The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-06-12

l Cai u SiuCc Cauit W Soui CitS Luat ~ IL youi
| fixed determination to remove the remains
of the southern dead from Fort Delaware
| and ElTira, and If possible from all the
northern soil, and renter them here or else.
| where at the South. 1t is Doble work, sir
| God speed you in it, and not God alone.
Second. But the observance Of these me.
MORALS is yet more important as protest
against the universal tendency to Judge &C.
| tions by results rather than principles.
We assert our superiority to this degrad'
ing superstition in many sturdy proyerb
that success is not the test of merit" ''migh'
| does not make right" yet when might
crushes right our souls pass under the yoke
| the cloud Of defeat obscures the sun ol
principle. and we question the right that
| was unchalIenged before. This supersti
| tlou, like all others, has an element Of re.
| ligion in it but what sort of religion? Re.
ligion beginning in presumption that assumes
to unravel the mysteries Of Gods eternal
Providence, and ending npusilanimity that
rerants every principle of Gods eternal
right.
confront this spirit with these graves.
Dare you scatter these flowers in honor
merely of the valor and sincerity Of these
dead-bonor mingled with pity, and not
uumiugled with contempt! You, south
ern man, who, but for the mercy of God,
might fill one Of these graves to-day You,
soliier's boy, kneelipg at his fathers
grave You, southern motherj bending
under years and sorrows over the low
mound where sleeps the boy you kissed and
sent away, and never kissed again You, q
soldiers widow, weeping DER her warriors
dust! Tell me, any one of you, was the right
| for which these fought and fell made wrong
because they fell! Nay, was it proved to be
wrong? No! you answcr-a thousand
times, no! The heart logic Of these occa-
! sions is too close and simple for the tortuous
sophstrirs of superstition. The deep swell
of these memorial griefs and donors rises
and sweeps away the miSts as with tenn
! pest, and now there beams again upon US,
and upon these graves, the clear shining Of
the sun of immutable, immortal right.
| Third. But these memorials are not pro-
tests against harmony or a manly accept
ance of the present, though protesting thus
| eloquently against forgetfulness and mIscon-
struction of the past.
! lmmutability, tellow.sodiers, is the attri-
| butte of the Creator alone. We, creatures,
| may and should be guided by immutable
principles, but these are to be applied to cir
cumstances that are constantly shifting. The
man of fixed principles and tenacious affec-
tOns may not, admit, make these new ap.
p|ications and adaptations with very great
facility; but, on the other hand, be who has
no convictions and no affections which be
cannot readily adapt or transfer has none
that the new cause or the old, the new love
or the old, can safely rely upon. Such
man, instead of being, as be perhaps
considers himself, wiser than his feilo VS., and
to be followed as leader, is rather q
man to be suspected, or, at the very least, to
be distruSted. The men Of the North who
demanded, and the men Of the South who
professed, Immediately after the war, ere
pen,ance tor their treason and hearty re-
turn to their allegiance, were lacking 10 in
teligence or in sincerity. We all feel now
| that these rapid men on both sides, instead of
acccleratiDg greatly retarded the healthfu
| healing OF the wounds Of the war. BE a,
| rapid as you please in amnesty; hearty allie.
glance and affection are of slower growth.
| Gods time, and this alone, can work these
changes in the heart-lifc of true man, and
even with the lapse OF time and the change
of life The old conviction and the old atiec-
| ton may yet survive, in the domain of me-
mory, undimmed and uncooled.
! But, brothers, the domain of memory is
not the domain of action. We live in the
| DfCSeDL-alUclt tuC ps'Sb olit Nv IA 10. L nS
| stretch and grasp OF our being are long
enough and strong enough to hold at once to
both and the very strain expands cur souls.
But you weary of philosophy.
You have wife dear to you as your own
soul, You return home to-day to find her
deatb.struck-a few short hours and you are
bending over her dying couch in agony more
intense than hers. Just as she is breathing
her last-exbaling as it were your life with
her own-one Of your friends standing near
taDs Won lightly on the shoulder and says:
:. She Is going, my dear fellow, almost
gone; let me suggest Miss - as her
successor" Could human nature stand the
suggestion? Could human nature make it ?
A little while and all Is over; she has gone
now sure enough, aud you stagger half con.
scious to the graves mouth, sbudderiDs at
that saddest OF all sounds-the shifting OF
the clods on the coffin. Then she is covered
from YOUR sight, the dark chasm ills. Would,
God. it were with your own weary, wretched
| body. At last the low mound rises, the SAD
share is rounded of, and just IS you long TO
east Yourself upon it your friend again ac-
costs you:'" Come, now, old fellow, pardon
me, it's certainty all over now; thlssa prac'
| ticai world; you cannotlay your bosom along
side that cold clay Tonight; you must turn
away and face your future. Now let me
urge you again to think of my suggestion
Isn't this, If possible, more inhuman than
befores And yet he may challenge contra
diction of any of his propositions. A'
But let four or five years Of Coos time
roll over your head. On some bright spring
morning us you are sauntering down to busi'
ness an acquaintance steps brlskiy up De.
hind. claps YOU on the shoulder, and rallies
Won on your special attentions 10 some mu'
iuaI lady friend, adding, before you can reply,
~ admire your taste and wish you success.
You certainly couldn't do better" The sug-
pestion that would have rived your bosom
with agony once now brings smile to your
face and heart. Perehance the very jest &C.
cides you, and Miss - does become your
SHOW How " shall we account for this change
Have you forgotten the past? OF, pardon the
question, baye you changed your opinion OF
her YOU lost p Nay, is 1t necessary, ere you
enter on your new espousals, that you should
forget her, or that you should remember her
other than she was--tbe !oyelicst and best
surely not. Wherein, then, lies the differ
encef Every man will ans wer-only in the
lapse of years. And this lapse of years has
not changed your heart. certainly not Win
reference 10 the past. 1t has only somehow
done what nothing else could do. With refer
ence to the present and the future, It has
made that possible, natural, healthful, right,
which before could not even be Thought o.
without shudder.
And now, soldier brothers, leave thi:
simple figure with you. This lapse O.
years- Gods holy time bath wrought ~
gentle mysteries to our hearts alse, and while
We have nothing TO recant 10 the presence 9
these graves, we can YET march out Of tal