Relief of Confederates by National appropriation.
Hon. P. J. Otey's bill.
R. E. Lee Camp, C. V., protests against the consideration of the bill by Congress.[So sweeping were the pecuniary losses of the Confederates, that to ask partial reparation for them, would be pardonable. No one can question the excellence of intention of the gallant Major Otey. Still the noble declaration herewith printed touches a commanding chord in the Southern heart. No veteran can be neglected with us. No want will be unsupplied, and his closing years will be soothed with the loving ministrations of both sexes. The provision is happily systematic. R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans, may righteously voice the sentiment of the nobly beneficent fraternity which it initiated. Instituted in April, 1883, its admirable example has been potential. Grandly has the roll grown, comprehending now fully 800 Camps, with a constantly-increasing ratio of organization. Grateful result is the speedy sequence. Provision for the needy vetaran is the concomitant of every established Camp.—Ed.]R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans, in meeting held January 24, 1896, expressed its disapprobation of the bill offered by Major P. J. Otey, looking to Federal aid to Confederate veterans. The following dignified expression (the report prepared by a committee consisting of General Peyton Wise, Major Norman V. Randolph, and General Thomas A. Brander, to whom the bill had been referred) was adopted with hearty acclaim:
The Committee's report.
The report of General Wise's committee, as adopted by Lee Camp, reads:Your committee, to whom was some time since referred the questions presented by a report in the newspapers that Hon. Peter J. [338] Otey, of the Sixth Congressional District of Virginia, was about to introduce in the United States House of Representatives a bill to make abandoned property, captured from the people of the Confederate States, and covered into the Treasury of the United States, available for the benefit of disabled Confederate soldiers, have had those questions under earnest consideration, and now report that a bill for the purpose named, and numbered H. R. 1678, has been introduced in the House of Representatives, together with a bill, which is alternative in its character, and numbered H. R. 1677, by the Hon. Peter J. Otey. These bills, copies of which are attached to this report, were offered on the 16th ultimo, and referred to the Committee on War Claims. At the time of their reference the committee named had not been constituted, and was not organized until the first week of the present month, owing to the prevalence of the Christmas holidays, and the absence of members of the House from their seats in the chamber. For these reasons the bill named did not get into the hands of your committee until very recently, and for other reasons, well known to you, this report could not be made before the present meeting of this camp.
Was a gallant Confederate.
Since H. R. 1677 is only intended to be considered in the House in the event of the failure of H. R. 1678, and since the latter is the one which is peculiarly interesting to you, the latter will be exclusively commented upon in this report.We want to say at the outset that the patron of these bills was a gallant Confederate soldier, who, in the opinion of your committee, and doubtless of all who know him, worthily wears the honors of a representative of Virginia in Congress; that it is unquestionably his intent in the offer of this bill to endeavor to have a boon conferred upon that class of our comrades who deserve the highest, simplest consideration from every quarter; and therefore it does not lie in our hearts, and that it is not our desire, or our purpose to reflect upon Major Otey in any way or to any extent in this report. We do not approve, however, to any degree of the methods of this bill, and will state our objections to it frankly, respectfully, and kindly.
The title of the bill is ‘To Restore a Part of Captured and Abandoned Property.’ The title of the bill is objectionable, because the [339] bill does not propose to restore the property named to its real owners, but to give it, practically, to persons who, however meritorious, have absolutely no title whatever to it.
What the bill Recites.
The recitals in the preamble of the bill are four in number:1st Recital. That the property proposed to be restored was captured from the people of the Confederate States, non-combatants and others, after it had been abandoned by them, and was sold and covered into the Treasury, amounting to $27,000,000. We have no reason to doubt the truth of this proposition.
2. That the chaotic condition of affairs in the South after the surrender prevented the reclamation at the time of the captured, abandoned property by its real owners, and that it is evident now that such claims can never be presented or sustained at this late day.
