The Sumter watchman. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1855-1881, 1870-05-25

tie "Lost Cause" at Wilmington, N.
e., Nag 10Th, 1870.
Ladies of the Memorial Association
and felio,o citizens.
A bene6cent Providence has merciful.
ly dccreed that Time shall be the
great healer aud consoler of almost every
form Of human woe. Five years ago our
laud was still reeling with the calami,
ties Of war. The blood was hardly dry
upon the battle fields; the dead were
not yet all buried the smouldering
ruins wero still smoking, and the echoes
of the closing cannonades had hardly
ceased to resound in our ears. All was
desolation in the present-doubt and
fear for the future. So sudden and 80
complete had been our fall, that we lay
stunned beneath the crushing blow with
no strength but to suffer; no Ncrgy but
to despair!
But time rolled on and brought heal
ing upon his wings The ruined hqmc-
steads have been rebuilt. The plow~
share has turned up the soil enriched
by the slaughter of war. The luxuriant
grass has covered up the graves Of the
fallen. Some years more, and few
slight ridges in tho plain, few mutt
lated trunks in the forest, will alone
mark the spot where rose the bristling
Notifications and the red mouthed artil.
lcry shot out its thunders.
And not in the material world alone
has the gentle hand Of Time closed the
gaping wounds of war. 1t has also pour
ed its balm in our sorrowing hearts. 1t has
soothe ed the agony ofrecent bereavement
and defeat; it has showed us that we have
still country to live for; country
which, if We cannot-as we once fondy
hopcd-raise to power and proud indie.
pcndcnce, we can still love and render
prosperous by the arts of peace, as we
made her i]lustrious, even in defeat, by
The fortitudc Of our struggle, and now,
though many bitter things arc still to
be endured. and the regrets for what
myM have been eau never cease to exist,
yet the light of hope shines brighter and
brighter before our eyes, and speaks to
us of better days in the future.
But with time andueturning prosper.
ity, come also tho waters OF oblivion,
whose rising tide threatens to ingulr all
the vcstigcs Of the past Here and there
stricken heart, wounded to its inmost
core, and alone knowing its own bitter.
ness, will cherish its sacred grief until
Time itself shall be no more. But with
out proper effort on our part, there is
danger that the corroGing cares of the
present and tho absorbing excrtions for
existence may make us or our descend
ants forget the rightfulness ofour cause
and the heroic martyrs who fell in its
defence.
And beside all this, upon their
fate and history lies there not Tho blight
of failure and defeat
Those who fall in the arms of victory
and success need no monuments to pre-
serve their memories. The continued
existence and prosperity Of their coun.
try are sufficient epitaphs, and their
names can never be forgotten. But
how shall those be remembered who
failed 1t is their enemies who write
their history painting it with their
own colors- -distorting it with their
calumnies, their prcdjudiccs, and their
passions and it is this one sided ver-
sion of the conquerors that the world at
large accept as the truth, for in history
as in Tie present, I0 Ficti$ Woo
to tho conquered
1t is true that when we the actors
in the late contest, shall be sleeping in
our graves, little will it matter to us
what the world may think of us or our
motives. But mcthinks that We could
hardly rest in peace, even in the tomb, +,
should our descendants misjudge or
condemn us. And yet is there no pos
sibilty Of this {? They will be told that
their fathers were oligarchs, aristocrats,
slave drivers, rebels, traitors, who, to
pcrpctuate the mcnstrous sin of human
slavery, tried 10 throttle out tho life Of
the nation, and 10 rcnd asunder the gov.
crnment founded by Washington; that
they raised parricidal hands against the
sacred ark Of the Constitution that
they were the unprovoked acgressors,
and struck the first sacrilegious blow
against the Union and the flag Of their
country.
What II this be but false cant and
calumny Constant repetition will give
it something Of the authority Of truth
We cannot doubt it. Our descendants
will SEQ these ISLANDERS repeated in
Northern and probably in European
pubications-pcrhaps even in tho very
text books Of their schools (for unlor
tunatcly we Southcrncrs write too ittle)
and they may be compelled, like our.
selves, to look abroad for their intellect.
ual nutrimcut. 1t is true that our own
immediate sons and daughters will not
believe these falsfications of history,
but pcrchancc their children or grand
children may believe them. And those
who are still cur enemies after five years
of peace, rely confidently upon this
result. A so called minister ofthc Prince
of Peace, but whose early and persistent
advocacy of war and bloodshed proves
that he obtained his commission from