V75 '2 7 / GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL E 475 uL HEARINGS Copy 1 BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIONS SIXTY-THIRD CONGRESS Second Session ON H. R. 11112 A BILL TO ERECT A MEMORIAL ON THE GETTYSBURG BATTLE FIELD TO COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THAT BATTLE FEBRUARY 18, 1914 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1914 COxMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY. House of Rf;pkesentatives. sixty-third congress. JAMES I,. SLAYDEN, Texas, Chairman. THOMAS C. THACHER, Massachusetts. RICHARD BARTHOLDT, Missouri. PETER G. TEN EYCK, New York. JAMES F. BURKE, Pennsylvania. Chester Harrison, Clerk. 2 AUG 23 ]S15 v^ 4 (lETTYSBT^RG PEACE MEMORIAL COMMITTEK OX TIIK LiBRARY, Hoi SE OF RErHESENTATIVES, IVashinf/tcm, D. C.^ February 18, 19U. The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. James L. Slayden (chairman) presiding. STATEMENT OF HON. SWAGAR SHERLEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. Mr. Spierley. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have introduced H. E. 11112, a bill to create the Gettysburg peace memorial commission and authorizing that commission to locate the place and erect a memorial on the Gettysburg battle field to commemorate the peace celebration on the fiftieth anniversary of that battle. The bill reads : [H. R. 11112, Sixty-third Congress, second session.] A BILL To create the Gettysburg peace memorial commission, charged with the duty of locathig the memorial on the Gettysburg battle field to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of that battle July first, second, third, and fourth, nineteen hundred and thirteen. Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assemhled. That a commission is hereby created, to be known as the Gettysburg peace memorial commission, charged with the duty of determining and' procuring a suitable location and the erection thereon of an appropriate memorial on the battle field of Gettysburg, to commemorate the reunion of the veterans of the Union and Confederate armies on the fiftieth anniversary of that battle, July first, second, third, and fourth, nineteen hun- dred and thirteen. Sec. 2. That in the discharge of its duties the said commission is authorized to employ the services of such artists, sculptors, architects, and others as it shall deem necessary. Sec. 3. That said commission shall consist of the Secretary of War; .Tohn P. Nicholson, chairman of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission; and Andrew Cowan, Ell Torrance. .John C. Black, and Thomas S. Hopkins, representing the Union veterans, and Hilary A. Herbert, William Hodges jMann, E. Mclver Law, and A. J. West, representing the Confederate veterans. Sec. 4. That whenever a vacancy or vacancies upon said commission shall occur such vacancv or vacancies shall be filled by the President of the United States. Sec. 5. That said commission shall submit an annual report to the Congress giving a detailed statement of the work of the commission during the preceding year. Sec. 6. That the members of said commission shall be paid their actual ex- penses incident to the authorized work of the commission. Sec. 7. That for the purpose of the erection of the said memorial and the expenses incident thereto there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $500,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary. 3 4 GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMORIAL. I shall not take much of the time of the conmiittee this morning with any statement of my own as there are gentlemen here present who can more fittingly and properly express the sentiment that actuated them and me in proposing this memorial. However, I want to preface what they shall say by this statement. I ap- preciate how Congress has been asked in the past to make manj^ apjDropriations for many individuals, who, m the opinion of the movers of those appropriations, were worthy of being remembered by statutes, and history with its ironies has frequently shown that the only virtue that those statutes had was to commemorate the zeal of particular men rather than the services of the individuals for whom they were erected. We do not come, however, in this instance asking a statue to a man; but we do believe that it is proper that what is unique among the people of the world should be commemo- rated, and that is not the Civil War, great and momentous as it was, but the peace that followed after that war within the lifetime of the participants in the war ; a peace that has been peculiar to our country and is the greatest tribute to her institutions of all the things that have occurred in her history. It took England more than 200 years to get over her civil wars. We at the end of 50 years find that war leaving no bitternesses and only the glorious memories of those who fought on each side of it. It was with a view to commemorate that good feeling that the meeting Avas had on the Gettysburg battle field last year, and out of that meeting grew the movement for a monument to forever perpetuate the fact, and to myself fell the honor, for I consider it an honor, of introducing this bill. I know the demands that are put upon this committee. I think I know something of the demands that are put upon the Treasury. It has been my work very largely for 11 years in Congress to fight to hold down expenditures; but there are times when events are more important than a ledger account, and I do not think that this matter can be or will be considered with regard to expenditures. I wanted to say this much, because I think it is proper that at the start it should be differentiated from the ordinary bill to erect a memorial to an individual. I wish to say this also to the committee. It was easily possible to have burdened you gentlemen with a large number of communications in favor of this bill, and I could easily have crowded this room fivefold over to show the interest of men of both the North and the South in this bill and its enactment. Instead of that I have asked some of the gentlemen wdio were the prime movers in this matter, and wdio in a peculiar way reflect the high sentiment that prevades the whole country, to appear before you and very briefly express their views, and w^ith this preliminar}^ statement, with the permission of the chairman, I will be glad to ask ex-Secre- tary Herbert to speak. STATEMENT OF HON. HILARY A. HEEBERT, OF WASHING- TON, D. C. Mr. Heiuiert. