Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/36

 24 Southern Historical Socictn

Now, who was in command ? Honest and faithful Waid, perfectly ignorant of my whereabouts, doing all he could on the left; I trying to do all that I could on the right, and, according to Captain Waid's recollection, our silver-haired old hero, General M. D. Corse, doing the same in the centre.

E. M. MORRISON, Colonel Fifteenth Virginia Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia.

[From the Richmond, Va., Dispatch, July 31, 1894.]

CAUSES OF THE WAR.

Great Speech of Hon. Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama.

SLAVERY AND STATES RIGHTS.

Opposition of the Southern Colonists to Slavery, and Their Devotion to the Union Advocates of Secession.

On Friday, July I3th, 1894, the House of Representatives being in Committee of the Whole, on appropriations and expenditures, and having under consideration the bill to remove the charge of desertion standing against Patrick Kelleher, late private, Company C, Thirty-eighth Illinois Volunteers, Mr. Wheeler, of Alabama, as a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, made a speech which has since attracted wide-spread attention. The discussion, which became animated, led up to the causes of the late war and its im- mense expenditures, and Mr. Wheeler brought out some startling historical facts. He said:

I did not intend or desire to enter into any discussion about the war, but in reply to the question of the distinguished gentleman from New York, General Curtis, I will say that these expenditures were caused by events which I deplored. The armies causing these immense expenditures were raised for reasons with which I was not in sympathy, and I regretted very much that they were raised. (Laughter and applause). I never thought them necessary, because I believed then, as I believe now, that our appeals should have been heeded when we went on our knees at the Peace Congress, in Phila- delphia, to beg for arbitration and peace, and to beg that some