Franklin County: "Colonel McClure To Page M. Baker," by Colonel A. K. McClure, June 11, 1901-April 25, 1903
Summary: Correspondence between Colonel McClure and Andrew Carnegie imploring the latter contribute to the relief of Confederate Veterans and set aside civil War divisions.
COLONEL McCLURE TO PAGE M. BAKER.
PHILADELPHIA, April 25, 1903.
Mr. Page M. Baker, New Orleans, La.-My Dear Friend: I told you during my visit to New Orleans that I would send you the correspondence I had with Mr. Carnegie about a contribution from him of a million or more in aid of the helpless Confederate soldiers. The original letter to Mr. Carnegie sent by Colonels Hayes and Bonnaffon was entirely their own conception, and they sent it to me because they knew I was personally acquainted with Mr. Carnegie. They are both veteran soldiers and many times wounded in battle. Colonel Hayes is one of the foremost members of the Carlisle bar, and Bonnaffon is treasurer in the office of the collector of the port in this city, and is one of the very few pensioners of the country who, when he was appointed to a government office paying him $3,000 a year, notified the Pension Department that his pension would be restored to the treasury as long as he held a public office, and he has done so for the last four or five years. You will see, therefore, that the appeal to Carnegie was made by Union soldiers of the very best type.
I was greatly disappointed in Mr. Carnegie's final letter of declination. You will see the answer I made to him, but no reply has ever come.
This correspondence has been seen by no one outside of the parties to the correspondence with the single exception of Gen. Custis Lee. I sent it to him with the request that he see it and return it to me, which he did, and I send it to you with the same instructions, excepting that you are at liberty to take a copy of it if you think proper and return the papers I send you, but at present it must not be published. I desire simply that there shall be in the possession of some one a knowledge of this correspondence, who has seen it and who may some time have occasion to refer to it. You can, therefore, if you wish, take a copy of the letters and then return them to me.
We had a very delightful time in your city, and, indeed, in the entire journey of 8,700 miles through the South and far West and the far North. The generous hospitality extended by your people, and especially by yourself, will always be among the most grateful memories of my life.
Yours truly, A. K. McCLURE.
McCLURE TO CARNEGIE.
PHILADELPHIA, June 11, 1901.
Hon. Andrew Carnegie, Skibo Castle, Ardgay, Scotland-My Dear Friend: Considering our intimate acquaintance in our earlier days, it is needless to say that I have followed with unusual interest the great strides you have made in the business world and the large accumulation of wealth which you are so generously appropriating in the interest of humanity and the advancement of enlightened civilization. The inclosed letter addressed to you by two of our bravest and best Union soldiers, both of whom were probably once personally known to you, and both of whom yet carry Southern bullets in their bodies, was given to me by them with the request that I should forward it to you with my own views on the subject. Mr. Hayes is a leading member of the Carlisle bar and a many times wounded veteran, and Mr. Bonnaffon is also a wounded Union soldier who made a most creditable record during the war. Coming from them, the appeal they make to you for aid to the crippled and helpless veterans of the Confederacy will doubtless induce you to give consideration to the subject. The suggestion is theirs and not mine, but I heartily indorse every word they say.
I have been many times through the South during the last more than twenty years, and have each year been more and more impressed with the terrible want that prevails among a considerable class of those who battled for their convictions in the Southern cause. There are not many of them yet surviving, and it would not require a very large amount, relatively speaking, to add very much to their comfort in the sorrowing evening of their lives. I have visited several of the homes which have been established by the Southern States; but the limited means of the Southern people and governments make it impossible for them to furnish relief to any more than a very small percentage of those who, by reason of wounds or broken health in military service, are entirely unable to earn their bread.
These helpless people were your foes and mine, and we earnestly strove to defeat them; but we are all proud of the heroism they exhibited, and point to their achievements and monuments as telling the story of the gallantry of the American people. The war, sadly as it is deplored, has brought the richest blessings to the whole country. It has given us a measure of advancement which would have been undreamed of in your day or mine, and you have gathered the richest harvest from this matchless progress which was largely stimulated by our great fraternal conflict. You are giving your millions freely to the cause of education and to the cause of humanity. Would it not be grateful to you to add a million or more as a fund to furnish bread to the broken Confederate veterans? The national government cannot do it, as it is forbidden by political expediency. The Southern States cannot do it, because they are financially unable to bear the expense; and I can think of no nobler or better field for your generous philanthropy than to respond to this appeal of two heroic and highly respected Union soldiers by making some provision to temper the sore misfortunes of the disabled Confederate soldiers.
