Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/175

 Report "/' //'/"/'/ ('ninimftii <>t (,'rmiil ('>iiii/> ('. \'. |t>!>

OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE HISTORY COMMITTEE

OF THE GRAND CAMP C. V., DEPARTMENT

OF VIRGINIA.

By Judge GEORGE L. CHRISTIAN, Acting Chairman, October nth, 1900.

THE RIGHT OF SECESSION ESTABLISHED BY NORTHERN TESTIMONY.

II. THE NORTH THE AGGRESSOR IN BRINGING ON THE WAR ESTABLISHED BY THEIR OWN TESTIHONY.

To the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans of Virginia:

Some time in July last, Dr. Stuart McGuire, seeing that his father, Dr. Hunter McGuire, the able and distinguished Chairman of this Committee, was permanently disabled for longer discharging the duties devolving on him, sent his resignation to your Com- mander. A meeting of this Committee was promptly called, and it was the unanimous opinion of the members present that the resig- nation should not be accepted, but that some member of the Com- mittee should be designated to write the Report for this meeting. I was designated by the Commander for the performance of this im- portant task.

Fully recognizing then, as 1 do now, both my inability and the lack of time at my command, for the proper discharge of the duty thus assigned me, I earnestly asked to be excused from the under- taking, and nothing but my devotion, both to Dr. McGuire and the Confederate cause, could have induced me to consent to undertake a work for which I felt so poorly prepared.

Since that time, the hand that strikes no erring blow, has taken from us our able and beloved Chairman, and he now sleeps in beau- tiful Hollywood. I have no words to express the personal loss I feel at this calamity, and I know that you, and each of you, share with me in these feelings. Distinguished both in war and in peace, for ability and fidelity to every trust, there was nothing for which he was more distinguished than for his love and fidelity to our cause, and to those who fought to sustain it. He is lost to us as counsellor