Des Arc weekly citizen., 1867-05-04

If yoo wish to be respected
 You must cease to be a pry.
 -------<<N<
 Ha~The following extract is from the oration of Dr. s. II. Ford, upon the as- sembling of the ladies, at Elmwood Cemctry, Memphis, Tenn., to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers, on the 26th of April:
 1 When the Beauty of Israel (SauD was slain on the high places, David took up the lamcntation, the "Beauty of Israel. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offering, for there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away. From the blood of the slain, l from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, the sword of Saul turned not empty away. Ye daughters of Israel weep for Saul. How arc Ahe mighty fallen and the weapons of war pcrished.' If the fall of a rival and an enemy could bring from the great heart of the warrior king these strains of mournful melody, if the hero of Judah with such inimta- ble pathos consccrated the memory of one wlro had chased him as partridge on the mountains, shall we not then observe a custom in harmony with the noblest and purest sentiment and sym pathies of all climes and all ages of the world, in pcipetuating the memory of brothers, fathers and friends, who fell while standing as wall of blazing fire in our front. should we not cherish their deaths? Beats there heart so dead to all that is beautiful and noble in human nature, as not to be affected by such sweet tokens of reverence and love? Does the being live who can envy us the sad luxury of sorrow and the melancholy joy which the poor heart feels in holding converse with the loved and honored dead? Imagine an humble grave in the valley of Virginia, with simple stone telling the name of the hero of an hundred battlefields of the Shenandoah and Rappahannock. There stands leaning against that head stone, venerable man, silent, sad and fearful. It is Robert E. Lee at the grave Iof Stoaewall Jackson. Look at that scene. Is there man of our cline who would break in upon that silence? who would interrupt those meditations? Could there be sub- Timer or more impressive picture pre- sented tous ofany great event of mod ern times? Will humanity ever be SO lost to all that is great and good and noble, as to cease to revere the memo ry of either of those distinguished hc- roes and patriots? Williams and Preston, the compatriots of Jackson, sleep here beneath these mounds, and those who followed the tattered ban ner, till Lee and Johnson furled it for ever, come to shed tear over their fate and their fall. But with this sor- row there mingles no bitterness, and OCT it broods no spirit of vengeance. Our dead heroes come not back like the ghost of Hamlet melting revenge. No Ulysses demands the beautiful Po- lyxenia, that the son of Achilles might offer her "a bleeding sacrifice to appease his fathers names. We leave this spirit to the cruel superstition of a past age, or the more cruel fanaticism of the present, most vengeful thirst for blood no slaughter can satisfy, and whose heartless hatred no humiliation, no ruin can appcase. With us the conflict has passed, its issues have been decided, and however much we may feel the humiliation of our condition, yet we accept the arbitrament and seek no ap- peal and though we mourn the loss of our brethren and look around with sadness on the darkness of the hour, we can truly say it is the subdued ten derness and regret for the lost cause we thought was right and the friends who stood by 1t, subdued if not repent ant; recopciled, if not changed. It is to us the shadowy evening of bright day, of which the poet has said
 Even as the tenderness that hour distills, When summers day declines alung the hills,
 So feels the fitness of our Leart and eyes.
 When all of genius, that can perish, dies i"
 Such is the character of our sorrow and such is the true key by which to interpret our regard for the memories of our fallen braves. We know they fought heroically in the full conscious ness of right. To show this, is to vim
 dicate their memory, and to justify oul
 grateful remembrance.
 Courage has ever been esteemed b, all tribes in all ages. The heart in
 stinctively warns to admiration as |
 contemplates deeds of chivalry or he
 roic endurance. Theseus, the anecstria
 king of Athens, received for centurie