The Van Buren press., 1866-03-17

BE called our country, but our grave"
Finance has failed. Confederate funds
are dross, and Federal currency is sought
after and caught at eagerly, but as eager
! ly passed on from hand to hand for him
to pay the forfeit in whose hands it goes
out; and gold is kept SO close that the
needy strong can hardly help themselves
There is no harvest but for those who
have most OF bread, and what harvest
there is has no laborers-nos husband
men. The arms of the laborers were
turned into she arms Of the invaders and
laborers, and invaders are now both con
sumers Oh the substance of a people who
have been stripped bare, and now have
but little to spare. These orphans, then
must surely sorely suffer in these times,
unless the charity Of each and every
one Of us shall enlarge herself and be
mighty in more than ordinary exertion of
active love and liberalty and self-denial
But my friends, these times of stagnation
and apparent starvation; these. times Of
stunning, after sudden shock; these times
of strange changes, as startling as burst
| ing bomb shells; these times of shifting
changes, as trying to the strongest nerves
as battles batteries these are the times
to prove our truth, our pity, our patriot
ism, our enduradcc, our constancy, and
| these are the times, more than ever, to be
true to ourselves and to each other! TO
comrades who are dead as to those who
are living. s-.eI> .. Hia"g, .1
There are among these infants, not on.
ly orphans of the poor; female orphans,
and orphans whose lot has been cast in
dreary and desolate times, but some Of
these are the female orphans Of deceased
and disabled Confederate soldiers, pri-
Yates in the ranks which you embattled
| for your independence You failed ouly
by the fall ofsuch men, They fell for you
and youfell. Are any afraid or asham-
ed to embrace them in ge fall! Listen,
while ] repeat truths which You must not
try and must not dare TO forget; truths
which, if you do not gratefully recog.
nize and openly avow and maintain at all
hazards, without the fear of showing sym
pathy, if not without some reproach;
shame! shame! shame shall so shout at
shrimped and shriveled sordid, selfish
souls, us to shake them like mser's mon
ey bags, until with appalling jars their coin
idols shall be jostled out and scattered
to street beggars and vagrants of the
Arts Of lndustrieH War itself appall-
ed not the hearts of the Confederate he
roes who fell, and war is now over; the
cloud has burst; the lightning hath done
its scathing; the thunder hath ceased to
mutter; in honor, then, let the craven
cringing cease!
The noblest band Of men who ever
fought, or who ever fell in the annals Of
war, whose glorious deeds history ever
took pen to record, were, eXultingly
claim, the private soldiers in the armies
of the great Confederate cause. Wheth-
er right or wrong in the cause which they
espoused, they were earnest and honest
patriots in their convictions, who thought
that they were right to defend their own
their native land; its soil, its affairs and
its honor. They felt that they were no
rebels and no traitors in obeying their
State sovereignties, and they thought it
was lawful to take up arms under their
mandates, authorized expressly by the
Federal Constitution to repel invasions,
or to suppress insurrection, when there
was such =" imminent danger as not to
admit of delay" The reason for the de
lay which could have been demanded Of
them, was to have appealed to the inva-
ders themselves for defence against their
own invasions; and whether there was
imminent danger ornOt, events have pro-
we'd. They have been invaded until eve
~ blade Of grass has been trodden down,
until every sanctuary of temple, and
fame, and altar and home has been pro-
iancd The most Of these men had no
stately mansions for their homes; no
slaves TO plow and plant any broad fields
of theirs; no stocks or investments in
interest bearing funds. They were poor,
but proudly patriotic and indomitaby
brave. Their country was their only
heritage. I.. d. r.#..a. a..t Il
The mothers and wives and daughters
buckled on the belts, and sent the hus-
bands and sons and brothers forth, and
women toiled for the bread, and spun the
ralment of little ones of " shanty"
homes in country, or shops in town while
their champions of defence were in their
countrys camps or marshes, or trench