Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-05-16

Slfted OF those who have preceded ms
in this duty, has gone to join those
comrades in the better land. While
they lived he sustained and fought
with them, when they died he vindi-
Gated them, in eternity he rests with
them. Sweet be that rest. My friends,
the stars are now shining above us,
although we will not realize the fact
until night, and SO it may be that the
dead look with conscious ewes upon
the deeds Of the living, although we
will not know it this side the tomb.
With the shadow of this thought
resting upon me, and dwarfing, as It
does, every other thought to which
would fain give expression, I under
take, with loyal heart, but faltering
lips, this grateful task. Grateful It
will be, however feebly discharged
for it will be the tribute of a sincere
soul to the memory of friends and
cOuntrymen who died for love and
duty. Love and Duty What words
they are, even when applied to life's
commonest transactions But when
life itself is sacrificed for love toward
the friends and duty toward the land
which the Lord our God hath given
us, how almost holy they become :
Nearly two thousand years ago He
who spake as man never spaho before
or since, said: ''Greater love hath no man
than this : that a man lay down Lis life
for his friends" That is what these
men did. They laid down their lives
for you and me and for the land OF
their birth and i'll doing so they Illus
trated the grandest attribute of human
nature-the God-like triumph OF love
over death. DUTY" said the great
and good man, whose life has giIlcd
this AlAth Century, sis the suhlimcst
word IN our language" These men
did their duty. Many. perhaps most
OF them, Il speak of the Confederate
Dead wherever buried, } had little or
no material stake on the issue of the
fearful struggle. The world would
have been as inviting to them, SO far
as physical comfort and prosperity
could make it SO, if they had remained
in their humble homes. They toiled
and fought and suffered through weary
years, not for conquest, not for glory,
nor for gold but because their States
called them, and they believed ii. their
souls that it was their
bounden duty to obey that cali,
even against the world in arms
and they died like heroes for their
faith and loyalty. The civilized world
would justly regard us as worse than
heathen if we failed to do perpetual
honor to their memory. Lost. indeed,
will be the last vestige of cur manhood.
the last spark of our
honor, dead the last impulse OF our
love and gratitude, when we are I'M
mo fn hrJ,, Al
and affection to the graves of the Con-
Eederate Dead. Ii we cannot read
without emotion the record of heroic
struggles in other and far distant
lands, If we treasure the names of the
actors in them, if we visit the scenes
Of their exploits and make pilgrimages
to their tombs, shall We permit our
OVID heroes, whose deeds were unsur-
passed by any recorded in story or in
s )ng, to pass away from our memories
and the earth which holds their
ashes to become a potter's field?
Never will such shame rest upon us
while their true-hearted country
women abide in the land. Behold the
noble response which the mothers and
of Wilmington have gwen to
the question! Can any one look, I'M
moved, upon that statue? Does not
every Confederate soldier who stands
before it feel his pulses quicken, and
his bosom heave as the tide of memo
cies swells within him, and overfows
lis eyes? Yes, here, indeed, the genius
IF art has made fitting response to the
'all of love and patriotism, and las
put i'll enduring form that which,
otherwise, would only have lived in
our memories, and in the pages Of i'm
partial history, if such history shall
ever be written.
See 1t is the bronze image OF
'ne who wore the grey. He stands ct
est, and the calm dignity of his mien
s eloquent of conscious rectitude.
Ehe whole figure is instinct with man
mess and modesty. The right hand,
which grasps, and the left which so
ightly rests upon his rife, speak the |
of the true soldier. In |
lis face is written every characteristic |
If patriot hero. Honor and high !
ouled courage sit triumphant there, /!
md indomitable will slumbers- beneath !
he softer lines which mark the gener- |
,us soul. There is more there still, |
Or, mingled with and gently diffused |
,ver them all. there broods n shade of |
adne IS, which seems to presage in the |
oldiers' thought the failure of his !
ause, and the ruin of his country. |
lis gaze is toward the setting sun, |
whose mellow light, when it descends |
he western slope, gilds his features. |
IS the sun of hope once lit the face OF |
lis living prototype, but, like it. /
'nly to pale its rays in the !
shadows of the coming
light. And thus that silent figure, !
sentinel over our dead, re- |
,eats each day the voioeless Had OF |
glorious memories, invest this product |
If your pious labors with un,leserved |
merit as a work of art ? Perhaps ii |
nay. [ do not claim 10 De a con |
,oisse,t in art, but to me that statue is |
o see reproduced in every community |
n the South. 1t is i'll such works that |
he history of peopleis best and most |
written, especially if misfor- |
une has caused the truth of that his |
ory to be shut ont from the printed |
nnals of mankind.
There is inspiration in them, too. |
The flowers which You scatter here, !
by the hand OF thc Great |
Artist. iii Lues no human skill can /
ival, though refreshed by the sweetest /:
lews which night car distil, Will fade,
nd wither III t0-morlOw's sun bIt, |
Though like all things earthly, that |
tatue, too, must sooner or later crum- |
,ie into dust, immortality looks from |
mt that human face, and lives in the |
of that human form divine. |
t is indeed, fitting monument to our
gallant dead and a worthy symbol of
he undying love and gratitude of their
But, my friends, pleasing as all these
may be, tuuchins as is the
lenonstratlol' here made, is this all
fave we assembled here only to OBJ
erve ceremonial, to keep up a form ?
Are there no lessons to be learned here |
or our profit Let no man imagine !
hat can fiGd here, or would So oese-
rate this day as to look for any lesson,
II its teachings, whereby to Justify n
.ause which needs no vindication at |
ny hands, or to condemn one which is !
yet on trial before the. civilized world
The time and the place fcehit: such