Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/440

 434 Southern Historical Society Papers.

a division should be organized in every State, and General Lee was asked to become its first president. He did not think the time auspi- cious tor such an organization, and it was dropped.

At the great memorial meeting in Richmond, in October, 1870, presided over by ex-President Davis, when many great soldiers of the Confederacy were present, the Association was formed. This society was then organized as the Maryland Division of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Other similar societies arose all over the South, and I believe they have peflormed a large and noble part in keeping up the spirit of our people. It was the spirit kept alive by these societies and the or- ganization and membership of the societies themselves which rescued Louisiana and South Carolina and Georgia, and which has just re- stored Virginia to the control of her own people.

I come now to answer more definitely the inquiry with which I started — Why do we continue these public exhibitions and demon- strations ?

I answer, in order to show that we have power and the will to pro- tect ourselves and our comrades.

The annual orations and banquets at which we meet are not meant solely to make a display or to gratify a sentiment. They have been intended to keep, and they have succeeded in keeping, alive that heartfelt sympathy which Maryland felt so deeply for us, and they resulted in the bazar and $31,000 as an endowment to take care of our people.

This fund is not sufficient. We have now so many on our pension list that our fund is absorbed before adequately supplying their necessities

As time goes on, we have more needy and broken-down comrades. Some of them are already in the poor-house. Many are on the way there. Since 1865 we have been treated with chivalric courtesy and kindness by Union soldiers, and I have never heard of one of them acting toward our comrades otherwise than most generously. We have consistently voted pensions for them, for honorable soldiers de- serve pensions. We cannot reasonably expect pensions for ourselves from the Federal Government, but it must commend itself to the sense of justice of honorable men that, while we contribute hundreds of millions to Union pensioners, our own loved comrades shall not be allowed to die the death of paupers and be buried in paupers' graves.

Our men here in Maryland are honest; they are sober, industrious