I forgot to mention I had gone on with the work of getting up tickets and an attractive circular with large cuts of each machine, and sent them broadcast all over the State. I sent a hundred tickets each to the sheriff and county clerk of each county, requesting them to act as sales agents for us, when we had numerous letters from different ones, saying that they could sell every ticket they had and to send more, thus we had a fair prospect of raising at least fifty thousand dollars.
The continued agitation by members of the Camp on the subject, asking Attorney General Hogg for his opinion, resulted in my being appointed a committee of one to write to him for his opinion in the matter, when he answered promptly in response that such proceedings would be illegal and he hoped that it would not be attempted. When I read his letter to the Camp the Clark men said they had always been satisfied that his ruling would be such and insisted on dropping the matter. Having cherished the hope that I would be instrumental in perhaps securing the magnificent sum of fifty thousand dollars for the benefit of the Confederate Home, which in connection with the opinion of several of the ablest lawyers in the State—such men as the Hon. Seth Sheppard and others, whose names I don’t remember and whose opinions I regarded more highly than I did Hogg’s, as their construction of the law in the matter, as before stated, seemed to me most reasonable and fair—I told the members of the Camp, “The drawing goes on. My name is on the ticket and if Attorney General Hogg wants to proceed in the matter, he is at liberty to proceed against me.”
The Sunday following I wrote a personal letter to my old-time friend, Attorney General Hogg, setting forth the urgency of our action and finally told him, by my advice the Camp had decided to go on with the drawing and the object of my writing him was simply to say that we valued his opinion most highly and appreciated his good intentions towards the Confederate Home and his rulings were fully in accord with his duties, as he conceived them to be, and finally wound up the letter by saying, “the end justified the means,” which expression proved fatal and got him stirred up about the matter to the extent, as I suspected, of notifying all sheriffs and county clerks that it would be dangerous for them to undertake the sale of the tickets and as a result, I regret to have to record that all the tickets were returned to me, except perhaps about a hundred.
In answer to my letter the Attorney General stated that if we persisted in having the drawing that he would use all the power of the State at his command to put it down and punish us.
The Clark men of the Camp soon circulated the result of our correspondence and proclaimed to the State that Attorney General Hogg was unfriendly to the Confederate Home and also to our Confederate organization, which of course he denied in several of his speeches.
Every Governor up until now, preceding his elevation to the office, had been an ex-Confederate soldier, but had never done anything to assist in the maintenance of the Confederate Home through any appropriation of the State’s money.
As is well known, Governor Hogg was elected and soon after his installation into the office, he caused the appropriation of money collected from rental of a building that had been temporarily used as the Capitol, while the new Capitol Building was under construction and immediately after the assembling of the Legislature, urged the passage of a resolution, submitting a Constitutional Amendment to enable the State to take charge of the Confederate Home and also to give pensions to needy Confederates, not in the Home.
It is needless to say when this amendment was voted on by the people of the State it was carried by a large majority, thus enabling legislative appropriations for its maintenance in a suitable manner.
CHAPTER XXXVI
My Appointments in the U. C. V.
On the organization of the U. C. V. in 1892, I received the appointment by Lieutenant-General Cabell, who was elected Commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, of Quartermaster-General of the Trans-Mississippi Department, with the rank of Brigadier-General. On receipt of my commission, issued by General John B. Gordon, one morning, while opening the package, Mr. C. A. Keating was looking on and on my being surprised at such promotion, never having had notice of General Cabell’s appointment, Keating asked me what I was going to do about it? I told him that I was going to turn it down, that I did not think I deserved any such promotion, besides I feared it would take a great deal of my valuable time out of business, when he insisted on my accepting it, which I still refused. He made me promise to take the document home to my children, saying that they had more interest perhaps, in such an honor than I had and if they were willing to have me turn it down he would have nothing further to say. In connection with this, he asked a question, “Tell me of a Confederate soldier in this community that has done as much for the needy Confederates as you have and is more entitled to it than you are?”