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THOMAS UPTON SISSON 
 
 MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM MISSISSIPPI 
 MEMBER CAMP N. B FORREST No. 215, U. S. C. V. 
 MEMPHIS. TENN. 
 
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 Reunion, Memphis, Tenn., June 9, 1909. 
 
 Mr. Commander, Confederate Veterans and Ladies and Gen- 
 tlemen : 
 
 I s thank my friend, John W. Apperson, for this generous and 
 kind introduction to this magnificent presence. He is always 
 generous, but he is too generous to me. This very pleasing 
 honor has been conferred upon me by him, as Commander of 
 the Sons of Confederate Veterans, to deliver to the Veterans 
 the annual greetings of the Sons. 
 
 This is to me a pleasant task. I delight to pay tribute to 
 courage and to heroism, and I feel this moment that I am 
 standing in the presence of what remains of as brave a sol- 
 diery as ever graced a field or bore an arm. 
 
 But, with your permission, I shall not on this occasion dis- 
 cuss your valor or your courage. The history of the courage 
 of the Southern soldier is safe. It is written in blood on vic- 
 torious battlefields against great and terrible odds. Nor shall 
 I discuss the righteousness of your cause, for whether the 
 principles for which you fought were right is written in the 
 pages of Congressional history* and the decisions of the courts 
 for a century, and the true historian in years to come, when 
 all passion and prejudice shall have passed away, will look 
 back upon these cold facts and will tell the truth. 
 
 It would be but a repetition for me to recount how the 
 South contended that the Federal compact, was formed by 
 sovereign States, and how the reserved powers of the States 
 were always adhered to by New England, and how she repeat- 
 edly threatened to break up the Union whenever any legisla- 
 tion did not suit her. Nor shall I be guilty of repeating oft- 
 told and admitted history by recounting how that in the very 
 foundation of our free and voluntary compact of sovereign 
 States there was sectional strife and discard; and how it ap- 
 peared in the very convention called to form the Union; nor 
 how, at the time African slavery was at its height, and negroes 
 were bought by Southern people, but sold to them by New 
 
England; nor how and why the right to bring slaves into the 
 United States was given to New England until 1808 ; and 
 how New England insisted upon this, or they would not go 
 into the Union; and how the South, especially Virginia, re- 
 luctantly agreed to it; and how it was immediately after the 
 adoption of the Constitution that hundreds of New England 
 slave ships were fitted out with New England capital and put 
 into the infamous slave trade for gain; and how the balance 
 of power was then equal, and neither section had any advan- 
 tage of the other; and how New England, when the outrageous 
 slave traffic was abolished, then clamored to have slavery 
 abolished; and how, after the formation of the Union, the 
 great State of Virginia, because of the complaint of New Eng- 
 land, voluntarily, in order that we might have peace, surren- 
 dered of her own fair domain to the United States, as common 
 property of all, the territory now embraced in the great States 
 of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and 
 a part of Minnesota; and how the South was a leading spirit 
 in the Revolution and in the formation of the Constitution; 
 and what great sacrifices she made for the common cause; 
 and how the Southern people were denied the right to move 
 into these territories with their property; and how many con- 
 cessions the South made, one after the other, to have peace 
 and preserve the Union; and how John Brown incited the 
 slave to open rebellion and murder in the South; and how, 
 finally, when no compromise further would be granted, be- 
 cause the Republican party had been successful in electing a 
 President, the South saw that she could no longer hope to 
 live in peace with her neighbors, as a last resort, exercised 
 that undenied and unquestioned constitutional right to with- 
 draw from the Union: and how it was that there was not a 
 soldier nor a dollar that could be voted by Congress, even 
 after the Southern delegations had withdrawn, to coerce these 
 States, until, by design, they forced South Carolina to fire 
 upon Fort Sumpter; and how on every battlefield the South 
 maintained the struggle until overpowered by overwhelming 
 numbers, she was crushed and starved into submission. 
 
 All these things, I say, are questions for the historian of 
 the future to settle, and are questions which I will not at this 
 time discuss. You can abide the result and rest confident that 
 when the fair minds of the future historian shall write that 
 history, that your names will not suffer. All the powers of 
 earth cannot suppress the truth. It will be told. All this 
 portion of our history, I say, is safe. 
 
 But there is a side of our Southern life and character which 
 
 2 
 
is grossly misrepresented, and it is my purpose today to do 
 what I tried to do at Birmingham last year, and at Dallas the 
 year before — set the South before the country commercially 
 as she really was in 1860. It is urged and currently believed 
 by many that the South before the war was the home of idle- 
 ness, and that our white people were thriftless and lazy, and 
 were dependent on slave labor and were far behind New Eng- 
 land in wealth and prosperity. Such is not the case, as can 
 be demonstrated by the facts. 
 
