Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/248

 242 Southern Historical Society Papers.

the impelling motives of both, and without wrangling over the no longer practical question of right, to admit the high qualities exhib- ited in the contest wherever found.

I presume, if we had been in the North with the sentiments, ideas and interests incident to that position, we would have been in favor of war to maintain the Union, but being in the South, with the views, feelings, ideas and interests of that section, we yielded to them and were Confederates. I don't think a Northern man is to be blamed for going with the North, and vice versa. Locality has very much to do with our views and actions.

" There lives in the bosom a feeling sublime,

Of all it is the strongest tie; Unvarying with every change of clime,

And only with life does it die: 'Tis the love that is borne for that lonely land,

That smiled at the hour of our birth ; 'Tis the love that is planted by Nature's hand

For our sacred native Earth."

We are to a large extent creatures of education and the victims of circumstances.

I would have been ashamed of any of my kindred if, being of the South, they had not united with the South in her heroic struggle, and am willing to accord to the people of the North the propriety of the same conduct I claim to have been right here.

It is a great misfortune that the clearing away of the smoke of the last battle of the war was not the signal for the subsidence of the passions it excited; that statesmanship did not rule and guide the councils of the victorious government, and that the idea of merely preserving the Union, which had rallied all classes at the North in support of the war to that end, did not find its fulfillment in the disband- tnent of armies and the resumption of the former relation of the Southern States to the Union. It is sadder still to reflect on what might have beer; our condition, if passion and prejudice had not exerted their baleful influence and prevented us from the wise use of our opportunities. But it is not wise to repine, though it is a dic- tate of wisdom to profit by experience and adopt the salutatory sug- gestions of the past in our present and future. Animated by these sentiments I cherish devotion to the memory of the Confederate cause, for which so many gave their lives, and which is hallowed to