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the monument we are asking at Gettysburg is not to be a memorial of the battle that was fouglit on that field — it is intended to commemorate a peace meeting that was held there 50 years after the battle. Fifty-six thousand Federal and Confederate veterans, averaging perhaps over 70 years GETTYSBUKG PEACE MEMORIAL. O old, 9,000 of them Confederates, many of them paying their way from distant States, some as far off as Texas, gathered there for three days in midsummer to rejoice together that peace had come to them and their children. They and the two great armies they repre- sented had fought each other on a thousand battlefields; yet now they called each other comrades as they talked over those battles. They chatted and laughed, and sometimes they embraced and cried over each other, as a Federal found the Confederate, or a Con- federate found the Federal, who had risked his life to give him a cup of water or to drag him out of the range of danger as he lay wounded in the line of fire. That was, taken altogether, the most wonderful meeting that the world has ever seen. We are here, as the representatives of those veterans, to ask the Government to build a monument to commemo- rate that gathering. Those old gray-haired men knew, and thej'^ felt in their hearts, as they recalled the past and looked forward into the bright future that awaits their descendants, what that meeting meant. If you can be made to visualize all this as they did, I am sure you will report in favor of authorizing that monument, and that, when Congress comes to consider it, the Congress will say, as posterit}'^ will say, that that monument stands for far and away more than any memorial Congress has ever appropriated for, save and excepting only the monuments to George Washington and Abra- ham Lincoln; and of these two monuments this will be the comple- ment. The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial leave the story of the formation of a perfect Union only two-thirds told. If we are to complete that story in stone the monument we ask for must be built. It is as essential as the other tAvo. The three taken together will tell the tale to our posterity. George Washington presided over the convention that framed our Constitution. He dreamed of and wrought for an everlasting Union of 13 coequal States, then composed of 4.000,000 of people. He died full of hope, but left his people wrangling over the question as to whether in the last resort the power of a State or the power of the Federal Government was supreme. Abraham Lincoln found 31 States and 30,000,000 of people at war over that same question. He dreamed of and labored for his plan for bringing those States back into a peaceful and happy Union of coequal States; but President Lincoln unfortunately died when his plans were only half completed, and this delayed them for many years. The meeting of the veterans of the two armies that had fought out the issue that was pending when George Washington died and when Abraham Lincoln died — that gathering at Gettysburg in July, 1913^ was a token, and it was the final and conclusive proof that what the monument to Washington and the monument to Lincoln both, more than all else, stood for — a perpetual Union of happy and con- tented coequal States — had at last been realized. Those veterans at Gettysburg last summer went there because ours was now such a Union and it had now grown into a Union of 48 coequal States, com- posed of 100,000,000 of people, not one of Avhom would have it other- wise. All the clouds that had lowered over the house of those assem- bled veterans and over the homes of their ancestors had been in the deep bosom of the ocean buried, and, our people united now forever, 6 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMOEIAL. those grizzled old veterans were the proud representatives of the foremost Nation in the world. It is to mark this that they have commissioned us to ask of you a monument on which we suggest there shall be inscribed the single word "Peace." But that word,_when orators shall expound and historians shall explain it in the future, will mean more than that. It will add its crowning glory to the Constitution which AVashington helped to frame and under which Lincoln sought to reunite our warring States, and that peace monu- ment will mark the grave in wliich sectionalism is buried forever. When its story is studied the world wdll understand what was in the minds of those old veterans at Gettysburg last July. The issues that divided them in the past had been settled. Some of those old men may have changed their minds about each other and about many other things, but none of them in that gathering had ever wavered in his love for the Constitution of the fathers. That was what they had fought about, that was what they had all fought for. They had differed about its meaning. The Southerners had set it up at Rich- mond, amended so