 One fact is true, the South has been less given to vaunting 
 and boasting her own achievements, and the world at large 
 is not informed as to what she has accomplished. 
 
 I want the sons and daughters of the South to know the 
 facts. Great as has been the record of the South’s fathers 
 and mothers in war, renowned as has been her statesmen in 
 statescraft, it has been equally great in business thrift, energy 
 and enterprise. 
 
 Cold Facts. 
 
 Cold facts and statistics are usually not interesting to me, 
 but these figures which I shall give you, taken from govern- 
 mental and reliable sources, are as entrancing as a romance, 
 because they are a complete vindication of my forefathers, 
 and give the lie to every sentiment and word spoken against 
 our fathers’ and mothers’ energy and enterprise and business 
 ability. 
 
 In 1860, the South had only about one-third of the popula- 
 tion of the Union. The total population was, in round num- 
 bers, 31,000,000, and of this number only six and one-half mil- 
 lions were white, and the balance were black; that is to say, 
 the South had onlv about one-fifth of the total white popu- 
 lation. I would like for you ladies and gentlemen to bear 
 this in mind while we look at the record. 
 
 I had occasion to reply to a member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives from Kansas, who accused the Southern people of 
 “not having been in the field of toil,” and urged us “to take 
 our traditions in hand and go to the field of toil and learn to 
 develop our rich land.” The figures which I had before pre- 
 pared were set before him, and I have not yet heard him 
 reply. 
 
 A Gentleman from the Floor: “I want to call the gentle- 
 man to order. The by-laws of our organization do not permit 
 a political speech.” 
 
 Mr. Sisson: “I assure the gentleman that I am not going 
 to make a political speech, but it is my purpose to relieve 
 
 3 
 
the memory of, my father and his comrades of an outrageous 
 slander, and if I should ever cowardly fail on the floor of the 
 American Congress, or anywhere else, when the honor or good 
 name of any of these noble veterans is assailed, to endeavor 
 with all the earnestness of my soul to vindicate them, may 
 my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and my right arm 
 fall palsied to my side. ’ ’ 
 
 (This reply was received with prolonged applause, and there 
 was no further interruption. ) 
 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, to begin where I was inter- 
 rupted, these figures which I shall now give you are more elo- 
 quent than any words and more beautiful than the most 
 sublime poetry. Young ladies and gentlemen, our fathers 
 and mothers are accused, before the Civil War, of being 
 idlers. Will you hear the facts! 
 
 Let us compare the crops of the South with all the balance 
 of the Union. 
 
 In 1860, the South, in round numbers, raised 45,000,000 
 bushels of wheat, and all the balance of the Union raised, in 
 round numbers, 125,0000,000 bushels of wheat — and the South 
 is not considered a wheat country. 
 
 In 1860, the South raised 358,000,000 bushels of corn, and 
 all the balance of the country only raised 472,297,000 bushels 
 — and the South is not considered a corn country. 
 
 In 1860, the value of live stock in the South was $468,000,- 
 000, and all the balance of the country $640,000,000 — and the 
 South never claimed to be a live stock country. 
 
 In 1860, the South produced 12,500,000 pounds of wool, and 
 all the balance of the country 48,000,000 pounds — and the 
 South was not a wool country. 
 
 In 1860, the value of the animals slaughtered in the South 
 was $85,000,000, and all the balance of the country was $128,- 
 500,000 — and the South was not an animal country. 
 
 In 1860, the South raised 351,500,000 pounds of tobacco, 
 and the balance of the country raised 77,000,000 pounds. 
 
 In 1860, the South raised 187,000,000 pounds of rice, and the 
 balance of the country none. 
 
 In 1860, the South produced 302,000,000 pounds of sugar, 
 and the balance of the country none. 
 
 In 1860, the South raised 38,000,000 bushels of sweet pota- 
 toes, and the balance of the country 3,000,000 bushels. 
 
 In 1860, the South raised 5,196,000 bales of cotton, and the 
 balance of the country none. 
 
 There were many other valuable crops produced, besides 
 the ones named, but these will convince our critics that, with 
 
about one-fifth of the white population, and* less than one- 
 third of the territory, we produced over 40 per cent, of the 
 corn, over 25 per cent, of the wheat, over 40 per cent, of the 
 live stock, over 20 per cent, of the wool, over 40 per cent, of 
 the animals slaughtered, practically all of the tobacco, all of 
 the rice, all of the sugar, and all of the cotton. 
 
 This is a marvelous showing in energy, in enterprise and 
 progress, even if we had never put a cent in railroads and 
 manufacturing. 
 
 Other Enterprises. 
 
