The Maryland Confederate Monument at Gettysburg. 429
The Maryland Confederate Monument at Gettysburg.
At a preliminary meeting to arrange for the dedication of the Maryland Confederate Monument at Gettysburg, held in Baltimore, Tuesday evening, November the i6th, 1886, General Bradley T. Johnson made a defence of Confederates from the charge of being "Rebels" and "traitors" well worthy of preservation in our records.
GENERAL JOHNSON'S ADDRESS.
We are often asked by persons quite friendly to u.«, why we per- sist in maintaining these Confederate societies, and why we every year make public demonstrations of our respect for the " Lost Cause," and our affection for our dead comrades and attachment to our living ones. I have been asked, " Why not let the dead Confederacy rest in peace ? It is dead ; it cannot be revived, and you are guilty of an anachronism when you seek to put life in the corpse." My answer is, the cause of the Confederate States was the cause of civil liberty, under constitutional forms, on this continent. Those who supported it in arms acted up to the best lights they had, and maintained their faith and belief at the risk of life and fortune. That cause never will be a " lost cause," for as long as freemen all over the world love liberty they will struggle for it, and, if need be, fight for it, and they will respect the people who dared, at such great cost, to stand in defence of it against overwhelming odds and irre- sistible force. By the conventions of Appomattox and Denham Station we agreed to " return to our homes and obey the laws in force there," but by those military treaties it was expressly agreed that we should retain our swords, and without that stipulation no surrender would have been made by either Lee or Johnston. The sword was the insignium of the soldier — the emblem of our right and the outward mark of the respect which we had won. It indi- cated our reserved right of self-defence, of our honor, of our prop- erty and our institutions.
The parole was the certificate given by the conquerors to the conquered of honorable service in honorable war.
As soon as peace returned the first question that met us was as to what was to be our position m the future development of the country.
Were we to live as unconvicted rebels and go down to dishonored