as to express precisely what they insisted the fathers meant, and the Confederacy had fought to the death to main- tain it. For a time after the close of our dreadful war the seceded States had sad experiences, but after a time Anglo-Saxon civilization reas- serted itself, the constitutional right of the States to govern them- selves was acknowledged by the courts and by the country, and then came peace and content. The mutual admiration of the courage and patriotism of one an- other that began during the Avar between Union and Confederate soldiers and has grown ever since^ and that magnanimity which al- ways goes with true bravery and wliich has been manifested so often and in so many ways, has done much to restore peace and harmony, but the restoration in the seceded States of the right to govern them- selves has done more than all else, and that is what the monument we ask for will tend to perpetuate. If sectionalism is never resurrected this will continue to be a Union composed of happy and contented self-governing States. How, gentlemen, can you hesitate? Your great State of Texas, Mr. Chairman, and my State of Ala- bama, were represented at Gettysburg last summer, because those States were members of a Union of coequal States. Confederate veterans from Texas and Alabama were there, as proud and con- tented as were the Union veterans from New York and Ma.ssa- chusetts. Our southern people own allegiance to the flag of the Union, not as do the people of Alsace and Lorraine to the flag of Germany, because the bayonet is over them, but willingly and en- thusiastically. It is the Constitution of the United States that has been the dominant factor in the make-up of our sectional trouble, and when you authorize a peace monument at Gettysburg you will be building a monument to that Ccmstitution. you will add more glory to what Glad,stone said was the greatest work ever struck oft' in a given time by the hand of man. Gentlemen of this committee may think they fully appreciate the blessings of peace and the horrors of war. They have learned all this, they think, from books and by tradition; but oh, if they could only recall by memories growing more and more vivid year after year the awful realities of the past, as did the grav-haired men who GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 7 met each other last July at Gettysburg — remember their comrades stricken down by disease and in battle, widows and orphans at home in tears — if they could only recall, as I do, the shriek of a dear sister, when I, myself then at home wounded, broke to her as best I could the death of her husband — and he was the third of the family to fall in battle. If they could remember, as I do at this moment, her agonized shriek as she fell speechless to the floor ; if they could only recall scenes like this, and then remember that 56,000 men, many of them with memories like mine, gathered last summer from every State in the Union at Gettysburg, to rejoice that there was to be no more war between them and theirs. Gentlemen, sectional hostility growing out of our horrible war is almost entirely extinct, thank God, but it may be that here and there. North and South, an occasional troglodyte, one who has never smelt gunpowder, may be disposed to crawl out of his cave and chirp about the " d d rebel " or the " d d Yankee." Build this monument, and let our countrymen point such a fellow to it and say, " The war is over." Mr. Chairman, I want to say in conclusion just a word personal to myself, and that may smack somewhat of party politics, and I beg your pardon for doing it, but I can not but speak what is in my heart. I was a soldier in the Confederate Army under Lee. I am proud to say that I did my duty fully, to the best of my ability. Then I served this Government afterwards for '20 years, and I did my duty as faith- fully to the Government of the United States as I had tried to do to the Government of the Confederacy. During all my 20 years of public service I can proudly say that never at any time did I utter one word or do one single thing that would stir up sectional strife, and I have never had the opportunity to do anything that would in my opinion tend to bring the North and the South closer together that I did not do it, I have never since wanted to be a Member of Congress until now. I wish now that I were, that I might have the opportunity of doing something that would further the bill for this monument, which is to stamp with the great seal of the Nation the conclusive evidence given by the 56,000 veterans at Gettysburg that this is to be a perpetual Union of happy and contented States, all of them exercising the right of self-government that was guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. I do not see how you can hesitate when you consider the importance of this question. It is exceptional. I am a Democrat. I believe in the Democratic platform. I believe in economy, but in my opinion the public and the Democratic Party will excuse an appropriation for this monument, and they will not excuse a failure to do what seems to me to be the plain duty of Congress in the premises. I thank you, gentlemen, for your attention. Mr. SriERLEV. Mr. Chairman, Col. Cowan is the next speaker. STATEMENT OF COL. ANDREW COWAN, OF LOUISVILLE, KY. Col, Cowan. