The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-05-06
COLUMBIA, SC.
Thursday Morning, May 8, 1876.
Memorial Oay.

Sloh auu ia Aiou VI Auy tnOuBntB Wnlch
we could present upon it, we copy some
passages Of recent address delivered
before one of the finest audiences ever
assembled in Baltimore by S. Teackle
Wallis, Esq, who is known far and wide
and most favorably AZ lawyer, poet, man
of letters, orator and true patriot. 1t
was inspired by o contemplation of the
character and services OF, General r. E.
Lee, and'is noble appeal for just judg-
ment upon the cause which lacked only
strength and final success to have been
emblazoned on the page of history and
cherished in the hearts of men:
The men who fought in the same cause
with Lee, and all whose hearts we're With
them, aye bound in. honor to abide by
the sfbitrament they sought. They are
boundto accept defeat and its legitimate
consequences In as good faith as they
would have accepted victory. They are
bound 70 obey the laws and support the
Constitution; to fulfill to the letter every
duty of citizenship, and answer freely
every call of patriotic Obligation. But
they are not bound to; defile the ashes of
their dead, or to submit in silence to in
justice or dishonor. They may hove
been wrong. That is fair matter of opi-
MON, and posterity will Judge them.
They may have been unwise. There ia
no absolute criterion on earth of whit ia
wise, and none Of US have reason to
think, like the friends of holy Job. that
we are the people, and that wisdom shall
die with us. But the men of the South
are entitled to stand before mankind as
people who, believing they were right
IN hot kx,,s< = A.
set hope and existence on the die. They
have right to resent and denounce inn
putations on their purposes and motives.
When shoy Iuaa in political journals and
discourses, or hear from the halls of
Liquidation or the, bench of Justice that
for 8, 900, 600 of free born men to separate
: themselves from popular government
of which they formed part, and set up
and he governed by another which they
preferred, was wicked rebellion"-an
effort to overthrow society and turn back
the onrrent Of civilization-they have n
right to say that the time has come when
educated people should be ashamed of
such things. They are the froth of the
: angry waters, and should have passed
away with the storm. Until they cense
to sully the stream, tho serenity of peace
rnd brotherhood can never be reflected,
like Heaven, from its bosom.
Such devices and phrases are not new.
They are as old as foolishness and foul
language. I have before me copy from
o Tory Extra" of 1777, chronicling the
retreat of Washington across the Harlem
River, and denouncing the cause in
which he was enlisted as "the most
wicked, daring and unnatural rebellion
that ever disgraced the annals of history"
The ingenuity and eloquence of our own
6owy xxySk n oil /,
have not been able, I believe, to add
single epithet to this pleasing expression
of by-gone loyalty. And yet. ten years
,after It was written, or, at all events,
after the revolution was over, mn sure
that all reasonable Tories, and certainly
all sensible Englishmen, would have
agreed to laugh at it and forget it. We
are ourselves about to demonstrate, by a
centennial 'commemoration, how entirely
nature has recovered from the shock
which that rebellion" was supposed to
have given. True, it was successful, and
that. unquestionably, makes some diff
ference-but only with time-servers. We
are dealing now with moralists, and they
Will never. l suppose, suggest that wick
edness ceases to be wicked because the
horn of the ungodly happens to be ex-
olted. I Grant had surrendered to Lee,
they would still have died in the convic-
ton that secession was heresy; that the
ways of Providence were inscrutable, if
not Unconstitutional, according to Story's
Commentaries and that truth and rea-
son are not questions of numbers, artil-
lery or ammunition.
l make these observations here in no
spirit of unkindness or contention. You
would resent, and with justice, the in
trusion of past or present controversial
issues upon an occasion dedicated only
to reverent and gentle memories of tho
dead. But feel, in common with all to
whom those memories are dear, that
silence concerning such things NJ have
mentioned is no longer consistent with
proper self-respect. So long as the BIT
terness of party can be profitably stirred
by worn-out catch-words of the war, we
must, OF course, expect to hear them
from the lips Of those to whom profit is
compensation for shame. Butwe have
right to appeal from these to the men
who lead opinion, because they are
worthy and entitled to lead it. We have
right to throw upon them the response
bility which belongs to their influence,
their intelligence-nay, their taste, their
breeding and their manners. And for
saying this respectfully, but earnestly
and frankly, I know Of no better occasion
than the present, when we are honoring
one who, though ''rebel" of "rebels, if
there were any such, was, by common
GnnQant tho uou1 ~ hnnor and khox,