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016 - Appendix E - Shall the Government Confer Permanent Honors on Confederate Heroes · Prison Life in Andersonville

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  Speaker 1: Appendix E of Prison Life in Andersonville by John Levi Miley.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Smith, New Orleans, Louisiana. Shall the Government confer permanent
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  Speaker 1: honors on Confederate heroes? The magnanimity which dictated the terms
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  Speaker 1: of surrender at Appomattics was typical of the treatment extended
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  Speaker 1: by the Government of the United States to its defeated opponents.
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  Speaker 1: Well might this be so? The sinews of strength of
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  Speaker 1: the Mighty North had, through the four years of desperate conflict,
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  Speaker 1: grown strong. Indeed, a Confederate major general declared that the
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  Speaker 1: veterans of General Sherman's army, pushing their winter way through
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  Speaker 1: the swampson rivers of the South, foraging widely for subsistence
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  Speaker 1: and always ready to fight, illustrated a type of soldier
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  Speaker 1: that the world had not seen since the days of
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  Speaker 1: Julius Caesar. The final parade of the Union Army along
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  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Avenue before the President, the Cabinet, prominent generals, and
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  Speaker 1: notables of other nations, displayed a vast procession of seasoned
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  Speaker 1: veterans whose effectiveness had never been surpassed. They were the choice,
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  Speaker 1: steel tempered residue of more than two millions of citizen
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  Speaker 1: soldiery who had enlisted to preserve the Union of States
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  Speaker 1: one and inseparable against the folly of secession. In the
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  Speaker 1: plenitude of their invincible strength. Nursing no lust of power,
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  Speaker 1: they disbanded to peace full homes. From whence they came
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  Speaker 1: subsiding from their regnant military life as the mighty storm
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  Speaker 1: waves of the ocean sink away into Pacific calm. Apart
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  Speaker 1: from widespread personal bereavement, the North borno serious scars of war.
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  Speaker 1: The perfection of agricultural machinery enabled rich harvests to be
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  Speaker 1: gathered in season. Notwithstanding the dearth of farm help which
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  Speaker 1: had gone to the army. Factories of every kind were
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  Speaker 1: with large profits, turning out abundantly all sorts of goods.
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  Speaker 1: Our commerce with the world was unhindered, save by the
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  Speaker 1: eccentric raids of the Alabama. The muscle and brawn of
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  Speaker 1: an ample labor immigration supplied the manual force necessary to
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  Speaker 1: national expansion, as illustrated in the building of the transcontinental railroads.
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  Speaker 1: The huge war debt, instead of being felt as an incubus,
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  Speaker 1: was but a process of turning into ready cash the
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  Speaker 1: prosperity of the future. Contrast with this picture the condition
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  Speaker 1: of the Southern States at the close of the four
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  Speaker 1: dreadful years. Within a goodly portion of her borders, the
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  Speaker 1: country was war swept and harried by the consuming necessities
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  Speaker 1: of vast armies of both friend and foe. For hungry
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  Speaker 1: men and beasts on the march and in the fight
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  Speaker 1: must subsist largely upon the supplies which the foragers gather
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  Speaker 1: from the adjacent regions. Manufacture, as compared with the North,
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  Speaker 1: was a neglected art. South of Mason's and Dixon's line,
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  Speaker 1: the most extensive and effect of naval blockade of history
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  Speaker 1: hermetically sealed nearly every Southern port, thereby hopelessly shutting in
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  Speaker 1: untold wealth of cotton, the returns of which were otherwise
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  Speaker 1: available to every need. No millions of stalwart immigrants reinforced
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  Speaker 1: Southern industry. On the contrary, her labor system and property
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  Speaker 1: tenure in human beings were shattered in pieces. The flower
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  Speaker 1: of her masculine youth perished. The prestige of ruling intelligence, culture,
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  Speaker 1: and wealth was dethroned, and to crown her afflictions. Although
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  Speaker 1: she knew it not. The South lost her best and
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  Speaker 1: most powerful friend in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Then
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  Speaker 1: followed the agonies of politics, reconstruction, and the ignoble invasion
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  Speaker 1: of carpet bag adventurers, who in many instances were valiant
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  Speaker 1: only for pealth. Surviving this widespread chaos, the South, for
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  Speaker 1: the most part, believed in their lawful right of withdrawing
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  Speaker 1: from the Union. By many of their leading minds, this
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  Speaker 1: contention had been long held, and that conception of government
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  Speaker 1: doubtless had filtered down through all classes of society so
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  Speaker 1: far as thought was developed on the subject. The defense
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  Speaker 1: of state rights probably was a more powerful incentive to
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  Speaker 1: civil war than was at first the purpose to defend slavery.