 The South had, in 1860, begun in earnest to build cotton 
 factories, and had invested, prior to that year, over $12,000,- 
 000 in cotton factories. 
 
 She, in the ten years from 1850 to 1860, had more than 
 doubled her milling industries, and in 1860 had invested $45,- 
 000,000. 
 
 She had also doubled her sawmills and their output in the 
 same period. 
 
 In 1860, the South had 9,987 miles of railroads, and the New 
 England and Middle States had 9,510; that is, the South had 
 387 more miles than the other two sections combined. 
 
 The South, in other words, invested over $300,000,000 of, 
 her own money in railroads, prior to and including the year 
 1860. 
 
 These are the facts of the history of the industrious, happy 
 and prosperous South in 1860. With all of this mighty ex- 
 penditure of energy she had, in addition to all this, paid New 
 England millions of dollars for slaves. But, to exclude the 
 negro as property, the South was, in 1860, the richest portion 
 of the Union. If the slave is included as property, then, in- 
 deed, New England sutlers by the comparison. 
 
 What a beautiful outlook the happy South had. Proud and 
 full of heroic courage, with capacity for business not sur- 
 passed by any people on earth. The most unselfish portion 
 of the Union. Devoted to the Constitution and to 
 constitutional liberty, she asked no special privileges and 
 wanted no other portion of the Union to have any. She has. 
 always stood for fair play. She was too proud and too hon- 
 est to ask, as New England did, for any special privileges over 
 her sisters, her partners in the Union. 
 
 After hearing these facts, can you not rise now, oh, sons and 
 daughters of the South, and look the whole world in the face, 
 and proclaim, with pride of ancestry, that our mothers and 
 fathers, in addition to being the bravest, most hospitable and 
 
 5 
 
brainiest people on earth, were the most energetic and thrifty? 
 You can say this and say it truthfully, for it is true. The 
 South did all this without any special privileges, without 
 being favored by law. All that New England had then, all 
 she has now, has been obtained by special legislation for her 
 benefit, at the expense of the balance of the country. We 
 have been compelled by law to buy her books and trinkets 
 and wares and merchandise, at exorbitant prices, because, 
 by law, we could not purchase these manufactured articles 
 elsewhere. So the South not only made a fortune for herself, 
 but made so much that we could divide with New England, 
 and make her rich, too. 
 
 Further Comparison. 
 
 Let us again refer to some facts. Did you know that in 
 1860 over 30 per cent, of all the banking capital of the Union 
 was in the South? Did you know that the combined wealth 
 of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island, in 
 1860, was not equal to the wealth of the single State of Geo- 
 gia? Did you know that Mississippi, that year, was richer 
 than Connecticut by over $160,000,000? Did you know that 
 South Carolina was richer than the combined wealth of New 
 Jersey, Vermont and Rhode Island? Did you know that the 
 per capita wealth, in 1860, if you include the negro as prop- 
 erty and exclude him from the population, of every Southern 
 State far outranked every State in the North? Did you know 
 that, to include the negro in the population, the per capita 
 wealth of the Southern States, even then, far outranked the 
 other portions of the Union? From a comparison of wealth 
 on this basis in 1860, which is an unfair one against the South, 
 for she paid New England for the slaves, but even then South 
 Carolina stood third, Mississippi fourth, Massachusetts fifth, 
 Louisiana sixth, Georgia seventh, Florida eighth, Kentucky 
 ninth, Alabama tenth, Texas eleventh, New Jersey twelfth, 
 Maryland thirteenth, Tennessee fourteenth, Arkansas fif- 
 teenth, Virginia sixteenth, and New York twenty-second and 
 Pennsylvania thirtieth. Thus the South stood ahead of all 
 the other sections of the Union in 1860. 
 
 Civil War. 
 
 Then came the terrible war — a war of destruction. Her fair 
 fields and homes were left in desolation. Her ports were 
 closed. The flower of her manhood — a country’s greatest 
 wealth, died on the field of battle. She was left prostrate, 
 bleeding and torn. All the accumulations of her people’s toil 
 was literally destroyed. 
 
Tlie figures are more eloquent than words. The total 
 amount of property in the United States, as shown by the 
 assessment rolls in 1860, was a little less than $12,000,000,000. 
 Of this the South had over $5,000,000,000, or about 45 per cent, 
 of all the property of the United States, and in 1870 her prop- 
 erty was assessed at about $3,000,000,000, showing a total loss 
 in ten years of over $2,000,000,000. 
 
 Think of it, ladies and gentlemen, with a little over 20 per 
 cent, of the population of the Union, and less than one-tlnrd 
 of the territory then occupied in the United States, these mar- 
 velous mothers and fathers of the South had amassed 45 per 
 cent, of all the wealth of this vast republic. In business abil- 
 ity our fathers and mothers made a New England Yankee 
 “look like 30 cents.” 
 
