Inconsistent with self-respect.
Major Otey means kindly by us, and he is right when he declares our hearty and undying loyalty to the flag of the common country; he is correct in assuming that should war come the
Confederate soldier will be found carrying that flag to heights as great as any soldier may reach, let them be as high as the stars, which it types.
But neither he nor any Southern representative shall ever, with our consent, place us in any attitude like that of this bill, which is inconsistent with our self-respect, and stains the record, to whose purity we devote and consecrate ourselves, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
If, at some future date, an American Congress, listening to the voice of some gallant representative of the
North, should desire, in the general interest, to consecrate American valor, as it was illustrated by the
Confederate soldier, in some form, alike appropriate and pleasing, our loyalty would not be enhanced, because that is impossible; but we should find in our fellow-citizens to the north of us the real brothers whom we are most anxious to discover.