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, our patriotic purpose has been admirably presented by Col, Herbert, the president of our association, and only a few words remain to be said by others Avho are here. We are men who took part in the War between the States, or the Civil War. whichever term mav be 8 GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMORIAL. most appropriate. Some of us fought for the Confederacy and some of us fought against it. Col. Herbert had the good fortune to serve under Gen. Robert E. Lee. I served under McClellan and Burn- side and Hooker and Meade, and I was present at Appomattox when the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to the Army of the Potomac. The manifestations of fraternal feeling and sympathy that were witnessed there it would be pleasant to describe. The bitter conditions that followed at the South it would be difficult to account for, except through the reconstruction acts which embittered the southern people more than the war had done. It has been my for- tune to live in Kentucky since the 4th of July, 1866. I should never have crossed the Ohio Kiver had I known that such bitterness and hatred would confront Union soldiers there. Twenty-five years ago the bitter feeling began to weaken. Some of the great Union men had already left the State. Thej^ had welcomed the Confederates that returned home to Kentucky and those who came from other Southern States seeking homes. Politics soon separated them again, and there was no peace in Kentuck}^ When the tide began to turn after many unhappy years one of the first to promote social peace was Mr. Henry AVatterson, a Confederate soldier. Last October the annual reunion of the So- ciety of the Army of the Potomac Avas held at Ogdensburg, N. Y. One of the speakers before the great audience that filled the opera house was Capt. John H. Leathers, of the Second Virginia Infantry, who was' wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg. Gen. Horatio C. King, the secretary of the society, and I, its president, requested him to Avear his U. C. V. uniform. His patriotic speech was received with great applause. When the report of the proceedings was pub- lished I sent a copy to Mr. Watterson, who is in Europe, and received a letter from him in which he said : I read the little volimie tlirough and both laughed and cried for joy. It especially rejoiced my heart to follow you and Capt. Leathers through the meeting and to mark what you said and did. My dream of peace has now come true and will be graven in granite and bronze when the Gettysburg peace monument is completetl and dedicated. To that end I am writing by this mail to Mr. Slayden, ohairmau of the Library Committee, an old friend. We had very serious political trouble in Kentucky through a con- test between Gov. Taylor and Senator Goebel for the office of gov- ernor. After the assassination of Senator Goebel the Taylor militia were formed on one side of Railroad Street at Frankfort and the Beckham militia were on the opposite side of the same street. Gen. Basil W. Duke, one of the greatest soldiers of the Confed- eracy, who had espoused the Taylor side of the controversy, came to see me at Louisville one da}'^ and said, " Col. Cowan, they are about to fight at Frankfort. I wish that you would see Gen. Castle- man and request him to restrain the Beckham militia force that he commands." I replied, " Gen. Castleman is your compatriot and friend, and a man whom we both respect. Let us go together to see him." We told Gen. Castleman that an agreement or understanding had been effected between leaders of both sides that there should be no attempt to throw Gov. Taylor out of the executive building until the court of last resort had settled the question. Gen. Castleman replied, " I will go to Frankfort bv the first train and there shall be no resort GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 9 to arms, at least until the courts have settled this contest." A day or two later Gov. Taylor came down to request me to go to Wash- ington and ask President McKinley what the Federal Government would do if there was civil war in Kentucky. I said, " It is useless for me to go to Washington to ask that ques- tion of President McKinley, for I am sure that he will answer that nothing will be done." But Gov. Taylor insisted, and I came here. A meeting had been arranged for by Mr. Sam Eoberts, of Lexington, and we were received by the President in the Cabinet room. I asked the question as Gov. Taylor had requested me to do, and the answer was as I had expected. I then started to retire, but the President said, " Sit down, please, I want to talk with you." He spoke for a few minutes about the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864, in which he had been engaged in the Eighth Corps and I in the Sixth Corps. Then he began to talk about the unfortunate conditions, political and social, that existed in the South, between men from the North who had gone there since the war and men of the South whose homes had been there since before the war. He said to me very earnestly, that if he could bring about a change of sentiment so that we might live in peace and harmony together he would consider it the greatest achievement of his life. I made a move to v/ithdraw, because I saw that members of the Cabinet had come into the room, but he detained me by placing his hand over mine, finally saying. " We must have peace." He mentioned that in the War with Spain he had welcomed back to the military service such southern soldiers as Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and Gen. Joe Wheeler, and that he had issued military commissions to many other loyal Confederate soldiers who sought to serve the country. That conversation with President McKinley brought the matter of peace between North and South more closely to me than it had been befcn-e. AYhen the Grand Army of the Eepublic accepted the invitation, which was extended by Mr. Watterson, to come to Louis- ville in 189.5, we were anxious that they should receive a welcome worthy of old Kentucky. We wanted for chairman of our committee