Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/343

 /' .test of R. E. Lee Camp, C. V. 337

RELIEF OF CONFEDERATES BY NATIONAL APPROPRIATION.

HON. P. J. OTEY'S BILL.

R. E. Lee Camp, C. V., Protests Against the Consideration of the

Bill by Congress.

[So sweeping were the pecuniary losses of the Confederates, that to ask partial reparation for them, would be pardonable. No one can question the excellence of intention of the gallant Major Otey. Still the noble declara- tion herewith printed touches a commanding chord in the Southern heart. No veteran can be neglected with us. No want will be unsupplied, and his closing years will be soothed with the loving ministrations of both sexes. The provision is happily systematic. R. E. Lee Camp, No. i, Confederate Veterans, may righteously voice the sentiment of the nobly beneficent fra- ternity which it initiated. Instituted in April, 1883, its admirable example has been potential. Grandly has the roll grown, comprehending now fully 800 Camps, with a constantly-increasing ratio of organization. Grateful re- sult is the speedy sequence. Provision for the needy vetaran is the con- comitant of every established Camp. ED.]

R. E. Lee Camp, No. i, Confederate Veterans, in meeting held January 24, 1896, expressed its disapprobation of the bill offered by Major P. J. Otey, looking to Federal aid to Confederate veterans. The following dignified expression (the report prepared by a com- mittee consisting of General Peyton Wise, Major Norman V. Ran- dolph, and General Thomas A. Brander, to whom the bill had been referred) was adopted with hearty acclaim:

THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

The report of General Wise's committee, as adopted by Lee Camp, reads:

Your committee, to whom was some time since referred the ques- tions presented by a report in the newspapers that Hon. Peter J. 22