At last, the bells of liberty throughout the land rang out a joyous peal of welcome, and guns from fortress, field, and citadel proclaimed that America remained one and indivisible. Over all the land a single flag threw out its folds, index of a re-united people. Those who fought against us are now of us, and with us reverently acknowledge that above all the desires of men move the majestic laws of God, evolving alike from victory or defeat of nations, substantial good for all his children. 12. BENEFITS OF THE CIVIL WAR. From Address of Hon. CHARLES M. BUSBEE, at Raleigh, N. C., Memorial Day, 1883. THE war was not without its benefits to us, and even now we can discern them. It was inevitable! Sooner or later it had to come! It could no more have been avoided than you could have stayed the movements of the tides. It ought not to have been unavoidable, to be sure, just as man ought not to become diseased, but it was. So long as society remains irrational, so long as human governments are imperfect, will the sword be the final arbiter. It is a survival of the savage nature that the refining hand of time has never obliterated, a remnant of the ages long ago. But the war, with all its dark catalogue of horrors, brought in its train many compensatory blessings. It developed the manly virtues of our people, their inherent fortitude and self-sacrifice. It is something to have illustrated the valor of a people, to have carried a nation's flag without dishonor through a hundred battles, to have set an example to coming ages of what unselfish heroism can accomplish, to have immortalized a State, to have accepted defeat with fortitude; and this we did. Again, the war built upon more certain and enduring foundations the government of the United States, and it stands upon a broader and stronger basis than before. Were we honest in our convictions? Yes. Were we sincere in our allegiance to the Confederate States? Yes. Does this affect our loyalty to the government of the United States? Not at all. Loyalty, free and honest loyalty to the government as it is, is not repugnant to a past loyalty to that adolescent nation whose star shone with abnormal brilliancy for a few short years, and then vanished into the blackness of eternal night. The men who followed the "Stars and Bars" from Bethel to Appomattox with ceaseless devotion; defended them amid the whirlpool of blood that surged and eddied around Malvern Hill; carried them up the crimson slopes of Gettysburg; followed them into the jaws of death at Spottsylvania; shielded them like a tiger at bay over its young behind the earthworks of Petersburg, furled them at Appomattox forever and forever. The duties, the obligations, the allegiance of a citizen are not inconsistent with the sympathies and memories of a soldier; and if those dead heroes whose virtues and valor we to-day commemorate, could defile before us, in the glory of yon setting sun, in serried ghostly phalanx, they would declare the gospel of loyalty and peace and reconciliation. And the day is not far distant, if it be not already come, when the courage and heroic deeds of both sides will be recognized as the common property of us all, the common heritage and common glory of a prosperous and patriotic people. 13. OUR HEROES. THE heart swells with unwonted emotion when we remember our sons and brothers, whose constant valor has sustained on the field the cause of our country, of civilization, and liberty. On the ocean, on the rivers, on the land, on the heights where they thundered down from the clouds of Lookout Mountain the defiance of the skies, they have graven with their swords a record imperishable. The Muse herself demands the lapse of silent years to soften, by the influence of time, her too keen and poignant realization of the scenes of War, the pathos, the heroism, the fierce joy, the grief of battle. But during the ages to come she will brood over their memory. Into the hearts of her consecrated priests she will breathe the inspirations of lofty and undying beauty, sublimity, and truth, in all the glowing forms of speech, of literature, and plastic art. By the homely traditions of the fireside, by the headstones in the church-yard consecrated to those whose forms repose far off in rude graves, or sleep beneath the sea, embalmed in the memories of succeeding generations of parents and children, the heroic dead will live on in immortal youth. By their names, their character, their service, their fate, their glory, they cannot fail: "They never fail who die In a great cause; the block may soak their gore; But still their spirit walks abroad. "Though years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts The bell which rang out the Declaration of Independence has found at last a voice articulate, to "proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." It has been heard across oceans, and has modified the sentiments of cabinets and kings. The people of the Old World have heard it, and their hearts stop to catch the last whisper of its echoes. The poor slave has heard it; and with bounding joy, tempered by the mystery of religion, he worships and adores. The waiting continent has heard it, and already foresees the fulfilled prophecy, when she will sit "redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible Genius of Universal Emancipation." JOHN ALBION ANDREW. 14. THE EVE OF DECORATION DAY. On the afternoon before Decoration Day, about thirty young girls were seated on the carpet of the parlor of one of the patriotic daughters of the Revolution, working flowers into bouquets, and spontaneously singing snatches of the National Hymn, "My Country, 't is of Thee;" and this is the recognition of the spirit of their work. - S. F. SMITH. SWEET in the innocence of youth, Born of the brave and free, They wove fair garlands, while they sang, How every bosom swelled with joy, And thrilled with grateful pride, As fond the whispering cadence breathed, Fair flowers in sweet bouquets they tied,- Each face grew radiant with the thought, Each voice seemed reverent as it trilled, And bud and bloom and leaf they bound, I hailed the promise of the scene: Not man, not arms alone: we look, 15. ODE FOR DECORATION DAY. FLOWERS for the mourned ones, fresh in their bloom, Sing the glad anthems, loved they so well; Visit each grave with a floral oblation: Leave, where they slumber, love's sweet decoration! Tears for the brave ones, fallen in strife, |