of this, sectional passions shall continue to bear sway, if prejudice shall rule the hour, if a conflict of classes, of capital and labor, or of the races, shall arise, or the embers. of the late war be kept glowing until with new fuel they shall flame up again, then, hereafter, by some bard it may be sung, The star of Hope shone brightest in the West, It, too, has set upon her darkened shore, 7. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ENDS SLAVERY. From Address of JUSTICE LAMAR, at dedication of monument to John C. Calhoun, Charleston, S. C., April 26, 1888. SLAVERY is dead, buried in a grave that never gives up its dead! Let it rest! Every benefit which slavery conferred upon those subject to it, all the ameliorating and humanizing tendencies it introduced into the life of the African, all the elevating agencies which lifted him higher in the scale of rational moral being, were the elements of the future and inevitable destruction of the system. The mistake that was made by the Southern defenders of slavery, was in regarding it as a permanent form of society, instead of a process of emergence and transition from barbarism to freedom. If at this day, the North or the American Union were to propose to re-establish the institution, it would be impracticable. The South could not, and would not, accept it as a boon. The existing industrial relations of capital and labor, had there been no secession, no war, would of themselves have brought about the death of slavery. 8. AGAIN BRETHREN AND EQUALS. From Address at dedication of Soldiers' Monument at Manchester, N. H., by General JAMES W. PATTERSON. THE true grandeur of passing historic events is not seen till the noise and obstruction of the fictitious and perishable are forgotten. So the relative importance of our late war is not realized. The day is not far distant when the South, equally with the North, will perceive that they builded better than they knew. The sons of the South are of noble stock. We respect the honesty of their convictions, and the virility with which they defended them. We would seek the cordial and conciliatory course of kindred, and would let the "dead past bury its dead." dead past bury its dead." As an exhibition of physical prowess, the contention was magnificent! Both armies fought for their convictions with a relentlessness of valor unsurpassed. The campaigns of the war and the subsequent financial achievements, have revealed to the world a strength and integrity worthy of the ancient mould of men. The blood of the North and the South has mingled in a conflict of political principles. May it nourish no root of bitterness; but may there henceforth be a union of affection and labors to advance and perpetuate the dignity and grandeur of a common country! I protest, in the name of the dead and the peace of posterity, that the issues adjudicated in honorable warfare shall not be raised again, like unquiet ghosts, into the arena of politics, to disturb the peace and prosperity of the nation. We honor the valor and manliness of the South, and will respect her rights. We demand the same, and no more. On that platform we can stand together, and against the world. 9. OUR BANNER UNRENT: ITS STARS UNOBSCURED. From Address of General LAWRENCE S. Ross, Governor of Texas, July 4, 1887, at reunion of Hood's veterans. - WE see here to-day a free and independent mingling of men of every section of our broad domain, all prejudices of the past forgotten; and while our State has been fortunate in acquiring thousands of those who fought against us, and who are an honor both to the States which gave them birth, and ours which they have made their home, it matters not whence they come, they can exult in the reflection that our country is the same, and they find floating here the same banner that waved above them there, with its "folds unrent" and its bright stars unobscured; and in its defence, if need be, the swords of these old Confederates, so recently sheathed, would leap forth with equal alacrity with those of the North. The fame of such men as Farragut, Stanley, Hood, and Lee, and the hundreds of private soldiers who were the true heroes of the war, belongs to no time or section, but is the common property of mankind. They were all cast in the same grand mould of self-sacrificing patriotism, and I intend to teach my children to revere their names as long as the love of country is respected as a noble sentiment in the human breast. It is a remarkable fact that those who bore the brunt of the battle were the first to forget old animosities and consign to oblivion obsolete issues. And I emphasize the declaration that, in most instances, those whose hatred has remained implacable through all these years of peace, are men who held high carnival in the rear, and, after all danger had passed, emerged from their hiding-places, filled with ferocious zeal and courage, blind to every principle of wise statesmanship, to make amends for lack of deeds of valor by pressing to their lips the sweet cup of revenge, for whose intoxicating contents our country has already paid a price that would have purchased the goblet of the Egyptian queen. 10. BELLIGERENT NON-COMBATANTS. From Decoration Day Address of General W. T. SHERMAN, at New York, May 30, 1878. IT is related of General Scott that when asked, in 1861, the probable length of the then Civil War, he answered, "The conflict of arms will last five years; but will be followed by twenty years of angry strife, by the "belligerent non-combatants." Wars are usually made by civilians, bold and defiant in the forum; but when the storm comes, they go below, and leave their innocent comrades to catch the "peltings of the pitiless storm." Of the half-million of brave fellows whose graves have this day been strewn with flowers, not one in a thousand had the remotest connection with the causes of the war which led to their untimely death. I now hope and beg that all good men, North and South, will unite in real earnest to repair the mistakes and wrongs of the past; will persevere in the common effort to make this great land of ours to blossom as the garden of Eden! I invoke all to heed well the lessons of this "Decoration Day," to weave each year a fresh garland for the grave of some beloved comrade or hero, and to rebuke any and all who talk of civil war, save as the "last dread tribunal of kings and peoples." 11. IMMORTAL MEMORIES. From Address, and contributed by General GEORGE A. SHERIDAN. WAR came! It was not the result of men's ambition, North or South. It was the clash of two civilizations, so antagonistic as to make impossible harmony of action or peaceful growth, side by side. One or the other must yield. The land that had known but peace echoed to the tread of armed men. Up from the land of the orange and the myrtle came mighty hosts, harnessed for conflict, chanting songs of battle, eager for the fight, sweeping with as fiery courage and as dauntless bearing to the onset as of old the men out of whose loins they sprung charged Saracenic hosts or closed in deadly grapple with the knightly sons of France. From the land of the fir and the pine, down from its mountains and out from its valleys, glittering with steel and bright with countless banners, steady and strong, the men of the North marched to the conflict. A hush as of death filled the land as the mighty hosts confronted each other. An instant, and the heavens seemed rent asunder, and the solid globe to reel. North and South had met in shock of war! Blood deluged the land; the ear of pity deaf; the springs of love dried up; the throb of mighty guns; the gleam of myriad blades; the savage shouts of men grappling each other in relentness clutch; Death, pale, pitiless, tireless thrusting his awful sickle into harvest fields where the grain was human life; bells from every steeple in the land tolling out their solemn notes of sorrow for the slain; fathers, mothers, wives, and little ones smiting their palms together in agony, as they looked upon the features of their loved ones marbled in eternal sleep. |