Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1866-10-30


1t you give up your faith as false and worth
less form ;.h yousgive up in despair; if you
relax and works not for yourself and State.
you compromise with. expediency bargain
present promises for future woe; if YOU be
knaves or towards to prosper; if you desert
your mother State, then the change may be
tatal-then the transformation may. be found
IN Virginia! Then, g like a majestic temple
sunk to ruin y she may become
9 sThe l"athsotne shelter and abode of lurking
sSe nP ana. toad. and beasts Of prey;
Where wisdom taught and music charmed before.
Do you repeat the question: g What better
can we do p My answer is: {" What worse
than dishonor or desertion?" In the trenches,
on the lines, the question was forced upon our
poor priyates-"What better can we do than
leave!" But the true men. though starved,
andnaked and pinched by cold so that the fore,
fingers were too stiff to pull triggers, stood to
their posts and suffered to the last! Will YOU
desertf You say you are poor. So was
Thomas j. jackson! Poor and friendless, he
found work for his hands to do, and he did it
with all his might; by his daily labor earn d
Lot only food for his body but for his mind
and soul What could he do? He could
plough and learn to train his moral faculties,
You say you want capital. So did he, so has
myknOwledge, throughout Virginia, who has
become distinguished for mind, manners and
morals. aud exampled to those who were born
to wealth. Stonewall Jackson was poor aud
triendless and 0o'hed! By manual occupa-
ton he worked above his condition in life
and made himself master of circumstances
What mattered it to him that when he went
to West Point he met youths with purses and
pride who took no note of him He took
no note OF them, ard knew of no contumely
He looked at his lessons for life and looked
at them steadily. He was lonely, unfashiona-
BILE, dutiful, studious, steadily at work =
What was he to do? He went into the ar
my, and was sent into the arena of the Mex
lcan war, and was respectable subordinate
patient, unpretendiug, Obedient. He had,
perhaps, overworked himself and returned to
retire from the army to teach at the Military
Institute of his own State. There 1 knew
him, still lonely aud silent, without much
capital, and the butt of boys! So Dominic
IKE, SO curt, SO eccentric, 50 awkward, so sad
in loneliness, so monotonousiy same in duty
an stiff discipline, that the triAing ones tho't
him distraught. They imagined that he i'm
agIned that he was feeding on himself They
SO rumored the fact, that the current conceit
about him at RichmOnd;as late as 1862, when
camp clique caused his recall from Romney,
that he was made to tender his. resignation
The esprit de corps of West Point rated him
as simply the subject of ridicule. But the
sad, silent, steady, stern man as boy, without
capital except selfreiance, without credit ex>
cepe that of an earnest, honest man, worked
on, and proved that he was worth more than
all the capital and material wealth of all the
vulture spectators in cotton and tobacco in
the Contederacy, aud all the gold lace of the
army
But, you say he failed He did not fail
You say his faith was but an abstraction, was
not concrete and practical, and did not pay
No maxim of Machiavel is fuller of destruc-
tive error than this idea of the day that alb
stract truth and moral principles are not prac-
teal and concrete, and do not pay His faith
was aud is worth more than all his victories
Without capital they made him just what he
.StonerGH-and vouchsated his exam
pie, rebuking, saving, sanctfying and shield
ing and cheering to us! But you want cap
ital Capital What if the most of YOU
had it? Have you been trained to know how
to wIeld it! The desire for capital is like
the want saw so frequent during the war
1t Is the want of soft place. Stonewall
Jackson's only capital was his Conscience
his moral principles-his frmness and his
Faith They practically made him con-
crete example of both practical and applied
sword and shield ola whole people; they have
embalmed his remains, blessed his cause and
country and immortalized his fame.
The Orator discouraged desertion of Vir>
ginia in this time of her great need and asked
her youths whittier would they Wander
Where on Earth could they find a people so
free, without capital and "a stranger in a
strange land" their condition would be far
worse than at home.
We must reuounce luxurious idleness and
not be ashamed to work at home and among
our friends. Stonewall jackson was not
ashamed to work, and by the earnest labor of
his own head aud hands cared immortality
and hallowed his native land with reflected
glory. Out of the naked nothing of poverty
and natures materials he wrought out by pa
tlent toll, little by little, the levers of his life
and then Archimedes like he founded them
on fulcrum which moved a world His am
bitiOn vaulted nOt-His senses had no vanity
lis power was the moral power of will
and purpose and looking onward and inward
for Gods guidance. He worked here in
Virginia and for Virginia and his work now
speaks for her and to her, words more pre-
cious than pearls. That is payI That paws!
And oh !! what land SO lovely and beloved
to work in and for as this holy Mother of MS
al feel as fresh as ever and would make
you feel: -
with what delight we breathe our native air
Add tread the genial soil that bore first!
IT'S said the world is every wise mans country,
Yet after having received its various otions,
Lam weak enough still to prefer my own
To all I've seen beslde."
speak not OF any mongrel Virginia-of
no Illegltimate offspring of pol teal rapine.
speak of that honored "Old Dominion EN-.
bracing full 900 square miles, from the
Ocean to the Ohio-frOm the lines of Penn
sylvanIa and Maryland to the lines of North
Carolina and Tennessee speak Of the land
which gave birth to the first of men. and gave
to mankind race of heroes, aud sages, ora
tors and statesmen scarcelv less than The frSt