 What can be a more complete vindication of our standing, 
 financially, than these cold and incontrovertible facts? I 
 want our sons and daughters in all the schools of the South 
 to know these facts. I am the son of a private Confederate 
 soldier, who followed the fortunes of that wizard of the sad- 
 dle, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and I will ever cherish it as a 
 sacred recollection, that his comrades in arms say that he 
 made a good and brave soldier. He lies now in a little quiet 
 cemetery down in Attala County, Mississippi, and over his 
 grave I have erected a little plain shaft of pure white marble. 
 On its side I have carved the simple words : “ An honest man, 
 and a good Confederate soldier.” 
 
 He deserved this, and I am as proud of him and his obscure 
 record as if he had swayed senates or commanded mighty 
 armies. I cherish this heritage more than a great fortune. 
 It is a fortune for any young man to know that as a private 
 in the most heroic army that ever took up arms, in defense 
 of so righteous a cause, his father made a good and brave 
 soldier, doing his full duty, without pay, without complaint. 
 I shall always be true to his memory, and shall always de- 
 fend the cause for which he fought. I have no patience with 
 some of our modern young men who blush when his Confed- 
 erate father is spoken of, and begin with excuses and apolo- 
 gies. I have none to make. I accept the result as my father 
 did. I accept the result as the brave Confederate soldier 
 does — absolutely. Our faces are turned to the future, but 
 this does not, nor shall it, prevent our looking with pride to 
 the past. If we are true men, we will look after the past to 
 see that the truth is known of our fathers and mothers. This 
 is my justification for going back to 1860, and showing a con- 
 dition, not generally known, that the South was, in wealth 
 
 7 
 
as well as education and refinement, the most advanced por- 
 tion of our country. 
 
 Ku Klux Klan. 
 
 But, young ladies and gentlemen, as interesting as it is 
 to dwell upon these facts, I want to call your attention to that 
 which convinced me more than the four years’ war that we 
 have the greatest fathers and mothers on earth. 
 
 While the prostrate South was staggering under the blow 
 of the Civil War, a more terrible blow was dealt her bleeding 
 form when, in 1869, the Reconstruction Act was passed. Her 
 problems were already great, and her future dark and gloomy. 
 But the spirit of the South was not conquered; she was still 
 proud and conscious of her strength. Then came this terrible 
 blow. We saw the unscrupulous carpetbagger organize the 
 negro, and her State capitals converted into places of cor- 
 ruption and debauchery. She saw a reign of bloodshed and 
 terror. The outlook would have daunted any other people 
 on earth. Many of her more timid citizens left their native 
 States of the South and poured into the great West. They 
 could see no hope. They gave up the conflict in despair. The 
 problem was one which was never before presented to any 
 other people on earth. No nation in all history was ever 
 called upon to deal with such a problem. Mr. Brice, in his 
 American Commonwealth, says that it was a new condition 
 in the world’s history. 
 
 But the Confederate soldier, with the, same grim determina- 
 tion displayed on a hundred bloody battlefields, stood erect 
 and faced the new and difficult problems. His powers of 
 self-government were put to the severest test in all the world ’s 
 history. With an overwhelming black majority, hacked up by 
 the bayonets of a victorious and powerful nation to defend 
 their right to rule by sheer force of numbers, these heroes, 
 our fathers, were confronted. The future presented more ter- 
 rors than did the bloodv conflict out of which they had just 
 passed. A Union soldier was armed at almost every white 
 man’s door in the South to prevent his throwing off this yoke. 
 Her capacity and courage were here tested in the fire. To 
 submit meant degradation, dishonor and shame; to flee from 
 his native land, bought with the blood of, his ancestors, was 
 base cowardice; to resist openly meant imprisonment and 
 death. There was one course left — one remedy, and only one. 
 The virtue of his mother, wife, sister and daughter was in 
 the scale. Shall the step be taken! Every true soldier of 
 the South, with one accord and one voice, said, “Yes, though 
 
 8 
 
the heavens fall.” But who will lead in so desperate an un- 
 dertaking? All — if there is any hope of success. But the 
 chance to win was as no chance at all, when compared with 
 the confederacy succeeding, and it failed. 
 
 * Great and trying times always produce great leaders, and 
 
 one was at hand — Nathan Bedford Forrest. His plan — the 
 only course left open — the organization of a secret govern- 
 i ment, a terrible government, a government that would govern 
 
 in spite of black majorities and Federal bayonets. This secret 
 government was organized in every community in the South, 
 and this government is known in history as the Ku Klux Klan. 
 No Arabian Nights tale, no legend of the land of the Sham- 
 rock, nor of old Scotia’s wild hills, nor of Couer de Lion’s 
 crusade in the land of the Moslem, can rival in heroic courage 
 and romantic deeds this “mighty invisible army” of the 
 white man of the South. Here in all ages to come the South- 
 ern romancer and poet can find the inspiration for fiction and 
 song. No nobler or grander spirits ever assembled on this 
 earth than gathered in these clans. No human hearts were 
 ever moved with nobler impulses or higher aims and purposes. 
 The maintenance of law and order, the preservation of homes, 
 and the protection of the virtue of the noblest womanhood 
 in all the annals of time, moved these men to action. In these 
 courts of this- mighty government there were no hung juries, 
 no laws delayed, no reversals on senseless technicalities by 
 any supreme court, because from these courts there was no 
 appeal, and punishment was sure and swift, because there 
 was no executive to pardon. Order was restored, property 
 safe, because the negro feared the Ku Klux Klan more than 
 he feared the devil. Even the Federal bayonets could not 
 give him confidence in the black government which had been 
 established for him, and the negro voluntarily surrendered 
 to the Ku Klux Klan, and the very moment he did the “in- 
 visible army” vanished in a night. Its purpose had been ful- 
 filled. 
 
 Bedford Forrest should always be held in reverence by 
 every son and daughter of the South as long as memory holds 
 dear the noble deeds and service of men for the good of others 
 on this earth. What mind is base enough to think of what 
 might have happened but for Bedford Forrest and his “in- 
 * visible” but victorious army. 
 
 “Bloody Shirt No Longer.” 
 
 There is not a noble Confederate Veteran that has ever jus- 
 tified a secret government as a principle. You only resorted 
 
 9 
 
to this in your dire extremity, and every right-thinking white 
 man in the North, and especially every brave Union soldier, 
 who loves his wife and child and respects the virtue of wo- 
 manhood, endorses this course adopted by you. All the good, 
 righteous and business people of the North now admit that 
 the 1 6 carpetbag’ ’ government was a fatal mistake, and those 
 who are informed of the conditions do not blame you noble 
 Veterans of the Gray for what you did to restore decent gov- 
 ernment in the South. This was in truth and in fact the end 
 of the horrible war. From this moment on the North became 
 more and more tolerant, and the soldier on each side now 
 realized that this foul blot on the national government was 
 the work of selfish politicians and designing demagogues of 
 the North. Those who would again revive the “bloody shirt” 
 would be scourged from the public life, not only in the South, 
 but in. the North. 
 
 Only a few days ago, in the American Congress, one of the 
 old “bloody shirt brigade” hoisted the infamous emblem in 
 the House of Representatives, and was laughed to scorn when 
 that House was overwhelmingly Republican. Hollingsworth 
 was not only discredited in the South, but throughout the 
 North, for his uncalled-for resolution. 
 
 After Reconstruction. 
 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, after Reconstruction, let us 
 look for a moment at our marvelous strides of progress since 
 we came into our own again, in 1875 and 1876. To do this, 
 let us make a brief comparison of our resources in 1860 and 
 1870. 
 
 Our property values in the South dropped from over $5,000,- 
 000,000 in 1860 to $3,000,000,000 in 1870, and the wealth of the 
 whole nation had increased from $12,000,000,000 to $14,000,- 
 000,000. 
 
 South Carolina had dropped from third place in per capita 
 wealth to thirteenth, and Mississippi from fourth to thirty- 
 fourth. 
 
 The State of Massachusetts had more than doubled her as- 
 sessed values during that period, and was worth one-half as 
 much as the whole South. 
 
 From the census reports you will find that in 1860 the value 
 of the property, not the assessed value, of the Southern States 
 was about $6,500,000,000, and in 1870 it was about $4,500,000,- 
 000, wliich is a loss of $2,000,000,000. 
 
 During the same period we find a startling revelation in 
 
 10 
 
reference to New England. In 1860 the value of property 
 of New England was less than $6,000,000,000, while in 1870 
 the value had soared up to the stupendous sum of over $15,- 
 000,000,000; that is to say, that the Civil War added to these 
 States 250 per cent, of wealth, and left the South 50 per cent, 
 poorer. 
 
 From 1870 to 1880 New England and the Middle States only 
 increased their wealth from $15,000,000,000 to $17,000,000,- 
 000, an increase of only 13 per cent. 
 
 From 1870 to 1880 the South increased her wealth from $4,- 
 000,000,000 to $7,000,000,000, an increase of 75 per cent, in ten 
 years; and all of the increase was from 1875 to 1880, after the 
 carpetbagger was driven from the South. 
 
