Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1871-06-23
MIR. Davis, Speech at Atlanta.

response TO the call OF the crOWu WHICH az
| sembled in front of the the Kimball House,
where he was stopping, he spoke as follows:
My Friends-as look out upon the sur
rounding crowd before me tonight, swayed
by tho deep-felt and rong-hearted impul-
ses Of enthusiasm and welcome, my feelings
are those of peculiar pleasure, gratitude and
pride for realize the fact that this tribute
is not offered to any worth Or merit of my
own, but is an expression of sentiment up
on the part of the people of this State
Georgia has noble and worthy record.
You have been true to your history and to
yourselves since the old colonial time. The
people of Georgia were true to their history
and to themselves in the old colonial strug-
gle of 1776. They were true to their his
tory and to themselves when they adhered
to the principles of liberty and independence
in the war Of 1912, and you, the descen-
dants of your worthy and illustrious ances-
tors, during the last great conflict in which
you were engaged, were true to your histo-
ry, true to yourselves, and true to the great
Principles OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY
in the defence of which our forefathers
fought and died and so long as your rivers
roll from the mountains to the sea, so long
as waters rise from the sea and flow back
| wards towards the mountains, will these
| lines that we have just heard 60 sounding
down to future ages, and children will rise
up and initiate the virtues of their fore
fathers. Applause. It was for these
great principles that our forefathers fought
in the olden days. 1t was these principles
for which Oglethorpe contended, and since
his illustrious day, until this hour, the re.
cord of your proud Commonwealth is With
out stain. Applause. There are many
things which [ might say to you tonight,
my friends, but which | feel it would be i'm
prudent for me to utter If I should speak
to you of the past, I should speak of memo
ries that are sad If should speak to you
of the present, it would be to recount tale
of tyranny and wrong that we have not the
power to redress, and under which, there
| fore it is more manly and noble for us to
| fold our arms and suffer with quiet and pa
| tient dignity. If I speak Of the future,
then [ am liable to be misrepresented, and
you held responsible for every speculation
that l may chance to utter.
But my friends, as I stand here tonight
and look upon your kindly, honest faces, I
feel that there are few plain words that
may be received by you as the expression of
my opinion in regard to the future, Then,
1 say, despair not of your liberty. I de-
spair not Of the triumph of liberty | be-
lieve that truth will live eternally, and that
wrong cannot always endure. When Cali
leo was bound to the torture rack for assert
ing bis theory that the world was globe
and turned upon its axis, and was there
forced to recant, as soon as the screws were
relaxed, be cried out Of the deep and irresis-
tible convictions of his soul, "But still it
moves" And SO the great truths uttered
by your fathers still live, and the princi-
pies they enunciated and for which they
contended still move, and will once more
be felt, if you will but be true to the right
Let no one say that I counsel recovery
and an enjoyment Of these principles by the
red hand OF battle. I trust that may not
be misrepresented upon this point. shall
die in the firm faith and belief that
THE ERA OF TRUE LIBERTY
will ere long dawn upon the South If they
who carried the victorious banner, and ex
ulted in the strength of their triumph, could
have known, when you came forward and
said that you had given up your arms and
were now ready to submit to the laws of the
land, and could have understood how true
your word was, how bright were your prin-
ciples of honor, it would not have been ne
jcessary to exact harsh pledges, and to pass
oppressive laws to bind you. Applause.
Force should never have been exerted when
the unimpeachable word of Georgian was
pledged, for the world cannot furnish bayo-
nets enough to make Georgian prove more
faithful to his obligations than his oath could
do. Applause. Peaceful, then, you are
DESTROYS Of being to-day; peaceful you have
been ;ypeaceful you are ever. When hui
man patience has sometimes given away,
there are those who sometimes take the law
into their own hands, because there is no
justice to be secured in any other way, but
these are mere accidental occasions There
is no organization in the South-there never
was-whose purpose is resistance to the
Government. A -"That's So" T.
Though we are compelled to submit to the
presence of power, yet our manhood and
our self-rcspect can be preserved, Peace is
what we hope for,
PEACE WE DESIRE,
and peace we will have. | have nothing to
say to you tonight of politics, and, my
friends, hope you have nothing to do with
them. You have political power, and its
exercises is only postponed until the COM
ing of that event which I certainly antici-
pate-the restoration of yous constitutional
rights. [Applausc.] Let us then stand
still and quietly await developments. The
men of the North, like yourselves, love their
government, and understand their rights,
and men Of the North have no idea of sur
rendering in their own country those great
bulwarks of constitutional liberty-the right
of trial by jury, the right to elect their own
officers, and the right to determine their
own internal policy and as soon as their
prejudices and hatred against the South are
removed, and they see that by the unlawful
action Of thoae in power toward the South,
these sacred rights Of theirs are in danger Of
being invaded,
THEY WILL BECOME YOUR AD5UNcYs,
and you will hold the balance of power;
and in that hour your power will be great
and your success will be great. Applause.
I have said, and here repeat it, that despnir
not of the restoration Of CUR liberties. They
are not ours; they are equally the liberties
of the people of the North and South,
and when they at the North see that