Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/75

 never had a more competent man in that office—an aqueduct was built over Cabin John Creek as a part of the waterworks system of the City of Washington. The work was done by army engineers under his direction, and the names of those who were in authority at the time were inscribed on the keystone of the arch spanning the stream. When Caleb Smith was Secretary of the Interior under Abraham Lincoln, he ordered that the name of Mr. Davis, which had been chiseled into the stone, should be cut out, and it was done. If Caleb Smith ever did anything else during his term of office, we do not know it; but at the time, we have no doubt that he was much trumpeted for this mark of bis loyalty to the cause of the Union. For more than forty years there has been a blank space in the keystone of "Cabin John Bridge." Every visitor to the place has asked whose name had been cut out of the stone; nobody has asked who cut it out, so that it has come to pass that Caleb Smith has been forgotten and that Jefferson Davis lives on. This is exactly as we would have it and as it ought to be.

The Confederate Ladies' Memorial Association, we are told, had photographs distributed at the recent great rally of Confederate veterans in Richmond, showing how the mutilated keystone at "Cabin John Bridge" looks, and obtained a number of signatures to a memorial praying President Roosevelt to have the name of Mr. Davis restored. The photographs and memorial are well enough for the purpose of keeping the incident fresh in the public mind; but it is hoped that the memorial will not be sent to Mr. Roosevelt, and that he will not regard it if it shall be sent to him. It is far better as it is. It will attract more attention, it will make every visitor to the spot think of Mr. Davis and of his cause; the very absence of his name from the keystone will attest his loyalty to his people and to the principles upon which the American Republic was founded. The mutilated keystone will attest at the same time the bitter hate, the narrow conceptions of patriotic duty of those who were arrayed against us in the great struggle, now nearly half a century ago. We would not have this act of vandalism covered up, this evidence of the old-time animosities forgotten. It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness.