CHAPTER XXXV
The Confederate Veterans’ Home.
In connection with my personal history I will take the liberty of referring to my connection with the organization and work in behalf of the United Confederate Veterans’ Association.
I realized that only by a combined effort of the old soldiers could we perpetuate our true history and especially take care of the indigent and needy old comrades, when sick and in distress. While associated with the Keating house, the Confederate Home at Austin was started by John B. Hood Camp of Austin and maintained by soliciting public contributions, as the State was prohibited by the Constitution to contribute anything towards its maintenance. Realizing the necessity of everybody interested doing all they were able to do and my own ability at the time being very limited, I conceived the plan of requesting donations by factories, whose machinery we were handling, of certain machines they were manufacturing as parts of a complete cotton gin outfit. In line with this I wrote a letter to each one of our factories, setting forth the condition of our Confederate Home and asking contributions of such parts as they manufactured, for a complete 3-60 saw gin outfit. These factories were all located in the North and East, but their response was prompt and cheerful. I had a sixty-horse power boiler, contributed by the Erie City Iron Works; a 3-60 saw gins and elevator by the Eagle Cotton Gin Company of Bridgewater, Mass.; a Thomas steam cylinder press by the Thomas Manufacturing Company of Little Rock, Ark., and Mr. Keating gave me a fifty-horse power Erie City Iron Works engine; a four-ton Chicago scale, by the Chicago Scale Company and a magnificent Schuttler wagon by the Peter Schuttler Wagon Company of Chicago, the whole worth about thirty-five hundred dollars.
I immediately notified Governor Ross of this handsome donation by Northern factories, giving him a full list of the donors, and he wrote a personal letter of thanks to each of the parties.
Cotton gin machinery, at this time, was rarely bought for cash, always sold on long time credit, which of course did not meet the urgent needs of the Confederate Home. In conferring with General Cabell and other prominent members of the Camp, we decided on a plan of having a drawing for this machinery, selling tickets at one dollar, believing we could raise a large amount of money in this way, as outside of a chance of drawing the machinery was the further inducement that the dollar paid for the ticket would afford relief to our needy Confederate Home. I then went to work actively, after first conferring with some of the best legal talent of the city, as to whether such a drawing was permissable by law. As it was by them held entirely within the law, taking the position that a drawing for charity was not a lottery, but a drawing for profit is a lottery, I had no hesitancy in permitting my name used in connection with it.
About this time we had an exciting contest for the Governorship of the State between Attorney General Hogg and Judge George Clark of Waco. On the policies of each, our comrades of the Camp were divided. While our Confederate Constitution prohibits the discussion of politics in the meetings of our Camp, still the members were not prohibited from expressing their views outside. The Clark element of the Camp insisted before we proceeded in this drawing to write Attorney General Hogg, asking his opinion on the legal status of such proceedings, hoping that he would rule adversely, thereby making himself very unpopular in the State. Knowing Hogg’s disposition on such ruling and believing he would express a radical view on the same, I did my best to keep the matter from reaching his ears, but all to no purpose.
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.