Yours truly, A. K. MCCLURE.
CARNEGIE TO McCLURE.
SKIBO CASTLE, ARDGAY, N. B., 24th June, 1901.
My Dear Colonel: Your signature throws me back to the first time I heard or saw you, when you were making a great speech in the legislature at Harrisburg. I have often wondered what your career would have been had you remained in public life and not gone into the editorial sanctum. I sympathize deeply with the Southern people and have tried to show this by contributions to the libraries at Atlanta, Richmond, and other places, also for Tuskegee. You may be sure I shall keep the South in mind, but the form you suggest needs thinking over and does not appeal to me as exactly the best one.
With every good wish, always very truly yours,
ANDREW CARNEGIE.
McCLURE TO CARNEGIE.
PHILADELPHIA, July 8, 1901.
Hon. Andrew Carnegie, Skibo Castle, Ardgay, Scotland-My Dear Friend: It was refreshing to receive your very kind letter of the 24th ult., as it recalls some of the most grateful memories of my life. I hope indeed that you will give very serious consideration to the suggestion made by two gallant and wounded soldiers, Colonel Hayes and Colonel Bonnaffon, which I inclosed to you, for I feel sure that if you understood the conditions of the South you would feel that you could not in any way better use a million or more of money. I am sure it would give more relief to the children of sorrow than any other way that you could expend it.
I have seen these people in their Soldiers' Homes, which are very limited, and have had every opportunity of knowing how fearfully dependent some of these old soldiers are, with their States and their communities really unable to give them bread. Pubic sentiment has reached a point when such a gift would be generally regarded as a national benefaction, and I most earnestly urge upon you favorable consideration of the proposition.
Sincerely yours, A. K. McCLURE.
McCLURE TO CARNEGIE.
PHILADELPHIA, January 29, 1902.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, New York City-My Dear Friend: I was surprised to see your letter addressed to Colonel Watterson and myself on the subject of a contribution from you in support of decayed newspaper men. I certainly never suggested such an application and have made no application to you directly or indirectly for such a contribution. I agree entirely with the views expressed in your letter. Colonel Watterson in his enthusiasm, that seems to have been inspired by the very cordial reception he received here when I presented him to the Pen and Pencil Club, came out with his public appeal to you in support of the home for newspaper men. That was my first knowledge of his purpose to make such an application. I know of no class of men that is so well able to take care of its own brethren who should become superannuated in newspaper work as the journalists of the country; and while I am heartily in sympathy with the movement to establish a home for those who may need it, I believe that the plan now in course of execution will be quite equal to its accomplishment.
You will remember, my dear old friend, that some months ago I wrote you in Scotland transmitting a personal appeal to you from two of our bravest and best Union soldiers, both bearing honorable scars, appealing to you for a contribution in aid of the helpless Confederate soldiers of the South, as previously stated. I have been much through the South during the last twenty years, and have watched the advancement of that heroic people under the most adverse circumstances with intense interest. Even in their extreme poverty they have done something for the utterly helpless soldiers of the South; but there are very many to-day who are in absolute want, and the Southern States are not able to give them the needed aid.
I never was more earnest nor sincere in my life than in the appeal I made to you to devise some plan to aid the utterly helpless and breadless Confederate soldiers of the South. We have made provision for our Northern soldiers with the most generous liberality, as is shown by our payment of nearly $150,000,000 annually for many years in support of pensioners and Soldiers' Homes, and those who are capable of filling civil trusts are by law given the preference. The sectional bitterness between the North and the South has perished; the soldiers of the blue and the gray have been side by side in the recent war with Spain in support of the flag, and I think the time has come when some great philanthropist like yourself could render the greatest possible service with the same amount of money by appropriating a few millions for the support of the entirely helpless Confederate soldiers of the South.
