The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-07-11

forget the past, and the duty of filial
piety will not let me be silent concerning
the present. tremble to lose your es-
teem and approval. Be charitable to
these grey hairs, and to one who offered
his life, and gaye all tho rest, that you
might be free, and lost all, save this
woeful remnant of TINT life. must ease
my heart From my speech I must drop
the fond records, the forms and pressure
my youth and observation gathered here,
and dare speak to you Of that which,
bursting wide from the womb of time,
rules the hour in which we live here to-
day, and wraps in lurid gloom the yelled
mystery of its future. propose to speak
to you Of tho very hour in which we are
here to-day, face to face with it-"latus
cum ldtere'-in all its movements and
demands, and thus to try to tell of its
relation to the past, and with deep hu-
mility and earnest prayer to prophesy of
its connection with the future. My
brothers here, who have passed the
"improridd Gtds puero,um" unsus-
pecting age of boyhood-will happily
join me if l praise the past, and weep
with me if recite the woes of the pre-
sent; and If, when you have your fifty
years, and ours are hundred, any Of
you be here anr remember this day, you
and the prayer have dared to offer you.
You are here to gather the fruits of the
past, to feed upon them, that in the
future you may have strength to regain
the waste and loss we have made: to add
to the treasure, to increase its power and
carry it onward to your own redemption,
and for pledge of security, and for the
perpetual advantage of those who come
after you.
Two or three years after the close of that
war which, in the language of that great
lawyer, wise statesman and brave gentle
man, Charles OConor, Of New York, de-
stroyed constitutional liberty in Ameri-
ca-thnt heroic and mortal struggle for
truth and right was invited by the
trustees, faculty and students of Me-
thodist College in South Carolina to
make the commencement address. The
college, like this, is in the beautiful
Piedmont region, not far from Cowpens
and Kings Mountain, the turning points,
as Bancroft tells us, of the first struggle
for American liberty aud independepce,
determined by the joint and knightly
gaiiantry of Carolina and Virginia. The
professors were men Of eminent piety
md ripe culture-scholars, gentlemen,
patriots and Christians The students, q
fine, manly band of youths, some with
one arm, some with one leg, some with
one eye only-for most of these boys had
been soldiers in that mortal struggle for
truth and liberty. Around me were
grouped the bishops, elders and many
clergymen, grave, good, brave men,
worthy successors of that sublime evan
gelist of the eighteenth century, John
Wesley, who conquered mems con-
sciences by the blood Of the Lamb of
God, and not by the sacrifice of human
victims These, his disciples and minis
ters, had been ministers and servants Of
the meek and lowly Jesus in the armies
of the Confederate States. In my nd
dress to this mutilnted remnant of those
armies--nfter urging them to keep in
mind the seemingly fruitless struggle for
liberty, and thereby be prepared for an
other which, in the just providence of
God, must surely come-I asked them,
"Wlll not God of truth forbid TINT
your liberties shall be judged forever by
other mems consciences?" AS uttered
this question, or affirmation, or YOU may
call 1t petition, was startled by hearing
from the bishops, the elders and clergy
men, loud, devout, solemn "nmcn. It
embarrassed me for q moment conicc
turing why this hcart-full response
should be made by these servants Of the
meek and lowly Jesus. I soon remem-
bered that l had, unconsciously repeat
ed, almost literally, the recorded words
OF chief apostle, sent by tho Son of
God to tell His ways to the world, and
these His ministers of to-day recognized
their divine power, and on this devout
aspiration waited to His throne the
prayer--thnt our liberties mny not be
judged by other mems conscienccs. I
will not dare to encroach on tho func-
tions of those holy men in my form of
speech. I shrink from the shadow of
blasphemy, if it be ono; but know do
not offend the pure majesty of a God of
truth, if, in addressing the offspring of
that university which the commonwealth
of Virginia has devoted to the nurture
and preservation of her truth, her
honor and her liberty, use meekly, for
my argument, the words of that apostle
sent by tho Son of God to tell His ways
to the struggling people of the enrth:
"For why is my liberty judged Of an
other mans conscience?"
The people of that portion of North
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