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  Speaker 1: The bravery of Southern soldiers has never been surpassed. The
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  Speaker 1: self sacrificing patriotism of Southern women reached the high water mark.
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  Speaker 1: The vitality and moral force of Southern chivalry was distinguished
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  Speaker 1: even in the remarkable loyalty of the slaves. If the
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  Speaker 1: foregoing briefly stated considerations form a truthful presentation of the case, why,
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  Speaker 1: it may be asked, may not the national government expand
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  Speaker 1: the magnanimity of President Lincoln and General Grant by engaging
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  Speaker 1: with Congress to erect monuments and other memorials to heroes
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  Speaker 1: of the army and navy of the Confederacy. The first
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  Speaker 1: step towards such procedure has already been taken in the
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  Speaker 1: form of proposed legislation at Washington. We would not imply
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  Speaker 1: that the most eminent leaders of the Southern forces were
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  Speaker 1: personally unworthy of posthumous honor. On the contrary, it is
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  Speaker 1: our privilege to bear testimony to the exalted individual worth
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  Speaker 1: the consecrated devotion to country, as they understood the duty
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  Speaker 1: and the pre eminent ability and action that characterized the
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  Speaker 1: most noted leaders of the Confederacy. Nevertheless, their relation to
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  Speaker 1: national history is determined not by individual excellencies, but by
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  Speaker 1: the fact that they rebelled against the government they were
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  Speaker 1: sworn to defend to the utmost. They did all they
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  Speaker 1: could to dismember the union of which they were an
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  Speaker 1: integral part, to dishonor the flag that emblazoned the glory
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  Speaker 1: of a common origin and history. In the interest of
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  Speaker 1: perpetuating a far reaching sentiment of loyalty to national life
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  Speaker 1: and well being, we would strenuously deny the moral right
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  Speaker 1: of Congress to make appropriations for the erection of memorials
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  Speaker 1: that are designed to crown Confederate valor with renown. If
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  Speaker 1: by private subscriptions admirers wish to build monuments, they undoubtedly
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  Speaker 1: will be allowed to do so. Our government has wisely
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  Speaker 1: extended high courtesies to prominent Southern generals, and has on
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  Speaker 1: many occasions held out the olive branch of peace. But
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  Speaker 1: we must not forget that brotherly kindness and neighborly goodwill
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  Speaker 1: cannot cancel the fact that the Southern conception of government
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  Speaker 1: by state rights as against national sovereignty, meant the destruction
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  Speaker 1: of the nation as such, and was so intended. Had
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  Speaker 1: the War for the Union been a failure, this fair
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  Speaker 1: continent on which has been nourished the hopes of the world,
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  Speaker 1: would have been the arena of two general governments, separated
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  Speaker 1: by no natural dividing lines, and probably at last to
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  Speaker 1: be succeeded by contending states and communities. Thus, the last
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  Speaker 1: condition of free civilization in America would have been more
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  Speaker 1: disgraceful than was the situation of the warring principalities of
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  Speaker 1: ancient Greece. Because we had sinned against a greater light
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  Speaker 1: than they possessed. If national monuments are dedicated to commemorate
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  Speaker 1: Southern gallantry, will not a subtle influence steadily flow out
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  Speaker 1: from these reminders of civil war to the effect that
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  Speaker 1: assault upon the nation's existence is an offense so trivial
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  Speaker 1: as to be expiated by bravery on the field of battle.
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  Speaker 1: Who can tell what crises of peril may in the
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  Speaker 1: future break in upon our beloved land, And what a
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  Speaker 1: the youth of the North and of the South are,
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  Speaker 1: from generation to generation taught by the influence of public
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  Speaker 1: memorials that there is no real distinction between those who
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  Speaker 1: fought to save the nation and those who did all
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  Speaker 1: they could. That the government of the people, by the people,
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  Speaker 1: and for the people, shall parentheses, not parentheses closed perish
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  Speaker 1: from the earth. We present a quotation from the judgment
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  Speaker 1: of the Supreme Court, as given by General N. P.
