The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-10
THE LOST CAUSE.
Address of DIR. Palmer 1T the
Memorial Celebration
at Mobile.

On the 9th ult., on the occasion of the
memorial celebration at Mobile, DIR. Palmer
made most able eloquent and appropriate
address, which we find published in full in
the Register We regret that want OF space
precludes our giving the whole of it to oul
readers.
In the course Of his speech, Dr. Palmer
reminds the men of the South, with great
earnestnest and power, that upon them rests
the obligation to secure from defamation those
who poured out their blood in defense Of our
rights, to write the story of their Deeds to
signaize the motives that led them to the
tented field, to vindicate the principles
which they held dearer than life, to assert
the integrity of that cause which is simply
pathetic in its defeat. And the dist Iguish-
ed divine proceeds:
As to the traditions and the truths which
underlay this great struggle, thank God
they are beyond. the peril OF erasure. Trey
are embalmed in every instrument by which
these States were originally confederated.
They are craven upon all the institutions of
the country, as letters are craven upon
the face of the everlasting rocks. They
are interviewer with every thread of our ma
tional history through nearly one hundred
years. They have been expounded in the
debates of nearly one-half that period, be-
tween the giants Of the past, in the halls Of
our National Legislature. And in the dark re-
cord Of the past ten years, there is a fearful
commentary upon the evils of their violation.
1t should he known now, if never before,
how these principles lie at the springs
Of the public lite, which flows freely through
their open wounds and leaves the State
corpse Let this last chapter only be writ
ten, and the crime against constitutional
liberty is revealed in its CHASTITY deformity.
There can be no revenge SO severe against
the Radicalism which now prostrates the
South, as just to put it into history. Put it
there let the dark blot be seen on its clean
page, and if there be any conscience left to
quiet, it's spasms Of remorse will wiring ont
such confessions as will vindicate the prin-
ciples it may not be able to reinstate. 1t is
no slight proof of that retributive justice
which dispenses its judgments even in time,
that wickedness is compelled to blazon its
own folly and to re-affirm the very truths
it has madly sought to destroy.
But if our duty is so clear as to the record
of the struggle, the obligation is still more
commanding to uphold, with a constant
faith, the vital issues which were embarked
in it, do not embrace under this term the
institution of slavery, which always was a
mere incident of the contlict-the ostensible
pivot upon which it turned, rather than it's
producing cause. This lay UNNECESSARILY
deeper, in an irreconcilable difference of in
depreciation as to the nature and powers of
the Government itself. That issue, more
obtrusively presented only because more
palpable and concrete than any other, has
now passed away-I suppose, with the in
telligent assent of all parties. But the
questions as to the fundamental principles
Of Republican Government remain to lie
determined in the outworkings of the future.
What desire to say IS this: That principles
which men were willing to die for, are
equally worth living for. These proud
eulogies upon our dead are sheer hypocrisy, |
unless we believe them to have fallen in |
the service of truth and right-and we can,
with no show of decency, decorate their
tOmbs, without firm purpose to perpetuate
the doctrines to which they were martyrs.
IL is a trying ordeal to which we are sum-
moned. The sternest virtue alone can keep
us from crumbling through attrition. The
daily cruciixion Of the spirit is harder to be
borne than the torture of the body. Hap
pier are these dead. who by one lofty act
of sacrifice have secured an immortality
of praise; whilst we survive to bear in
silence the stigma of the very terms in which
our cause is conveyed to posterity. But the
truest hefoism lies just here; to stand I'M
shaken by all the calamities of our defeat
to accept with patience the prescription and
the poverty which form our lotto endure
without murmur the misrepresentation of
our words and motves-tO sustain with dig
nitv the obloquy and censure which are
heaped upon our heads-and calmly before
the Nations to affirm the integrity of our
principles. Our destiny hangs upon this.
whether we have toughness to endure 1t is
the historic quality after all, without which
the most brilliant achievements melt away
like snow. No people ever survived the de-
struction of its Faiths; and these Faiths
must perish in times OF trial. unless upheld
by an enduring testimony. 1t is no disgrace
to have been conquered, If too weak to de-
fend the truth; but to crumble into the
cowardce of betraying that truth, is ever
lasting infamy. BE it SO, that we are weak:
the weak are always witnesses-and human
greatness is found in suffering testimony.
1t may grid you with a new resolve to re-
member the great law of Providence that
all life comes out of death. Nature hangs
out her types of this doctrine everywhere in
this beautiful season of spring. Except a
it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit" The only life that lives
forever is the Resurrection life. Everything
prominent on earth has won its right to live
through vitality which nothing can extn-
guish. Truth burned at the stake has risen
thousand times from her own ashes and
renews her immortality as often as She is
slain. 1t is this hope cherish for my coun-
try, that the great principles imbeddcd in
her Constitution are superior to all
the forces which can combine for
their destruction. 1t took England
seven hundred years to work out
that regulated freedom with which we be-
gan. The heritage bequeathed to us by our
fathers was acquired through the expert
ence of the noble Saxon race through ages
of conflict. The principles they announced
were born out Of the struggles, the disas-
tiers and defeats of other times. Once and
again they have been slain, and the mel
ancholy witnesses for their truth have been
compelled to bury them in protest Ger
minsting in their own seed, they have burst