The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1871-06-28

HER CAUSE.
IFrom the Address to the Mobile Men. ,rial
Association.
There is in this city much talk Of
policy. There was time when Poll
cy knelt at the throne of Right; but
now it had usurped the place of Prin-
ciple, and there were many who would
make it knee1 to and do the biddings
of Policy. Yet some of us still prefer
principle to the cool calculations of
policy, and in the spirit of this prefer
ence we meet now, not for enjoyment,
under these green branches, typifyinG
the hope which animates us in our adj
herence to cherished principles, but
with a higher object, which will hallow
the amusements of the hour.
That object is to build monument,
not to illustrate the deeds of the men
who wore the gray these are beyond
any human illustration but to show
that there were men brave enough to
die for the principles they protested,
and that there are others brave enough
to build their monument. There is in
the human heart an instinct to love the
brave and true. 1t is something hard
toremember the past; to cling to buried
times; to let memory, like a weari-
some sentinel, pace up and down the
valleys of the glorious past. But he
felt that all those who had come to
grace this assemblage were true to the
cause that is now commemorated, and
would pass by the throne of Wrong, to
kneel, with prayer ON their lips and
tears in their eyes, at the grave of
Right.
In the fall of that cause principle did
not go down. The surrender of swords
was not the surrender of sentiments; it
was only the policy of resistance that
we surrendered; and when we did sur
render, we appealed to that chart where
right is right, and as we lifted our man
acled hands to that tribunal where
right never pleaded in vain, we felt in
our hearts that the day would come
when the rock of wrong would be roll
ed away from the sepuIchre of our
hopes, and that for the Good Friday of
our sorrows there would be an Easter
Sunday morning of resurrection for our
dear Lost Cause.
But while he trusted that the ladies
of the Memorial Monumental Associa-
ton were not secretly members of the
Ku-Klux, he would warn them that
they were doing more dangerous
thing than he. His words would pass
like the winds, but they intend to
build monument, and to write some
thing upon it-something which the
children yet to come will see, and will
ask, "Father, what does that mean ~
And the old soldier of Lee will remem-
Der the scenes of the past, and as his
heart swells and his eye kindles, and
his voice takes the old tone of the days
when his youth was strong and his
courage high, he will tell him, "Child,
this is monument to men who fought
for the grandest cause and under the
grandest chief the earth ever knew
And was with them and with Lee, of
matchless name. l saw him, and I
caught the look of destiny in his eye
when he led us into the thickest of the
fiery fight" And he will tell of his
courage, his wisdom, his serenity in
danger, his fortitude that stayed the
breaking hearts of thousands in the
hour of despair, his unsullied honor;
and then he will tell them of grave in
Virginia, beneath whose sod rests the
purest clay that shrined the noblest
soul.
Here (and elsewhere as he proceed
ed) the silver voiced orator glided into
his still happier role of the golden
Tipped poet, charming the audience
with passages which it were barbarous
to attempt to produce in substance di-
vested of the graceful form, and light
ing again upon the pedestal of house
hold phrase, 'Here," said he, 81 wills
per it on earth-his soul, hope, is in
a better place"
CAN of him." the speaker resumed,
"is not dead. All of him is not buried.
Not only his memory lives with us, but
his spirit lives with us. 1 know it is
disloyal to say it, but some of us ex-
pect, even though it's echoes may teach
us only in our graves, to hear the
steady tramp of other men in grey, led
by another Lee"
But he feared he might be too rash if
he spoke longer. Captious ears might
receive his remarks, and captious ton
CUES might say that he and they who
gave him their applause were not loyal
"a very sweet word, and one which
pecnnia,iiy means much. Sometimes
concession to the present is apostacy to
the past; but far be such though at
from us. No! true as the stars to their
native heavens, as the flower to the