one who was " to the manor born," a man noted for southern hospi- tality; so Mr. Thomas H. Sherley, the father of our distinguished Representative, was asked to be the chairman, and he accepted our invitation. The Grand Army of the Republic was entertained in Louisville as well as they have been entertained anywhere else. That was the first invitation they had received from the South. Tt broke down a wall of prejudice and started a feeling of good will that has been growing ever since. When the United Confederate Veterans came to Louisville for the first time I was asked to serve as chairman of the committee on enter- tainment of general officers. When they came the second time I was requested to repeat my services, which I gladly did. I was greatly surprised, though, on the second day of that Confederate meeting, when I was called into a room at the Pendennis Club, where Gen. Duke, on behalf of tlie Confederates, presented me with a silver loving cup. Gen. Duke, of Kentucky, is admired as a soldier and a gentleman wherever he is known, and those who know him well love him best. He said of me, " Col. Cowan, after I came to live in Louis- 10 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. ville I had an idea that such a bhick Kepublican as you grew horns under your hat. Since then we Confederates have found out that you are a better man than we thought, and you have Avon our esteem, like many others of our former foes wlio came liere from the Xorth." The sentiment of peace and good will betAveen the men who wore the blue and the men who Avore the gray is becoming universal, both North and South. At Gettysl)urg, last July, Goa'. McCreary. of Kentucky, and Gen. Young, the commander in chief of the United Confederate Veterans, occupied tAvo of the five rooms at the Eagle Hotel which I had reserved for my friends three years before. Capt. John If. Leathers, of the Second Virginia Eegiment, and Capt. George C. Norton, of the Eighth Georgia Kegiment. occupied another of the rooms. Maj. John B. I^irtle, Avho Avas a distinguished staff officer of the Confederate Army, and Adj. Gen. Ellis, of Kentucky, occupied another. "We had come from Kentucky to Gettysburg feeling apprehensiA^e of trouble. It Avas known that large numbers of Confederates Avere coming from every Southern State, and we feared that there might be unpleasant differences, at least. betAveen the blue and gray. But with 45,000 of the northern armies and 9,000 of the men Avho fought for the Confederacy in camp together only manifestations of friend- ship and affection Avere seen in the camp and on the roads and in the streets of the town. A man in gray could hardly Avalk the length of a block without being stopped several times to be taken by the hand or embraced by men in blue; and the Avonderful reunion ended with all hearts filled Avitli gratitude; because it meant, as Ave old men knoAv, that here at last Avas a great public manifestation of peace and good Avill betAveen the men of the North and the men of the South, marking the end of bitterness and the beginning of an epoch in the history of our reunited country. The Pennsylvania commission had expected to celebrate the Fourth of July as natiomil dav. The battle had ended on the 3d of July, 18G8. 'The Fourth of July. 1913. Avas to be dedicated to the celebra- tion of peace and good Avill. It Avas part of the program for the day to lay the corner stone of a monument that should mark the celebra- tion of the fiftieth anniA'ersary of the battle. When it became neces- sary to change the program tluit feature became impracticable. But some of us who deeply felt that the celebration of the fiftieth anni- versary of the battle Avould not be complete Avithout a permanent record beiug placed on the battlefield to commemorate the AvonderfuI fraternal meetiug that had taken place there undertook to form the Gettysburg Peace Memorial Association for the purely patriotic pur- pose of erecting a peace monument on the battlefield to stand for all time as a memorial of that wonderful eA^ent — the reconciliation of our people North and South after the lapse of only 50 years since they had fought through the fratricidal Avar. The (piestion may be asked. Wliy sliould Ave commemorate the event Avith a monument? Because, gentlemen, nothing like that fraternal meeting had ever been seen in the history of the world. I believe that Avithout such a jiermanent memorial the significance of the event may be lost for future generations. That reunion com- manded the attention of the civilized Avorld. All the Avorld Avondered that Ave could have settled our differences and become friends in the GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 11 brief space of 50 years. In England 250 years had not obliterated the bitterness of a civil war, as but 50 years has done with our people. I haAe read JNIr. Bryce's recent book on South America. He re- lates that he climbed from the tunnel that pierces the mountain 1,500 feet below, to the top of the Andes, to see " the Christ of the Andes," a bronze statue of more than twice life-size, standing on a stone pedestal, rough hewn from the natural rock of the mountain. Ar- gentina and Chile, of kindred people, had been at enmity, and on several occasions were close to war over the question of a boundary line between the two countries along the top of the Andes. They finally agreed to submit the dispute to the arbitrament of Queen Victoria. After years of careful inquiry a boundary line was drawn which was acceptable to both Argentina and Chile. In recognition of that peaceful settlement of their dispute, the two countries cast this colossal figure out of the metal of cannon and placed it on the top of the Andes, as a "monument of peace and good will, to be an everlasting witness between them." We Avould have our country, now united in peace, place on the battle field of Gettysburg a monument that shall bear on its front simi^ly the word " Peace," and on its back a bronze tablet bearing the legend of the reunion on the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th days of July, 1913, when more than 54,000 surviving wearers of the blue and gray in our fratricidal war met together in peace and good will. If we should undertake to raise the money to erect the monument by pri- vate subscription, it might be done, but the glory of it would be los^. The name of no man sliall be honored by that monument. Neither is it a monument to glorify war or valor. It will stand to com- memorate peace, and be " an everlasting witness between us." We believe that our country, which is more firmly united than it had been since the Declaration of Independence or the adoption of the Constitution, up to the war between the States, should erect the peace memorial. Now, permit me to read the last words of President Lincoln's first inaugural : We are nol' enemies, hut friends. We iiui.st not he enemies. Tlionsli passion may have strained, it nuist n.ot break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle field and patriot grave, to evei'y living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of tlie Union when again touched, as surely they will be. by the better angels of our nature. We traveled a long and sorrowful way after those words were spoken here hy that great American before Ave ceased to be enemies. We have become friends, and in that reunion at Gettysburg last July, where all were accounted patriots, surelv " the mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle field and pariot grave," united us again in love for the Union and in the bonds of enduring peace. The opportunity to commemorate that wonderful event by erecting a noble monument to stand forever as a beacon light of patriotism for the inspiration of generations yet unborn must not be lost. We a])peal to you, gentlemen of the Library Committee, to report the bill favorably : and we rely on the ability of Mr. Sherley, its author, and the patriotism of Congress, for its pa.ssage unani- mously. 12 GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMOKIAL. STATEMENT OF CORP. JAMES TANNER, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. Tanner. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the first thought in my mind is to give my indorsement, feeble though it may be, to what our friend Sherley said about the volume of indorse- ments of this proposition that could be filed here if that were de- sirable. As a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and once its commander in chief. I have no hesitancy in saying to j^ou that we could contribute to that number of indorsements most earnest resolu- tions from all of the o^er 6,000 posts numbered in its membership. As an honorary life member of Lee Camp No. 1, Confederate Vet- erance, of Eichmond, Va., for 30 years, I have no doubt that every Confederate camp in the South would present the same indorsement. Our friend Herbert felt impelled to make a statement, personal to himself, at the close of his remarks. If it were desirable that my insignificant personalitj^ should be known to this committee, I would simply have to say that as a New York boy I did what I could to help save the Union, served from Yorktown to the second Bull Run, where I was mustered out by a section of Stonewall's artillery, neces- sitating the amputation of both legs on the battle field and twice since in later years. I mention this to show you I have had my full shai-e of the physi- cal agony that comes to us who gave blood and limb and almost life to the cause. But. at the same time, I wish to say, with all possible pride, that from the day of Appomattox my voice and whatever in- fluence I have had has been exerted for the utmost peace and unity between the two great sections. In 1877, during my second year's command of the Grand Army of New York, I took advantage of my position to put out an order to all the posts in that department calling upon them, when we went out on Memorial Day, to pass by no Con- federate grave unnoticed from Montauk Point to Buffalo, and they responded inianimously. I had the pleasure while living in Brook- lyn to send down a draft for over $1,600 to our friends in Richmond telling them Ave wanted to own a few bricks in their new Confed- erate home. Now, then, you gentlemen of this committee, you are younger men than we who stood up against one another and gave and took hard blows in the long ago, you must remember that we lived when on both sides great drafts were drawn upon us — drafts that could only be paid in service, in blood and suffering and in life, and we honored every draft from both sides, and we are proud of it. There was a mighty misunderstanding between the two sections, and I want to say to you, because you are younger men, what I said long years ago, that when the war closed no two classes of men in this Nation were as near together as the men in blue and the men in gray, not only physi- cally but mentally, and if we had only known our power and met the crisis we would have gotten together on some political basis where we coidd have united, and would have escaped the shame and dis- grace of the reconstruction, carpetbag days, and the Ku-Klux Klan would never have been born. Now, we present a spectacle unique in the history of the world, which was voiced by the other gentlemen who have spoken. But it can not be impressed upon your minds too earnestly. Men who had GETTYSBUEG PEACE MEMOEIAL. 