The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1870-11-12
From the n. q. Times. |

After an aria from Lucic. 10y the band,
the Reverend Doctor Palmer was intro
duced, and spoke AS follows:
Ladies and GentIemen--I should have
been better pleased had been permitted
to sit simple listener to the eloquent
tribute paid to the immortal chittt"in,
who now reposes in death, by the speaker
who bas just taken his seat. The na-
ture of my calling SO far separates me
from public life that am scarcely com
petent for the Office of alluding to the Gle
mcnts which naturally gather aroand
his career. When informed that other
artists would draw the picture of the
warrior and the hero, yielded a cheer
full compliance, in the belief that moth
ing was left but to describe the Chris
tian and the man. You are entirely
familiar with the early life of him over
whose grave you this night shed tears.
His academic career at West Point, bril-
liant with such names as Gen. Joseph T..
Johnston; his seizure of the highest
honors, long enticcship IN that ln-
stitution, and abrupt ascension in the
Mexican war from obscurity to tame-ail
are too firmly stamped in the minds OF
his admirers to require even an allusion.
You are too familiar to need a repeti-
ton from my lips of that great mental
anl spiritual struggle passed not one
night, but many, When abandoning the
service in which he had gathered SO
much of honor and reputation. to lay
his heart upon the altar Of his native
State, and swear to live i'll her defence.
1t would be somewhat singular sub
jrct of speculation to discover how it IS
that national character so often remark
ably expresses itself in the single indi-
riduals who are born as representatives
of class. 1t is wonderful, for it has
been the remark of ages, how the great
men are born in clusters-sometimes,
indeed, one star shining with solitary
splendor in the firlnamept above. but
generally gathered in great consteiia-
tions, filling the sky with glory. What
is that combination of influences, partly
ply steal, partly intellectual, but some
what more moral, which should make
particular country productive OF men
great over all others on earth and to all
ages Of time!
Ancient Greece, with her indented
coast, inviting to maritime adventures
from her earliest period, was the mother
of heroes in war, poets in song. OF sculp'
tors and artists, and stands up after the
lapse of centuries, the educator of man,
kind, living in the grandeur of her works
aud in the productions Of minds which
modern civilization with ali its cultiva
ton and refinement and science has
neverssurpassed@ and scarcely eqnalled.
And why in the three hundred years
of,Anerican history it should DC givel
to the Old Dominion to be the CRANE
mother, not only of States, but of the
men by whom States and empires are
formed, it might be curious were it pos
sible for us to inquire. Unqnestionabiy
Mr.. President, there is in this problem
the element of race, for he is blind to al
the truths OF, history, to all the revela
tiaps of the past. who does not recognize
asslect raeeIas We recognize q select In
dividuaf of a race, to make all history
but pretermittiDg all speculations o
that sort, when Virginia unfolds thu
scroll of her immortal sOns-not because
illustrious men did not precede him gath
ering in constitutions aud clusters, hu
because the name shines out through
those consultations and clusters in al
It's peerless grandeur-we read the name
Ut George Washington. App'ause.I
And then, Mr.. President, after the IN
sasval >of tluee-quarters of century
when your jealous eye has ranged elowt