Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/63

 "United Daughters of the Confederacy" and "Confederate Ladies Memorial Association" for the "Confederated Southern Memorial Association," see letters of July 3, 1907, from Mrs. Behan to Mr. Meyer, and of July 8, 1907, from Mrs. Robinson to Mrs. Behan.—Editor's note.]

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND CABIN JOHN BRIDGE.

'''From the Daily Picayune, New Orleans, La., Published by the Nicholson Publishing Company, Limited, Friday Morning, July 5, 1907.'''

On yesterday, which was the glorious "Fourth," the birthday of this great nation, much was said in print about a united country after a terrible and tremendous sectional war and about the love and loyalty of the South to the Union.

That is as it should be, but, nevertheless, there remains recorded against the North an act which "was at the time wholly a wanton and unwarranted and pitiful and childish attempt to insult the Southern people, and to-day, when the story is told, it shows up in the light of a re-united country as something so contemptible that the brave and honorable people of the North should never rest until the wrong is righted and the shame of it effaced from the stone tablet in which it appears.

The story briefly is this: Under President Pierce's administration as Chief Magistrate of this great Republic an elaborate system of works was constructed for the purpose of supplying the National Capital with water. The construction .was done under the direction of the United States Army engineers, Jefferson Davis being the Secretary of War.

In the the work water was brought in a magnificent stone aqueduct over Cabin John Creek, which flows into the Potomac on the Maryland side, not far from Washington. The crossing of the creek is made on a lofty stone arch of wide span, and as this structure is very conspicuous as an engineering feat, an inscription on the keystone of the arch announced that the work was completed by the army engineers under the administration of President Pierce, Jefferson Davis being Secretary of War.