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  Speaker 1: Chipman on page five O three of his recent and
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  Speaker 1: informing book on Endersonville. The rebellion out of which the
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  Speaker 1: war grew was without any legal sanction. In the eye
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  Speaker 1: of the law, it had the same properties as if
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  Speaker 1: it had been the insurrection of a country or smaller
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  Speaker 1: municipal territory as against the state to which it belonged.
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  Speaker 1: The proportion and duration of the struggle did not affect
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  Speaker 1: its character, nor was there a rebel government de facto
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  Speaker 1: in such a sense as to give any legal efficiency
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  Speaker 1: to its acts. The union of the states for all
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  Speaker 1: the purposes of the Constitution is as perfect and indissoluble
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  Speaker 1: as the union of the integral parts of the states themselves,
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  Speaker 1: and nothing but revolutionary violence can in either case destroy
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  Speaker 1: the ties which hold the part parties together for the
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  Speaker 1: sake of humanity. Certain belligerent rights were conceded to the
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  Speaker 1: insurgents in arms, but the recognition did not extend to
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  Speaker 1: the pretended government of the Confederacy. The rebellion was simply
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  Speaker 1: an armed resistance of the rightful authority of the sovereign.
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  Speaker 1: Such was its character, its rise, progress, and downfall. The
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  Speaker 1: legal aspects of the case, as thus expressed, have their
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  Speaker 1: great value as indicating facts fundamental to organic national existence,
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  Speaker 1: and they demonstrate the inherent inconsistency of devoting federal appropriations
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  Speaker 1: to the erection of monuments to the honor of opponents
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  Speaker 1: of the union. This can be but a transient purpose
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  Speaker 1: which should, and we believe will be relinquished. We close
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  Speaker 1: this narrative with the words of a departed soldier who
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  Speaker 1: was a devoted friend of General Lee, and afterwards a
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  Speaker 1: trusted counselor of General Grant, as recorded in the Memoirs
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  Speaker 1: of General John B. Gordon, pages four sixty four, four
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  Speaker 1: sixty five. American youth in all sections should be taught
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  Speaker 1: to hold in perpetual remembrance all that was great and
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  Speaker 1: good on both sides. To comprehend the inherited convictions for
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  Speaker 1: which saintly women suffered and patriotic men died. To recognize
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  Speaker 1: the unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivaled courage. To appreciate
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  Speaker 1: the singular absence of personal animosity, and the frequent manifestation
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  Speaker 1: between those brave antagonists of a good fellowship, such as
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  Speaker 1: had never before been witnessed between hostile armies. It will
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  Speaker 1: be a glorious day for our country when all the
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  Speaker 1: children within its borders shall learn that the four years
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  Speaker 1: of fratricidal war between the North and the South was
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  Speaker 1: waged by neither with criminal or unworthy intent, but by
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  Speaker 1: both to protect what they conceived to be threatened rights
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  Speaker 1: and imperiled liberty. That the issues which divided. The sections
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  Speaker 1: were born when the Republic was born, and were forever
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  Speaker 1: buried in an ocean of fraternal blood. We shall then
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  Speaker 1: see that under God's providence, every sheet of flame from
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  Speaker 1: the blazing rifles of the contending armies, every whizzing shell
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  Speaker 1: that tore through the forests at Shiloh and Chancellorsville, every
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  Speaker 1: cannon shot that s shook Chickamauga's hills, or thundered around
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  Speaker 1: the heights of Gettysburg, and all the blood and the
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  Speaker 1: tears that were shed are yet to become contributions for
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  Speaker 1: the upbuilding of American manhood and for the future defense
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  Speaker 1: of American freedom. The Christian Church received its baptism of
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  Speaker 1: Pentecostal power as it emerged from the shadows of Calvary,
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  Speaker 1: and went forth to its worldwide work with greater unity
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  Speaker 1: and a diviner purpose. So the Republic, rising from its
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  Speaker 1: baptism of blood, with a national life more robust, a
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  Speaker 1: national union more complete, and a national influence ever widening,
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  Speaker 1: shall go forever forward in its benign mission to humanity.
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  Speaker 1: From the oldest to the youngest, Let us all unite
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  Speaker 1: in the patriotic seen valutation. I pledge my allegiance to
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  Speaker 1: my flag and to the Republic for which it stands,
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  Speaker 1: one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. End
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  Speaker 1: of Appendix E. The finish End of prison life in
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  Speaker 1: Andersonville by John lev Miley