A large audience assembled in the hall of the House of Delegates Thursday night, October 30th, 1879, in attendance upon the annual meeting of the Society.
opened the meeting with a most appropriate prayer.
.
.
We cordially greet the members of the Society assembled in annual meeting, and report that we have had during the past year most gratifying evidences of a growing appreciation of the importance and value of our work.
Material for our archives
has been steadily coming in from friends all over the country, while the courtesy of the War Department has enabled us to secure invaluable material which had hitherto been inaccessible.
The value of our collection is attested by the fact that both Northern and Southern historians have been consulting it; a distinguished
European historian has avowed his purpose of coming to
Richmond in order to avail himself of our archives; and the “War Records” office at
Washington has had copyists at work for months on important reports, headquarter books, and other original material in our possession and not in their collection.
But we still appeal earnestly to friends of the cause of truth everywhere, to send forward
at once to our office
everything which may throw the slightest light upon any part of the story of our great struggle for constitutional freedom; and where persons have material which they are not willing to part with, we beg that they will let us have it
as a loan, so that we may secure copies both for our office and the War Department.
Publications.
Our monthly (
Southern Historical Society Papers) has been regularly issued, and we have assurances from every quarter that there is a growing appreciation of their value among all who take interest in the vindication of the truth of history.
A number of the
[
587]
leading officers of the United States army, and some of the ablest military critics in
Europe, as well as prominent Confederates in every State of the
South, have spoken in high terms of our
Papers, The press generally has echoed the sentiment of the
New England Historical Register, that “no library, public or private, which pretends to historical fulness, can afford to be without these volumes,” and of the
London Saturday Review, that they “contain a mass of information relative to the late war, without a careful study of which no historian, however limited his scope, should venture to treat any fragment of that most interesting story.”
But one of the most emphatic tributes to the value of these publications was contained in a letter from a distinguished Prussian officer, who, after seeing our
Papers, avows his purpose of
suppressing the first volume of his History of the civil war in America, and writing it over again.
Our relations with the Archive Bureau at Washington
have continued to be of the most cordial and pleasant character.
The
Secretary of War, the
Adjutant-General,
Colonel R. N. Scott, who has charge of the compilation of the records;
General Marcus J. Wright, who is agent for the collection of Confederate reports, &c.;
Mr. A. P. Tasker, who is keeper of the
Confederate archives and has charge of the copying, and indeed all of the officers and clerks of the Department, have shown a cheerful alacrity in affording us every facility desired, and it has been to us a pleasure to reciprocate in every way in our power their kindness.
Finances.
We regret that we cannot realize our hopes of last year, that we should be able to report at this time that the obligations of the Society have all been fully met. Our receipts
have met the expenses of the current year, but they have fallen off (owing chiefly to the sickness of our most efficient agent, which deprived us of his services for the larger part of the year) considerably from what they were last year, and we have been unable, therefore, to liquidate our old debt which has
lapped over from year to year.
The following summary will show our receipts and disbursements from October the 29th, 1878, to October 29th, 1879:
| Cash on hand as per last report | $138 70 |
| Received from membership fees, subscriptions and advertisements, | 4,995 88 |
| | |
| Total funds | $5,134 58 |
| | |
[
588]
Disbursements.
| Paid Geo. W. Gary for printing | $1,392 75 |
| Paid W. E. Simons & Brother, for binding | 445 00 |
| Paid for clerk, stationery and miscellaneous office expenses | 718 78 |
| Commissions to Agents | 961 93 |
| Postage, expressage and telegrams | 277 81 |
| Paid Secretary on account of salary for past and current years | 1,338 31 |
| | |
| Total | $5,134 58 |
| | |
We still owe--
This debt, we repeat, has
lapped over from previous years, and may be fully accounted for by the statement that in the years 1876 and 1877 we paid for the single items of stereotyping, printing the
Confederate roster, and the extra cost of the large number of pages and extra copies of our
Papers, the sum of $4,505.86--
i. e., if we had run the
Papers for 1876 and 1877 on the basis of the cost of publishing them in 1878 and 1879, we would have paid every dollar of our liabilities and had a surplus of $2,508.29.
It should be remembered, too, that out of our receipts from the
Papers we have had to meet not only the cost of their publication, but
all of the expenses of the Society as well, and that we now have on hand back volumes worth at least $5,500 (every one of which can be disposed of in the course of time), and stereotypeplates for nearly the whole of the first year, from which we can reprint
ad libitum.
But we desire especially to call attention to the fact that beginning and continuing our publication during the worse years for such an enterprise the country has seen, we have not only been able to issue regularly our
Papers, but to make them a most important auxiliary towards accumulating in our archives material which could readily be sold in the market for thousands of dollars, but which is of
priceless value for the purposes for which our Society was organized.
We have thought it due alike to the Society and to the
Committee to give these details; and we are happy to be able to add that we have made an arrangement by which in the future the
Papers will be published without risk of indebtedness to the Society.
But
[
589]
the debt of $1,997.57 ought to be promptly met by special donations, so that the
Papers may not longer have to carry this burden.
In conclusion, we would express our growing conviction of the importance of an enterprise which has for its object the vindication of as pure a cause as was ever submitted to the arbitrament of the sword, and the furnishing of the material for a true history of as noble a band of patriot heroes as ever marched or fought “in all the tide of time.”
By order of the Executive Committee.
, had first promised to make the oration on this occasion; that his physicians having forbidden him to use his voice, he had promised to send an original poem (telegraphing as late as Monday that it would certainly be here); and that the poem had failed to come by some unexplained cause.
submitted a few remarks as to the value and importance of the work of the Society.
sustained his resolution in an earnest and eloquent speech, which was frequently interrupted with applause.
made a strong and very forcible appeal to the audience to take life-memberships and relieve the Society of its burden, which was enthusiastically applauded.
said that while it was exceedingly important to raise the amount named at the earliest possible moment, yet a plenty of new subscribers would enable them to work through.