The truth of this recital, in any and all of its parts, is open to the most serious question, and, could it be established beyond peradventure, scarcely offers a basis for giving this money to any class of the citizens of the United States. The one question which, in law or in morals, could in the latter event arise, is whether the captured, abandoned property belongs to the United States, under the law of war, or by escheat to the States in which that property was found in its state of abandonment. This is a question for the courts, not for Congress.
3. That the United States is under no obligation in law or usage to provide for those who fought against them, but recognizes in them now its own citizens, who have become patriotic, and will cheerfully support the government, whether in peace or war.
The allegations of this recital are correct beyond any question, but, in view of them, it does not fail to strike your committee that they offer the strongest reasons why the bill should not pass. Law and usage should not be overturned, and the wholly unconstitutional and improper attitude of granting premiums to citizens for support of the government should not be assumed by the Congress of the United States.
[340]
Not the governments province.
4. That the United States, moved by the spirit of humanity, fraternity, and magnanimity to sympathy with those who have suffered by the casualties of war, desire to contribute to the alleviation of the necessities of those who are unable to support themselves.This recital undoubtedly presents a case of misery for the heartiest sympathy and for the most urgent effort in every proper quarter to relieve it. But it is very much to be doubted whether under any circumstances whatever it is the true mission of government to relieve suffering by appropriations from the public treasury, except where it has been occasioned by labor in its service; and the wisest and best men claim that such appropriations tend to produce a paternalism in government, a want of self-reliance in the citizen, which go to sap the foundations of that liberty for which our fathers and Confederate soldiers conspicuously fought and became heroes.
Provisions of the bill.
The bill itself provides for the payment by the United States of five per cent. interest per annum on the amount of the captured abandoned property, to be paid over to the Southern States at definite periods in the proportions to each State established by the provision made by each State for its disabled soldiers.It will be readily seen that in the case of those States which have made no provision for their disabled soldiers, no bounty is created for them, and that the principle is established that where there is the most misery there shall be the least relief, and that where the largest charity is extended it shall be rewarded by a bounty, which, in that case, would not be needed.
The bill, to sum it up, is illogical throughout, and a non-sequitur from premises, which, in their important parts, are as incorrect as they are improper to be pleaded.
To our good fortune.
We must not conclude this report without saying that the failure of the Government of the United States to provide for our disabled soldiers has resulted most fortunately for the manhood and womanhood of the South. Notably, it has caused the formation throughout [341] the South of camps like this, whose fame has been blown throughout the land, and where we are drawn together, not merely to do to each other, and especially to our suffering poor, the offices of mutual benefit for the here and the hereafter, through the agency of men who become devoted to the greatness of self-sacrifice, and of women who become heroic in ministration; where we not only enjoy the pleasure of recounting glorious memories of a splendid past; but where we have rescued from oblivion and saved to our posterity the rich heritage of a veracious history of immortal glory wrought by Confederate valor.Shall we barter this for gold? Worst of all, shall we, whose past at least is secure, who have saved honor where we have saved nothing else; who have realized in its highest form the Greek conception of a man—that he is the animal whose countenance is turned to Heaven—get down upon our knees and crawl to the footstool of the Federal throne, and beg a bounty for what we failed to hold by our arms. No! a thousand times, no!
Inconsistent with self-respect.
Major Otey means kindly by us, and he is right when he declares our hearty and undying loyalty to the flag of the common country; he is correct in assuming that should war come the Confederate soldier will be found carrying that flag to heights as great as any soldier may reach, let them be as high as the stars, which it types. But neither he nor any Southern representative shall ever, with our consent, place us in any attitude like that of this bill, which is inconsistent with our self-respect, and stains the record, to whose purity we devote and consecrate ourselves, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.If, at some future date, an American Congress, listening to the voice of some gallant representative of the North, should desire, in the general interest, to consecrate American valor, as it was illustrated by the Confederate soldier, in some form, alike appropriate and pleasing, our loyalty would not be enhanced, because that is impossible; but we should find in our fellow-citizens to the north of us the real brothers whom we are most anxious to discover.