In your answer to me you seemed to appreciate the claims of the Southern soldiers for some recognition, but doubted the method I suggested. I now beg to renew the proposition, and ask you to give it careful thought and to evolve some plan satisfactory to yourself by which you can rear what I believe would be ever regarded as the greatest monument you will leave to testify to your tireless and most generous efforts in well-doing.
Yours truly, A. K. McCLURE.
CARNEGIE TO McCLURE.
NEW YORK, 1 February, 1902.
My Dear Friend: I have forgiven the Southern soldier, but I could not bring myself to give for his support as such. I have forgiven General Lee for his blunder, but I do not like to see his statue in the Hall of Fame.
These people made a sad mistake, having struck at their country.
I am afraid that I forgive, but do not forget, which the humorist says is trying to settle with the Lord at fifty per cent on the dollar.
I should really like to see you and shake you by the hand again, and this is one of the ends I shall have in view next visit to Philadelphia. You are one of the few still with us who stand for auld lang syne.
Sincerely, with every good wish, ANDREW CARNEGIE.
McCLURE TO CARNEGIE.
PHILADELPHIA, February 3, 1902.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, New York City-My Dear Friend: Thanks for your very kind letter. I am sorry you take the view you do of the Southern people, but I know that I am an exception to the general rule in my views. I was much in the South beginning five years after the war and for twenty years thereafter, and the fact that I did not find a man in the South whose acquaintance I thought worth cultivating who did not go with his people in the War of the States taught me to judge them generously. They fought as bravely and earnestly as we did and for a principle that they had maintained from the foundation of the government and that never had been overruled until it was finally settled by the terrible arbitrament of the sword. I have forgiven them, although I was one of the few in the North who suffered very severely by the ravishes of the war, because I know that they were just as sincere as I was; and the monuments which they have erected in the South may now be accepted as monuments, not to the Confederates, but as testimonials of the heroism of the American people. However, you have settled the question, and that ends it.
I want very much to see you and have a chat with you. I am crippled in hand and foot and get about very badly, but otherwise never was in better health in my life and able to do as much work as at any time. One by one our old friends are dropping out until very few remain; and as the circle is lessening, it becomes more and more sacred. When you get over this way let me know in advance and we will cross legs and have a good talk.
Sincerely yours, A. K. McCLURE.
COL. A. K. McCLURE.
Colonel McClure was editor in chief of the Philadelphia Times from 1873 to 1901. His fame as a statesman and a patriot extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The following interesting incident was related by Col. T. T. Wright, of Nashville, in a tribute to Colonel McClure when at the time of his death the flag over the Statehouse at Nashville was hung at half-mast as a testimony of the Southern people's appreciation of his friendship for them:
"Colonel McClure was as loyal to the South as though he were Southern-born. This in the face of the fact that the Confederates burned his magnificent home near Chambersburg, Pa., during the war. Col. Page Baker, of New Orleans, told me of that incident. Colonel Baker was in Gen. Robert E. Lee's command, and the Confederate army was marching through Pennsylvania. Near Chambersburg Colonel Baker noticed a splendid residence surrounded by beautiful lawns. On the porch of the residence stood an aristocratic woman curiously watching the army pass. Colonel Baker approached her and asked for a glass of water. She graciously obtained it for him, and they had a five-minute chat, during which the lady spoke of some of the Confederate soldiers despoiling her grounds. Colonel Baker offered to place a guard around the property to protect it, but she showed him a note from General Lee in which he expressed regret at the action of his men and offered to do anything in his power to protect her property. A few days later, when the army again passed the place, the magnificent residence was in ruins.
"Even after that treatment Colonel McClure did not let his sorrow or his anger interfere with his love for the South. On one occasion, when given a reception in Birmingham, some one remarked to Colonel McClure that the Confederates should not have burned his property. 'Ah !' replied McClure, 'but General Sherman should not have used the torch in the South, either.' From this one incident you may catch a glimpse of the liberality, the broad-mindedness, and the splendid character of the man.
"Any project in the South which seemed worthy of encouragement received Colonel McClure's hearty support," Colonel Wright added to his tribute. "His influence has caused millions of dollars to be invested in the Southern States. He scorned financial profit from his efforts to increase the prosperity of the South, and nothing could induce him to give space in his publications to any project which he deemed unworthy of support."
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Confederate Veteran, Vol. 21 (1913), pp. 339-341
