The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1870-11-02

BILE to place the fiug.r upon individual
men who are the excmplars of ma
tons character, thuse typical forms
under which other less noble, less ex-
banded, lrave manifested themselves.
why, sir, that gentle, that perfect
moderation, that self-c0mmand which
enabled him to he so self possessed
amidst the most trying difficulties of
his public career, refinement almost
such as that which marks the charac-
ter of the purest woman. were blended
in him with that massive strength, that
mighty endurance, that consistency
and power which gave him and the
people whom he led such momentum
under the disadvantages of the strug-
gle through which he passed.
Born above the general level of
American society, blood of a noble an
cestry flowed in his veins, and he was
IA type of the race from which he
sprang. Such was the grandeur and
nrbaneness of his manner, the dignity
and majesty of his carriage, that his only
peer i'll social life could be found in
courts and among those educated
amidst the retincments of courts and
| thrones. In that regard there was
something beautiful and appropriate
that he should become in the later part
of his life the educator OF the young
| Sir, it is a cause for mourning before
Heaven tonight, that he was not spar
ed thirty years to educate a generation
for The time that is to come; for as in
the days when the red banner streamed
over the land, the South seat their
sons to fight under his banner and be-
meath the wave of his sword, these
sons have been sent again to sit at his
feet when he was the discipline of the
MUSES. and the teacher of philosophy.
[Applause.l Oh, that he might have
brought his more than regal character,
his majestic fame, all his intellectual
ard moral end0w ments, to the task of
fitting those that should come in the
crisis of the future, 10 take the mantle
that had fallen from his shoulders and
bear it to the generations that were
unborn.
General Lee I accept as the repre-
sentative of his people, and of the tenn
per with which this whole Southland
entered into that gigantic, that pro-
lOnged, and that disastrous struggle
which has closed, but closed as to us,
in grief. Sir, they wrong us who say
that the South was ever impatient to
rupture the bonds Of the American
Union. The war of l776, which, sir,
has no more yet written history than
has the war of 1861 to 1865, [Applause]
tells us that it was this Southland that
wrought the revolution of 1876. [Ap-
planse.] We were the HERS of all the
~ ,S n or
was purchased with our blood, with
the blood Of our fathers, which yet
flows in these veins, and which we de-
sire to transmit, pure and cansecrated,
to the sons that are born TO orr IONS.
[Applause.] The traditions past OF the
sixty years were portion OF Orr herl-
tage, and it never was easy for any
great heart and reflective mind Sye:!
to seem to part with that heritage to
enter upon the perilous effort OF es-
tablishiDg new nationality.
Mr.. President, it was my privilege
once to be thrilled in short speech,
uttered by one of the nOblest names
clustering upon the roll of South Caro-
lima; for sir, South Carolina was Wiz
sinia's sister, and Sonth Carolina stood
by Virginia in the cid struggle as Vir-
ginia stood by South Carolina in the
: new [appiause] and the little State
small as Greece, barren in resource
but great only in the grandeur of the
men, in their gigantic proportions
whom she, like Virginia, was permit.
ted to produce-I heard, sir, one o.
South Cardinals noblest sons speak
once thus: 81 walked through the
| | r hot 10
ry where are gathered the memorials
of England's martial prowess, and
when the guide, in the pride of his
English heart pointed to the spoils q
war, collected through centuries of tht
pas, said. this speaker, lifting himsel
upon tip-toe that he might reach tt
1 his greatest height, said. "you canno
i. point to one single trophy from my
,, people, or my country, though Eng
land engaged in two disastrous wars
with her" Applause. Sir, this wa
the sentiment. We loved every incl
of American soil, aud loved every par
: of that canvas (pointing to the STAR
I and Stripes above him) which, as ;
symbol of power and authority, f1oatet
{ from the spires and from the masthea,
r of our vessels; and it was after tn
: anguish of woman in birth that thi
7 land that now lies in her sorrow ant
I ruin took upon herself that great peril
. but it is all emblamatized in the regre
: experienced by him whose praises ar
t upon our lips, and who, like the En-
s glish Nelson, recognized duty engrave,
: in letters Of light as the only ensign III
D could follow, and who, tearing ava.
!, from all the associations OF his earl,
lite, and abandoning the reputation
: gained in the old service, made up hi
r mind to embark in the new, and will
| that modesty and that firmness, be
4 longing only to the truly great, ex
pressed his willingness to live and di
J, in the position assigned to him.
/, And, sir, accept this noble chieftai1
g equally as the representative of thi
: Southland in the spirit of his retire
e ment from the struggle. 1t could no
: escape any speaker upon this platform
}, to allude to the dignity of that retire
4 ment-how from the moment he sur
: rendered, he withdrew from observa
G tiOn, holding alOof from all poiitica
4 complications and devoting his entir
}, energies to the great work he had IN
t dertaken to discharge. In this he rep
j resents the true attitude of the Sout
J since the close of the war--an attitud
o of quiet submission to the conquerin
e mower, and of obedience to all exac
= tions but without recoiling from thos