 From 1890 to 1904 New England increased her wealth 40 
 per cent., and the Southern States increased theirs 64 per 
 cent.; and, if you take the Cotton States of the South, from 
 1890 to 1904, the increase has been more than 70 per cent. 
 
 The South has done all this with no pensions and 'no pro- 
 tection. In addition to this, she has been paying her part 
 of the pensions of New England and the North, and been bur- 
 dened with their protection. 
 
 Twenty years ago she had no cotton factories to speak of; 
 now she leads the world in the production of heavy cotton 
 goods, and her spindles have outstripped New England in 
 the consumption of raw cotton, and she uses 300,000 more 
 bales than does New England. She is doing this today with- 
 out any protection, comparatively, upon her cotton manufac- 
 tures, because she sells the bulk of her cotton cloth and manu- 
 factured cotton in the open market, in competition with the 
 world. 
 
 Startling Statistics. 
 
 But I shall again refer to some statistics which are more 
 eloquent than any words. I shall begin with 1880, because, 
 prior to that time, from 1865 to 1880, the Southern people dis- 
 claim all credit for what happened, except from 1875 to 1880, 
 and the statistics are hard to get from 1875 to 1880. 
 
 In 1880 the total value of the manufactures of the South was 
 $457,454,777, and in 1908 the value leaped to over $2,550,000,- 
 000, or an increase of 465 per cent. 
 
 , In 1880 the capital invested in cotton mills was $21,000,000, 
 * in round numbers, and in 1908 the value reached the marvel- 
 
 ous sum of $266,500,000, or an increase of 1,169 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South only had 667,000 spindles. In 1908 she 
 had 10,443,761, or an increase of 1,464 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the Southern cotton mills consumed 217,380 bales 
 
 if. 
 
of cotton. In 1908 they consumed over 2,119,040 -bales of 500 
 pounds each, or an increase of 875 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South had approximately $3,800,000 in cotton 
 seed oil mills. In 1908 she had approximately $91,000,000, or 
 an increase of 2,268 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South produced $39,000,000 worth of lumber, 
 in round numbers. In 1908 she produced, in round numbers, 
 $368,000,000 worth of, lumber, or an increase of 837 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South produced, in round numbers, 397,000 tons 
 of pig iron. In 1908 she produced 3,446,000 tons, in round 
 numbers, or an increase of 766 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South produced 180,000 barrels of petroleum. 
 In 1908 she produced, in round numbers, 27,250,000 barrels, 
 or an increase of over 15,000 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South produced 370,000 tons of coke, in round 
 numbers. In 1908 she produced 9,300,000 tons, an increase of 
 2,395 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South had 20,000 miles of railroad. In 1908 she 
 had 67,000 miles. 14 is fair to say that only a small part of 
 this was Southern capital; hut it is Southern energy, labor 
 and products that make them pay. 
 
 In 1880 the value of the farm products of the South was 
 worth $650,000,000. In 1908 they were worth $2,223,000,000, 
 or an increase of 342 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South raised 5,700,000 bales of cotton. In 1908 
 over 13,500,000 bales, or an increase of 234 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South spent for public education $9,796,000. 
 In 1908 she spent $37,690,000, or an increase of 285 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the real value of the property of the South was $7,- 
 500,000,000. In 1908 the real value was $20,100,000,000, an 
 increase of over 165 per cent, in twenty-eight years. 
 
 In 1880 the South had invested in national banks $46,500,- • 
 000, in round numbers. In 1908 she had $162,550,000, an in- 
 crease of over 245 per cent. 
 
 In 1880 the South had on deposit in national and State 
 banks $147,177,000. In 1908 she had on deposit $1,156,030,000, 
 or an increase of 685 per cent. 
 
 As interesting as these figures are, I will not weary you 
 with more. Suffice it to say that the statistics all along the 
 line show the same progress. 
 
 But I cannot refrain from calling especially attention to one 
 more set of figures, which completely answers the charge that 
 the South is not keeping pace with any portion of the globe 
 in the rate of increase in manufacturing, and when you con- 
 sider the odds against her in the fight, it is little. short of a 
 miracle. 
 
 12 
 
In 1880 the South had invested in manufactures only $257,- 
 000,000, while in 1908 she had over $2,100,000,000, an increase 
 of over 715 per cent, in twenty-eight years. 
 
