Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/199

 Report cf Jlutory < \muniit,-, j drumi f ' C. V. 193

brought on that war; we say \vln-n tlu-se, and other wicked and false charge- are brought against us from year to year, and the attempt is systematically made to teach our children, that these things are true, and therefore, that we do not deserve their sym|>athy and respect, because of our alleged wicked and unjustifiable course in that war and in bringing it on then it becomes our duty, not only to ourselves and our children, but to the thousands of brave men and women who gave their lives a "free-will offering," in defence of the prin- ciples for which we fought, to vindicate the justice of our cause, and to do this, we have to appeal only to the bar of truth and of justice

IHK TRUTH WILL LIVE.

We know the Muse of History may be, and often is, startled from her propriety lor a time; but she will soon regain her equipoise. Our late enemy has unwittingly furnished the great reservoir from which the truth can be drawn, not only in what they have said about us and our cause, both before and since the war; but in the more than the one hundred volumes of the official records published under the authority of Congress. We are content to await, "with calm confidence," the results of the appeal to these sources.

We have, as already stated, in this report, attempted to vindicate our cause, by referring to testimony furnished almost entirely from the speeches and writings of our adversaries, both before and since the war. We believe we have succeeded in doing this. Nay, the judgment, both of the justice of our cause and the conduct of the war, on our part, has been written for us, and that too by the hand of a Massachusetts man. He says of us:

"Such exalted character and achievement are not all in vain. Though the Confederacy fell as an actual physical power, she lives illustrated by them, eternally in her just cause the cause of Con- stitutional liberty. ' '

Then, in the language of the Virginia Laureate again, we say:

"Then stand up, oh my countrymen,

And unto God give thanks On mountains and on hillsides

And by sloping river banks, Thank God, that you were worthy

Of the grand Confederate ranks."