Wal ker, clerk of court, to see the pistol used by Lieutenant Governor Till man when he shot Editor Gonzales. It is known as a magazine pistol and made in Germany. The balls are put in the stock or handle of the weapon. The barrel is nine inches long and is of blue steel color. The stock is rather flat and gives a better hand hold than if it was round. It will shoot ten times and it is said will kill a man 2,200 yards distance if it hits him. The Colt pistol is also in the hands of the clerk of court. It is a short one and is fully loaded. Stock for the South. J. W. Crow in Southern Farm Magazine of Baltimore for "ebru ary: We believe the time has fully come, in view of the above and other con ditions, when the wonderful possi bilities of the South as a stock coun try should be prominently exploited, all conditions being exceptionally favorable, and considering, as al ready obsei ved, that the vast free range territory of the West, which for half a century past (though not ably the past twenty-five years) has been sending hundreds of thousands of grass fed cattle to the markets of the world at prices very much below those realized for the corn.fed stock of the E'tst and Middle West, has boen practically wiped of existence, our nation having thereby lost one of its most prolific sources of supply. T1'he great body of these pasture lands can never again under any circuni stance figure as a prominent factor in the cattle industry of the country. Thbe cattle barons, who have been the s le beneficiaries of free ranges, are 1Boing forced by the United States government to vacate these vast tracts of public lands they have so long used without leave or license, and( must now retire from the busi ness or seek new fields where they can own their own range. The South alone can meet this exigency. The Presidenit As a Fathier. Soon after the Rtoosevelts took up their residlence at the White Hloose a fawning sociey woman asked one of the younger boys if he dlidn't dislike the "common boys" whom he miet at thme public schools. The little fellow looked1 at her in wonderment and then said: "My papa says that there are only tAll boys and1( short boys andl bad( boys and( good1 boys and that's all the kinds of buys there are." Summed up, President Roosevelt's theory with reference to the manage. mnent of children is that parents should neither be too strict nor too indulgent. Said lhe in discussing the matter: "In the first case the children grow tip sullen, and in the second they often become an offence to them selves and a curse to others. More over, all children should have ats good a time as they poss5ily can."- H. I. Cleveland in F"ebruary NationaL. > ILLI DYEIFOR YOU. YOU WILL Ye arn some (lay that it pays you to let us (lye that old1 suit for you -or clean and1( press it. All work is guaranteed to be first class. Thousands of satisfied customers will tell you so. - We are not playing for your dollars Sonly; we are playimg for the future too. Come and test the truth of our talk, t The Newborr Lma.r,