13 jumped at each other's throats came together 50 years afterwards, as they did Last summer. For what? To justify "by their presence and by their greeting the mighty respect that grows up in the heart of evei7 man for those who gave their lives for their country. As Col. Herbert mentioned politics, let me say, from the other side of the line, that 1 always had a great deal more respect for the man of the South, born and brought up to believe in the doctrine of States' rights, as he believed in his mother's God, who took his life in his hands and went out — I had a thousand times more respect for him than I did for the sneaking copperhead who yelled himself hoarse crying, " Why don't the Army move ? " and " On to Richmond ! " but who, when Father Abraham called, through the channels of the draft, you would find with a draft list in one hand and a time-table of the nearest route to Canada in the other, ready to jump across the border if he found his name among the chosen. And what do we ask? Things go by ratios, and it seems to me that as we have nearly one hundred millions of people in this Nation, what we come and ask so earnestly of you is a contribution pro rata of half a cent apiece from each one under the American flag. I wish, if this measure prevails and this memorial be erected, a hundred years from now I could mingle, in the spirit at least, with those who will then be occupying the walks of life here and hear their inquiries and the answers that will be given when the question is asked, " What does this mean ? " and the story is told, as it will then have gone down through the corridors of time, after a hundred years, of the mighty tragedy witnessed on that battlefield in 1863, when, at the close of those three awful days, some 40,000 men lay there dead or wounded, and then how 50 years afterwards came the survivors, with love and affection in the hearts of all, everyone proud of being under the same flag, the Nation a big and mighty Nation — not as it was in the sixties, a fourth-rate power, but in the front rank, the front seat being occupied by Uncle Sam in the par- liament of nations — and Americanism a power extending around the globe. You ought as a privilege in this matter take a position that your descendants will be proud of and that you will glory in. This memorial — nothing like it on God's earth — should be an object lesson that will carry to the world at large a knowledge, not only of the splendid valor of Americans, North and South, but teaching also the lesson of the generosity of their feelings, their brotherly love, and the chivalry of their hearts. The question is unlimited, the argument unanswerable. But do not delay because of the fact that in round numbers it will cost half a million dollars. That sounds little to us who paid the drafts I spoke of in blood and in suffering and the draft which so many of our comrades have paid with their lives, making the supreme sacrifice. We ask this not in a sectional spirit. Here in this room are men who stood against one another on that field, as they stood against each other on other fields. But here we come with a unity of purpose which, it seems to me, permeates the hearts of all, anticipating as we do that you will do your part toward writing this most illuminating page of American history. I thank you. 14 GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. STATEMENT OF GEN. HORATIO C. KING, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. Gen. Kino. jNIr, Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, after all that has been said so eloquently, it seems to me quite superfluous for me to attemi^t to add anything, except to say amen to everything that has been said. We are sometimes confronted with the statement that there is too much sentiment, but we should thank God that at this age, living as we are in the midst of industrial activity, senti- ment is coming to the front and that we are j^ermitted to express these sentiments in such a way as this. No more imi)()rtant matter, it seems to me, could be presented to this or any congress than the im- portance of erecting this great peace monument as a perpetual monu- ment for future generations. Instead of taking up your time with any remarks of my own, I am requested to read a few lines from Gen. Andrew J. West, of Atlanta, Ga., who was here on Monday, but who was called home by a domestic difficulty. I believe there is to be a wedding in the family to-night, and he had to go home to act as usher. [Laughter.] The letter of Gen. AVest is addressed to Chairman Slayden, and is as follows : Washington, D. C, Fchntnnj 16, 191). Hon. Jamks L. Slayden. Clniinnan: I cjtme from my home in Atlanta, Ga.. to appear before yonr honorable com- mittee on Monday, the IGth, in behalf of our Sonthern people pertaining to the bill Ixfore your honorable committee to erect a peace memorial on the battle field of Gcttysburj;, but as I Ciin not remain to appear in i»erson, I most re- spectfully reipiest that my remarlvs be reid before your honorable committee. The Confederate soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia never cheered Gen. liee when he api)eared uiion the field of buttle or on tlie march or in the bivouac, but would lalse their old worn-out hats in silent admiration. This rule, however, was broken when a private soldier in the Thirty-fifth Georgia Regiment, when that command was entering the Battle of Gettysburg, saw Gen. Lee mounted on Traveler. He stei)i)ed to the front, raised his faded cap, gave the rebel yell, and said, " Boys, there sit 10.000 men on one horse." We are here to-day to invoke your friendly cooperation in passing a bill that will enable us to erect a monument of peace on the battle field of Gettysburg, a