 What is more eloquent than the cold figures above given! 
 What answer could be better or stronger than these cold facts ! 
 The South is chided about standing by her traditions, and, 
 thank God, it is true. These glorious traditions of the South 
 > in her social, political and religious life are the ark of the 
 
 covenant of true American civilization. Her ideas of the Con- 
 stitution and constitutional limitations are laughed at by dis- 
 honest politicians, who would put their hands in other peo- 
 ple’s pockets, because a proper respect and regard for that 
 instrument and the oath to support it is always in the way of 
 those who would have special privilege. But these ideas and 
 traditions have not been in the way of her progress, as the 
 facts above stated conclusively show. They have certainly 
 not retarded her progress, for as soon as the Southern soldier 
 put aside his musket he took hold of the plow, and with the 
 same courage displayed on the field of battle he faced and 
 fought poverty at home, > ut against what terrible odds ! Tim 
 Civil War did not hurt the South like the bloody reconstruc- 
 tion — or, better called, “destruction.” But his courage and 
 steadfastness of purpose did not desert him even in this trial. 
 He came from a stock that never wore a yoke. 
 
 All the good people in the North are happy in their hearts, 
 and proud of their own blood when the thought comes to them: 
 ‘ ‘ That blood of the South that would not brook the domination 
 of an inferior race is my blood; it flows in my veins; the best 
 blood of all the ages, and, God be praised, with my strong arm 
 and all my power, I could not humiliate that proud people in 
 whose veins flow that blood, and make them subservient to 
 the will of another and an inferior race. ’ 9 There is not a self- 
 respecting New Englander but that is proud and happy at 
 the thought. He would blush if he even thought that the 
 South would have submitted. 
 
 When this victory was over and the Southern man was 
 again permitted to enter the fields of toil, the South began 
 to prosper. Her cotton fields were soon ‘ ‘ whitening under the 
 stars;” her fields of golden corn nodded to the Southern 
 breezes; her furnaces glowed with new light; hammers mak- 
 * ing music in her shops; spindles singing in her factories, and 
 
 from Maryland to Texas, ’mid her fruits and flowers, the old 
 South again started on her happy way — the same old South 
 / that she had always been. It was the same old march of prog- 
 
 ress that was stopped for sixteen years. It is the same South, 
 
 13 
 
with her lofty and uncompromised principles of honor, justice 
 and truth. There is nothing ‘ ‘ new . 9 9 All of her advancement 
 lias been made without her changing front, and she will con- 
 tinue in the same path, true to her traditions of honesty and 
 virtue. 
 
 Pensions. 
 
 There is one fact that I would call your attention to — a fact 
 not often referred to in these latter days — and that is the 
 amount of pensions paid to New England and the Middle 
 States. This has been a great help to these States, and none 
 of the Cotton States. 
 
 New Hampshire had a population of 411,000 in 1900, and 
 received $1,196,000 in pensions, or $2.90 to every man, woman 
 and child in New Hampshire. 
 
 Maine had a population the same year of 694,000, and re- 
 ceived in pensions* $2,816,500, or a little over $4.00 to every 
 man, woman and child in the State. 
 
 Vermont had a population that year of 343,500, and received 
 in pensions $1,347,677, or a little over $3.92 for every man, 
 woman and child in the State. 
 
 Massachusetts had a population of a little over 2,805,000, 
 and she received in 1900 pensions to the amount of $5,280,000, 
 or $1.88 for every man, woman and child in the State. 
 
 Ohio, with a population of 4,157,000, received in nensions 
 $14,657,000, or over $3.50 for every man, woman and child in 
 the State. 
 
 Mississippi spends $1,250,000 to run her public schools for 
 four months. If Mississippi received only one-fifth of the 
 amount which Ohio receives each year for pensions, she could 
 relieve herself of her present common school tax, and not pay 
 one cent and run her schools eight months in the year. Mis- 
 sissippi pays one-fiftietli of the total pensions paid in the 
 United States, estimating the population of the United States 
 at 90,000,000, and that of Mississippi at 1,800,000, which is ap- 
 proximately correct. Estimating the total pensions at $140,- 
 000,000, Mississippi would pay $2,800,000 into the Northern 
 and New England States. If Mississippi could retain this 
 money at home, she could run the white and negro schools 
 eight months without taxing herself a dollar. 
 
 The State of Kansas gets the sum of $5,423,874.54 in pen- 
 sions, and only has a population of 1,500,000; that is, a little 
 over $3.60 for every man, woman and child in the State of 
 Kansas. If Mississippi received this much, she could run the 
 whole State government on it each year and have over $2,- 
 500,000 left every year; in other words, one-half of what Kan- 
 
 14 
 
sas gets in pensions would run our entire State government. 
 All of what she receives for pensions would not only run our 
 entire State government, hut would pay all the State, county 
 and municipal expenses. The amount paid is taken from re- 
 port -for year ending June, 1907. 
 
 Thus it is with all the New England and Middle States. 
 While they are receiving all these amounts, the Cotton States 
 have received practically nothing from the Federal govern- 
 ment, and have been taxing themselves in their own States to 
 take care of their own soldiers, and have been paying enor- 
 mous tribute to New England’s protected manufactures. 
 
