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rian, who will seek to know the motive that prompted the tremendous efforts of those four years, and the character of the men who fought so hard. It must command the attention of Confederate soldiers and their descendants for all time to come.
During that contest, and for many years after its close, there was no doubt as to this question in all our Southern land, and this is the case with nearly all our mature and thinking people to-day. I fear, however, that some of our children, misled by the false teachings of certain histories used in some of our schools, may have some mis- givings on this all-important subject.
As Carthage had no historian, the Roman accounts of the famous Punic wars had to be accepted. All the blame was, as a matter of course, thrown on Carthage, and thus " Punica Fides" became a sneering by-word to all posterity. And so it has be"en, until recently, with the South. For many years after the war, our people were so poor, and so busily engaged in "keeping the wolf fromtheir doors," that they lost sight of everything else. The shrewd, calculating, and wealthy Northerners, on the other hand, realized the importance of trying to impress the rising generation with the justice of their cause; and to that end they soon flooded our schools with histories, containing their version of the contest, and in many of these " all the blame " (as in the case of Carthage), is laid on the South.
In view of these facts, I have thought it not only not improper, but perhaps, a sacred duty, to call attention to some things which have impressed me very much, and some which so far as I know, have not heretofore been brought to the attention of our Southern people.
I shall not, in this address, discuss the Confederate Cause from the standpoint of a Southerner at all. Indeed, this has been done so thoroughly and ably by President Davis, Mr. Stephens, Dr. Bled- soe, and otners, as to leave but little, if anything to be said from that point of view. I propose to set in order certain facts which will show: (i) What the people of the North said and did during the war to establish the justice of our Cause, and what they have said and done to the same end since its close; and (2) What distinguished foreigners have said about that cause, and the way the war was con- ducted on both sides. It seems to me that an answer to these en- quiries is worthy of the gravest consideration, and ought to make its impression on any reflecting and unprejudiced mind.
I am profoundly thankful that in these latter days, our own peo- ple have become aroused to the importance of presenting the truth of this great struggle, and that the result has been to produce some
