The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1874-05-22
SOUTHERN HEROISM ... LIFE OUT OF
DEATH.

We commend to the faint-heartetl
Southerner who sees in the ephemeral
triumphs of misrule the lasting defeat
of Southern hopes and doctrines, the
following true, noble and re-assuring
utterances Of the Rev. DIR. Palmer ut
the recent memorial ceremonies in
Mobile:
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 defense of
truth and right-and we can, with no
show of decency, decorate their tombs,
without a firm purpose to perpetuate
the doctrines to which they were
martyrs.
1t is trying ordeal to which we are
summoned. The sternest virtue alone
can keep us from crumbiing through
attrition. The daily crucihNion of the
spirit is harder to be borne than the
torture oc the body. Happier 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 heroism lies just here; to stand
unshaken by all tho calamities of our
defeat-to accept with patience the
prescription and the poverty which
form our lotto endure without I, mur.
mur the misrepresentation of our words
and motives-to sustain with dignity
the obloquy and censure heaped upon
our heads-and calmly before the Mas
tions to affirm the integrity of our
principles. Our destiny hangs upon
this, whether we haze the toughness
to endure. 1t is the historic quality
after all, without which the most bril-
liant achievements melt away like
snow. No people ever survived the
destruction of its Faiths; and these
Faiths must perish in times of trial,
unless upheld by an enduring testi-
mony. II is no disgrace to have been
conquered, if too weak to defend the
truth; but to crumble into the cowar-
dice 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 endu-
ring testimony.
1t may grid on with Il new resolve
to remember the great law Of PrOvi-
dence that all life comes out of death.
Nature hangs out her types of this doc
trine everywhere in this beautiful
season of spring. "Except u corn of
wheat fall into the ground and DIE, it
abideth 0io'1e; 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 Il vitality
which nothing can extinguish. Truth
burned at the stake has risen thou
sand times from her own ashes, and
renews her Immortality as often as she
is slain. 1t is this hope l cherish for
my country, that the great principles
imbedded in her Constitution are supe.
rior to all the forces which can COM
bine for their destruction. 1t took Eng
land seven hundred years to work ont
that regulated freedom with which we
began. The heritage bequeathed to us
by our fathers was acquired through
the experience Of the noble Saxon race
through ages of conflict. The princi-
ciples they announced were born out
of the struggles, the disasters and de-
feats of other times. Once and again
they have been slain, and the meIan-
choly witnesses for their truth have
been compelled to bury them in a pro-
NSSN. 'eIIIliilttlIS Ill tIlcIf oWn ScCu,
they have burst forth with the fresh
ness and power of a new resurrection.
Are these tried principles to perish
now, in the history of a nation not yet
full a century old? Shall we fling up
our hands in despair at the first his
toric conflict which puts them to the
test upon this continent: We may
think them dead and mediate the final
epitaph to be written over the grave of
human freedom. But they shall rise
again. IF the prophecy to you seems
too bold, rest it upon the fact that in
all the past they have never had the
power to die. l rest it upon the essen
tial weakness of that which mon call
force; which crumbles into ruin by the
very disintegration that lies within it.
1t is ours, in this day Of rcbukc, to re-
pose with majestic faith upon these
Without anticipation OF
war or bloody conflicts, our hope is in
the native vitality of truth to arise
again and assert her own supremacy
MY belief is that the principles for
which the South has always contendcd
will be re-affirmed in due time, by
those who have stricken us into the
dust. 1t will yet be confessed that the
country has been saved through the