Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-09-12


The following are the remarks which
have produced quite poctlcal fermcnt
at the North:
'Mr. Davis said he deeply felt this
kind welcome. lie always felt at home
in Virginia, and what Confederate did
not? She gave her bosom to be racked
by all the horrors of war, and freely
shed her best and noblest blood. She
was now lifting her head from its effects,
AID he was glad tie see her green fields
and pastures, her fertile valleys and
picturesque mountains, Which here,
like no where else, were clothed from
base to summit. All were beautiful;
vet there was somthinG above them all.
Her men. excelled her soil, and her
noble women excelled even the men,
Well did he remember when the tide
of wax swept away the men into the
army and scattered the negroes, how
when the barns and houses, mills
and all save the fences which were only
spared the destroying tiamo because
they were of stone-how the women of
the Shenandoah Valley, who~,' hands
had never known an hours toll in the
field, had made crops, and whenever
the Confederate army came along, had
were always happy to aid the cause and
feed the Confederate soldiers. Too
long had we delayed the vindicatiOn of
our cause Many Of the actors had ieen
called home to their fathers; yet per
haps the delay had not been altogether
unfortunate, for those who felt most
deeply found it hard to uncover their
whole heart. The prospects were brigh-
.hol 70. :,
would rise again" We had been more
chcated than conquered by the decla-
rations of the federal President, Con
rrcss and Generals Would there have
been II surrender if we had expected
what has followed? We were told that
the war WAS carried on to maintain the
Union. Had we fOreSGen the result,
we would today have been free He
referred to the objects of the AssOcia-
ton, and said that there were now scat
tered scraps of history, that should
be collected to perpetuate the deeds OF
our fallen soldiers and vindicate the
action of our country; that great care
should be taken with the collection of
every scrap, as mankind was deeply
Interested in the constitutional causes
which led to the war.
of the South and how they had suffered,
and the dccadcncn of commerce and
liberty. liz referring To tho moral and
religious causes, and the ile; that be
cause we did not succeed Ne were nee
esaHriI> wrong he said that III a cause
| Ike ours the great Creator must have
nat we do not always see the workings
fur good in the way of the Great Father
THAT nnr c!laSti&em"nt might be design
rI 10 lead to the triumph of the prin-
cipics for which We struggled. lie had
received IL letter from Il gentleman IN
Massachusetts. winch said that lnan-
kInl owed q debt of gratitude 10 the
Southern people for the efforts in be-
half OF that constitutional liberty which
men were SO rapidly forgetting; that
our story had only been half told,
would We then be condemned before
the world? No, no! These fucts must
b: gotten together. 1t was due to the
lmrccOrtlrd dead, who had fought for
truth and died i'll Il patriotic cause
Ntulc tins organization cannot write
.hc history of this war, yet it could
collect the material from which future
historians might obtain the fncts.
Would not orr enemies, or in the
phrase of The day, our Northern breth-
rem, make mp at least and take the
hand OF oppression from off our South
"ln daughters, or are we III that deca-
dcncc of all that IS hOnorcG, to be
brought 10 the condition of which the
Irish poet sang:
al nhonorrh thy SONS, till they have learned
to betray;
Irndstingii~hed they live, if they shame not
their SIrtS;
And the torch that VIII light them To dig
nty'S way,
Must lie caught AT the pile where their
country eHpircs.'
If thus we must seek the road to pre-
Torment, who would not live life Of
obscnrity in. preferences? He had a
hope III the future founded on the fact
that he had never seen reconstructed
Southern woman, and while the men
of the present day might yield up the
principles for which they struggled,
yet he hoped that the "children who
succeeded them" would grow up to
maintain and pcrpetuate them and re-
deem all that we have lost.
Another Cotton Mill Ilcard from.