Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/69

Rh

July 3, 1907.

I see by the papers you have announced your intention to act upon our resolution in regard to restoring the name of Jefferson Davis on Cabin John Bridge. This is fine, but you will excuse me for calling your attention to a very important fact, and that is, that the resolution was passed by the Confederated Southern Memorial Association at the convention held in Richmond, May 30-June 1, 1907, and not by the Daughters of the Confederacy, as stated in the item published in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Times-Democrat and the Daily Picayune. Please fix this point well in your mind: The Confederated Southern Memorial Association and the Daughters of the Confederacy are two distinct organizations. The former is composed of the women of the Confederacy, to whom Jefferson Davis dedicated his great work, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government"; to the latter belong the younger element, with a few of the older women who have outlived the memorial associations in their cities. You and your colleagues in Congress will remember the efforts of the Confederated Southern Memorial Association to obtain the favorable passage of the Foraker Bill, and we hope to meet with the same success in this movement, and secure from our government (the best on earth) the justice due a man who followed the dictates of his conscience in the performance of duty as it was given him to see it. In a few days I will send to your address a copy of the "History of the Memorial Associations of the South," with certain passages marked for special consideration, and as a help in carrying on the proposed legislation, whether you conclude to work it through the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Interior, or by congressional action. Please let me know in what way I may assist you, in addition to furnishing you with all data relating to the subject.

On my return from Biloxi, last Saturday, I met Hon. Bowers, of Mississippi, and talked to him on the subject. He