Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/439

 The Maryland Confederate Monument at Gettysburg. 433

rate soldiers civilly liable for damages for trespass committed during war, but the Federal courts and the Supreme Court have held that no such liability was incurred.

As a matter of historical fact and of legal truth, First Manassas destroyed whatever possibility there ever was of the war being treated as rebellion by the successful side, or of our ever being con- sidered as traitors.

As soon as the struggle in arms for independence ended, this strug- gle of logic and reason for our recognition as honorable soldiers began, and we have established our position before the world and to the end of time.

We are faithful citizens of the Union and supporters of the Consti- tution, and we are so because we are recognized as equal citizens, with equal rights to respect and recognition.

We are making the South to blossom as the rose, and her increase in power, population, and wealth in the future will be simply incredi- ble.

The census of 1900 will see Texas outvoting New York, and Ala- bama passing Pennsylvania in power. When people have lost every- thing save honor, as we had done in 1865, our first duty became to preserve that untarnished. The Union had power, wealth, art, poetry, the press, the histories, and the school-books to impress their story upon future generations. We had naught but our own invin- cible courage and endurance and self-respect, and we have never wavered in the assertion of our right to be respected. While, for years, the successful side were offering high rewards for those who would leave us, not five Confederate soldiers of renown have deserted. While, for twenty years, any men of reputation in the South who would join them would have received high place under the Federal government, we have not had ten renegades.

Even here in Maryland, where the Confederate soldier has not always been recognized as he should be, not ten can be iound who have proved recreant to their comrades and their faith.

It seemed to some of us that the preservation of the moral, the self- respect of our people, was of vital necessity for recovery. If they were allowed to sink into the condition of conquered vassals, they would soon, in reality, degenerate into serfs. It was necessary that some organized efforts be made to preserve them from the moral consequences of conquest.

Accordingly, in the spring of 1870, I prepared the plan for the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia, w^hich plan was, that