 This is only part of the unequal race the South has been 
 running. She has had her race problem on her hands. But, 
 notwithstanding the unequal contest, her people have stayed 
 “in the fields of toil,” and are making marvelous strides to 
 the front. No section of the country has made such advance- 
 ment with such burdens. But the South is hearing the burden 
 without complaining. She is fighting her own battles. She 
 has had little sympathy from her Northern sisters, but in 
 the future I feel that a new light will burst upon the North. 
 The old prejudices are rapidly passing away. The South is 
 being better understood, and men better informed of her con- 
 dition will get control of the affairs of the government; men 
 who will not tolerate, I hope, this injustice. 
 
 These are but a few of the facts and statistics showing only 
 a part of what the South lias done. The advancement since 
 1880 is like a romance. The figures I have given only tell 
 part of the beautiful story of our victory in peace. This vic- 
 tory has produced its heroes as well as the war. They are the 
 patient laborers on the farm, in the mills, and in every field of 
 industry in the South. They are sun-crowned hands of toil 
 who, without capital, without immigration, without encour- 
 agement from the rich of the earth, have reared upon the 
 smoking ruins of a destroyed country all of the beautiful 
 homes that adorn the hills and dales and cities of the rehabili- 
 tated Southland. 
 
 From Maryland to Texas, what a change has been wrought 
 in one generation! There is nothing to compare with it in 
 all the annals of time. It is not our soil, the most fertile on 
 earth, that has produced the changed conditions in so short 
 a time; nor our climate, the balmiest and best on earth; nor 
 our mines of iron and coal, the richest; nor our forests of pine 
 and oak, the most valuable. No; not all the abundance of our 
 unlimited raw material. It has been the character of her men 
 and women that have wrought the mighty change. 
 
 15 
 
“What constitutes a State? 
 
 Not high, raised battlements, nor labor’d mound, 
 
 Thick wall or moated gate; 
 
 Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; 
 
 Not bays and broad-arm’d ports, 
 
 Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; 
 
 Not starred and spangled courts, 
 
 Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 
 
 No! Men, high-minded men, 
 
 With power as far above dull brutes endued, 
 
 In forest, brake or den, 
 
 As beats excel cold rocks and brambles rude; 
 
 Men who their duties know, 
 
 But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain, 
 
 Prevent the long-arm’d blow, 
 
 And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain. 
 
 These constitute a state.” 
 
 So, to you United Confederate Veterans, and to your wives 
 and daughters of the South — not “old,” not “new,” hut of 
 the South, we owe the present prosperity. We owe to you our 
 everlasting affections for making every foot of our soil the 
 land of sacred memories. And we find expression for the sen- 
 timent which we entertain for your heroic deeds of valor in 
 thus consecrating and hallowing our soil in the beautiful sen- 
 timent of the South’s greatest poet. 
 
 ‘ ‘ A land without ruins is a land without memories — a land 
 without memories is a land without liberty! A land that 
 wears a laurel crown may be fair to see, but twine a few sad 
 cypress leaves around the brow of any land, and be that land 
 beautiless and bleak, it becomes lovely in its consecrated cor- 
 net of sorrow, and wins the sympathy of the heart and history. 
 Crowns of roses fade, crowns of thorns endure. Calvaries 
 and crucifixes take deep hold of humanity. The triumphs of 
 might are transient, they pass away and are forgotten. The 
 sufferings of Eight are graven deepest on the chronicles of 
 nations. ’ ’ 
 
 “Yes, give me a land where the ruins are spread, 
 
 And the living tread light on the hearts of the dead; 
 
 Yes, give me a land that is blest by the dust, 
 
 And bright with the deeds of the downtrodden just. 
 
 Yes, give me a land that has legend and lays 
 Enshrining the memories of long-vanished days; 
 
 Yes, give me a land that hath story and song, 
 
 To tell of the strife of the right and the wrong; 
 
 Yes, give me a land with a grave in each spot, 
 
 And the names in the graves that shall not be forgot; 
 
 Yes, give me a land of the wreck and the tomb, 
 
 There’s a grandeur in graves, there’s a glory in gloom. 
 
 For out of the gloom future brightness is born, 
 
 As after the night looms the sunrise of morn; 
 
 And the graves of the dead, with the grass overgrown, 
 
 May yet form the footstool of Liberty’s throne, 
 
 And each single wreck in the warpath of Might 
 Shall yet be a rock in the Temple of Right!” 
 
 Note. — The statistics are taken from a speech made in reply to Col, Galderhead, of Kansas, on 
 th® floor of the House of Representatives. 
 
 16