Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-06-22

Z
of our grateful hearts, and send whole peo-
pies masses aud orisons up to Heaven~in eel
cbratiou of their cherished and immortal
memories
ADDRESS OF uoN. a. n. boTEtEE.
You are here my friends. in the ful6lment
of duty, pious, peaceful aud patriotic
duty dictated by that all pervading senti>
ment instructive in the human heart, which,
in every age Of the world and in all its climes,
has ever prompted posthumous honers to de-
parted worth.
For you have come forth, to day, from your
customary avocatious, with one accord, to pay
an appropriate tribute of your respect, your
admiration aud your love to the memory of
those of that "noble army of martyrs" who
fought so bravely and alas SO vanly fell
here in our very midst-detendiu the heri>
tage of consta utional Rights left them by
their Revolutionary Fathers and whose crumb-
ling bones are now comminging with the
rlods of our valley, there beneath those grass
grown hillocks in yonder Silent City of the
Dead"
This is the object for which you have as
sembled-"only this and nothing NOR" and
appearing before you, in compliance with my
promise to the Committee of arrangements,
to add few words merely to what has been
SO eloqucntly said by the gentlemen who have
preceded me, l shall observe the proprie-
ties of the occasion by RETAINING from ali dis
cussion of the causes, the conduct, and con-
sequences of the recent war, as well as from
any acrimonious remarks in reference to those
who, mainly instrumental in bringing that
dreadful calamity upon the country, are alto
gether responsible tor the wretcheduess and
ruin which continue to afl.ct the land we live
in and the land we love.
But whilst we would not mar the dignity
of these solemnities by disquisitious aud de-
nuuciations which however well deserved, are
more appropriate to the political hustings than
to demonstration Of affection for our heroic
dead, let it not be Inferred, from this forbear
ance that we have abated our conscientious
convictions in regard to the origin and nature
Of that sanguinary struggle, which and you
ahd all Of US, each in our own appropriate
spheres of duty, did our utmost to avert-or
that We have had reason to modify our opin-
ions of the character and conduct OF those
who have controlled the legislation and trihed
with the destinies of our country for the past
eight years, and whose whole course, from first
to last, especially since our surrender, cited
hereafter, by the impartial historians of this
revolution in vindication of the South, will
be accepted as its>justiication in the calm
| judgement of Posterity.
BE this, however, as it may, whether our
| Southern soldiers were right or wrong, one
thing is certain and will be conceded by their
worst and most unrelenting enemies, that they
thought they were right, and they were ter
ribly in earnest, and that they gave the best
| possible proof of their sincerity by r;sking
!h.4ir lives and sacrificing their property in
support Of the side they had espoused.
Yes, they thaught they were right-Right
| in their reading of the Declaration of Indie
pendence-right in the belief that the great
! principle of self-government set forth IN that
| instrument, and SO successfully maintained by
the United American Colonies when they
scccded from Great Britain, vas the chief cor
ner stone, nay-the very foundation itself OF
! all Republican Freedoin-Right in their be-
| lief that the Government which their Fathers
formed was a Government of consent, linz
tied Government, with its powers specifically
! defined in unmistakable terms; that the Union
they made was meant to be shield OF pro-
lection over their heads and not sword OF
suhiugation at their hearts. and that the Con.
stitulion they adopted was equally binding on
! both tectons on all the States, North rs well
as South, binding in all its, compromises and
| in all its requirements. They thought they
were right in believing, with Daniel Webster,
that ga bargain broken on one side is broken
on all Sides" that they who dissolve, absolve,
that ION the part of the North violations oi
the Constitution the bargain or bond between
the sections, ''stood confessed of record and
OF purpose to push to the bitter end its
rabid, reckless, and fatal fanatcism. -r
They thought they were right in believing
that the safety of their property and the sane
tity of their homes were daily endangered by
the avowed and persistent hostility of tha:
fanaticism and that that danger was made
more imminent and infinitely greater when
that fanaticism became the controlling ele>
menL of the politics of the North as 1t had
previously been in its press and pulplts, finally
eliminating in the election Of sectional
President on sectional platform pledged to
carry out the sectional purposes of the first
sectioaal party that had ever been successful
in the country.
Educated to believe that the allegiance that
they owed to the Federal Government was
secondary to that due from them to their re-
spective States, when all efforts at compromise,
on their part had failed, when their petitions
for Justice and Peace had been spurned with
contempt from the foot stool Of Power, and at
last the terrible crisis came upon them, they
certainly thought they were right in obeying
the mandate OF their State authorities which
summoned them to the field to defend their
fresides and aItars against the threatened in
vasion from the North. They thought they
were right in regarding that invasion as un-
/ lawful-unlawtul, not only because they Tin
accordance with the almost unanimous senti-
meDt OF the country before the war; believed
coercion of the States by the Federal Govern
ment unauthorized by the Constitution, AID
inconsistent with our Republican Institutions,
but also because the 36th Congress which
Immediately preceded the war had pointedly
refused to pass the i'Force Bill" authorizing
+ the incoming President to call out the militia
j to coerce the Southern States, though that