monument ])ersonifying no ptirticular man. living or dead, but ;i peace oft'ering, designed .and erected with the primary object of perpetuating forever the restorution of brotherly feeling that was proven (m tliat field in .July hist when 50,000 soldiers, survivors of two armies c()mi)risiiig 4,000,000 of Americans told to the world (hat this indeed is a reunited country. We ask this in behalf of the gallant Union soldiers who fouglit with our distinguished friend, Col. Andrew Cowan, at the higli-water mark on the bat- tle field of Gettysburg. We ask this in behalf of the survivors of G<.m. (Jrant's Army, who, at Api)omattox extended such liberal terms to the southern sol- diers as to win their respect and admiration. We ask it in behalf of the spirit that actuated Gen. Grant when, after the war, the arrest of Gen. Lee and the violation of (he parole at Appomattox was threatened, Gen. Grant told the country that If tlrs should be attem])ted he would resign his i>osition as com- mander of the Aiany and a])peal to the people. We ask it in the same spirit that ran through Gen. Grant's heart when he uttered the imperishable words, " T.,et us have i)eace." We ask it in behalf of the Confetler.ite soldiers who wove the music of the Battle of Seven Pines into laurel wreaths for Joseph E. John- ston and caused the waters of the Chickaniauga to murmur eternally the name of Braxton Bragg. The smoke from the chinmeys of these increasing factories will continue to blacken the sky. These great railroads, whose trains go rushing through this beautiful iirosperous country, will bear their burden of valuable freights and precious lives. The hills and valleys in Pennsylvania and Georgia will glow in the garniture of a richer harvest and the remnant of lives spared in the battle have been woven in the texture of the Union. New stars are clustering upon the flag and the sons of Georgia and Pennsylvania are bearing it in the far-off Philippine Islands as their fathers bore it at GETTYSBUR(i PEACE MEMORIAL. 15 Cliurubiiseo niul Cerro (iordo that the hounds of freedom nmy he \vi(h'r stMI. Our great race will meet au1BKARY : (iENTLKMKX : Tlio (listMiue troiii Minneapolis to Wasliington is so great that it i)recln(l<'s nie from .utpeiivins in person before you in support of the bill now under consideration for llie erection of a peace memorial at Gettysbur.sc. How- ever, with your jtermission. I desire to submit the following; statement for your consideration: From the time the ol»servanee of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of fJettysburg was inanirurjited in 1909 the up])erniost thought in the minds of those identified with it was the erection of a peace memorial — a memorial typifying national jieace and brotherhood and a reunited people. We hoped that tlie corner stone of such ;i memorial miglit l)e laid during the celebration ;uid in the presence of many of the surviving veterans of that great conflict. This was not done, and under the circumstances could not be done; but the desire for its aceomi>lishment was eminently praiseworthy, and the fact that it had its birth in the hearts of those who had experienced the horrors of war «nd who. j)erhaps as no others could realize the blessedness of peace shoidd, I iim sure, strongly ajipeal to you, and be safely relied upon as voicing a deep and sacred sentiment tli;U shonld i)ermeate the lives of our people. Many moiunnents. reitresenting l>attle scenes and military leaders, have been ei-ecttnl. but something more is required for the saving health of the Nation. The peii)et nation of the tragic story of the valley of death, made luminous by the dying devotion of heroic souls, is not enough. It is of vital importance that a memorial should l)c erected, overshadowing all others, that will testify lo the gi-eater glory of a reunited country: of the consignment to tlie grave GETTYSBURG PEACE MEMORIAL. 19 of oblivion of old time hatreds, prejudices, and misunderstandings; and the establishment of peace and good will throughout all our borders. As the official representative of tlie surviving veterans who wore* the blue, and as one whose esteem and affection for the surviving veterans who wore the gray is little less than that for his own comrades. I earnestly ask your com- mittee to grant our request, not for our own sake but for the compelling and ennobling lessons it will forever teach to the American people. Ell Toerance, Chairnian Rational Committee Grand Army of the Republic. STATEMENT OF HON. SWAGAR SHERLEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. Mr. Sherley. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I only desire to say that the form of the bill may need revision at the hands of the committee. It was introduced with the idea of simply presenting the thought back of it, rather than of serving as an exact form in which that thought should find expression. I am inclined to think there may be some need of making more detailed provision touching the method of the erection of the monument. If this monu- ment is to be built, now is the time to do it. As has been well said, other memorials can wait; in the deep sense, this can not. If the country is to erect this, it is fitting it should be erected at a time when, though only a minority, still a large minority of those who bore the brunt of that great war may be participants in the celebration of the peace that we believe will be everlasting and which this monument will commemorate. On behalf of the gentlemen here, I thank the committee for their attention. (Thereupon the committee adjourned.) I X LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 702 439 1 ft m 013 702^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 702 439 1