Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-06-11
MEMORIAL address
BY CAPT. 8. A.. ASHE,


mortal Day in that city
Capt. Ashe, after an appropriate
opening, referred in kind terms to Mrs.
Emily Smith, the former President of
the Memorial Association-whose re-
cent death had cast q gloom over our
entire community, and whose loss to
the association is indeed Irreparable.
He then continued :
And now my friends we stand here
in the presence of the honored dead.
Here lie the moulderiDg remains of
our brothers, of tender father s-of de-
voted husbands. 0 ye sisters and chill
dren and widowed mothers, press light
ly the earth where these loved ones
lie! In life their spirits were gentle
and yet heroic in death they live en-
shrined in the hearts of their country
men. We bear in keen remembrance
their woful destiny-how mangled and
torn and bleeding they suffered even
as martyrs suffer, aud in terrible an
guish aid pain they passed through
he dark horrors of death, and died as
soldiers due. Yon enduring monument
will transmit to posterity the story of
their untimely fall : and it is left to us
to perpetuate-to hand down from
generation to generation a true ac-
count of how th. y came to die. 1t is
to this then that | invite your at:eL-
ton Would that one more capable
had been chosen for the taek-but you
will hear me for my cause, and obi
vlous of the speaker, remember only
the occasion that calls you together
| For myself-if there be aught in that
weet beIief, so full of consolation tc
| the mourning heart-that disembod-
led spirits revisit the scenes of their
earthly habitation, l now invoke the
| presence of those whose virtues we
| commemorate and whose valorous ac-
tions we applaud, as [ briefly sketch
| the plain, unvarniShed tale of their he
roism and oblation upon the altar OF
| their country.
| The speaker then referred to the pre-
judices that had from time immemo-
rial subsisted between the Northern
and Southern colonies and described
how these were infiamed into passion
because of the abolition ideas at the
North. He stated that the English,
Dutch, French, Spaniards and the
northern colonists had transplanted
African slavery, the offspring of the ci-
vlliZation of the old world, into Amer
lea, and that northern slaves were sold
to the South, although North Carroll
IA practically forbid the importation
of slaves within her territory after
1876, before the adoption of the U. s.
Constitution. He recalled to remem-
brance how the North insisted that the
government should not stand half free
and half slave, and how this direct is
sue arose between the sections. He
| continued
The value of our slaves was more
than billion of dollars. To submit
tamely TO such loss was not human
nature. The humber class of our cit
zens-though holding
prided themselves on being immeasur-
ably superior to the negro. To liber-
ate the negro was to abolish the dis
til elton of caste, and to place the
white man and the African on an equal
footing before the law. It would not
be tolerated 1t was alike destructive
of the rights of the slave-owner, and
antagouistic with all the deep-seated
prejudices of the non-slave- holder. 1t
was apparent that slavery could not be
abolished but at the end of long and
violent and bloody revolution.
But the abolitionists insisted; in
the Union slavery was doomed. The
result was inevitable. To obviate this
to prevent all the deplorabie conse-
quences that would flow from such q
measure, to avert impending revolu-
ton and the dreaded incidents of such
calamity, the Southern people de-
cided to separate themselves from the
Northern people. Nor was this the
determination of day; or the work
, of a secret combination.
| For session after session. in the
Halls of Congress, in the Senate Cham
Der, in season and out of season, the
more advanced Southern statesmen
had announced the doctrine of States
Rights, and had protested against
Federal Supremacy in words of burn
ing eloquence that will live as long as
, the English tongue is spoken IL
America.
, Nor were we inactive in seeking tc
avert the disruption of the Union. Al
the instance Of a Southern State 6
Peace Conference of all the States as
sembled to prevent the ills that threat
ened to destroy us, But, alas! fanati
cism knOweth no peace. Tt brooks nc
opposition; it feeds on excitement; and
carnage and bloody warfare make hal
cyon days for the fell spirit of revolu.
ton.
at length several of the
Southern States withdrew from the
Union. North Carolina, God bless
her, ever mindful of her obligations,
ever wise in her councils, waited for 8
season. But when a sectional Presi
dent demanded that we should SEND
troops-that we here should go to fight
our brothers in Arkansas, in Louisiana
in Texas, in Georgia, we replied with
|
sprang to arms. We seized our forts
we rebelled even as our forefathers
had rebelIed under the less CALLING
yoke of British tyranny. The patriotic
fires of 1775 burned anew within us
We could not forget that we had beer
freemen. In 1861, on May Goth, thai
day so memorable and honorable in
our history, our people met in conven
ton assembled. And George E. Bldg
er-one of our most exalted citizens
and stalInchest patriots-immediate
intr oduced an ordinance dissolvine oul
connection with the government of the
United States. The unanimous action
of the Convention, North Carolina
wheeled into line and joined her sis
tiers of the South.
We are not here to discuss the dead
questions of the past. But, absolr tely
Ignoring the disputed right of seer
sion, I do maintain now and always
that the action of our people in 1861
was the only course open to US not
| fraught with dishonor and subversive
of ouI liberties.
Had we been Indifferent to our prep
erty and assented to the emancipation
of our slaves; had we repressed all OF
our natural instincts and tamely sub
mitted to the elevation of the negroes
to an equality with our children; had
we been callous to the impulses OF
manhood ands humbled ourselves at
the shrine of fanaticism, yet, yet / ask
how could we have been so craven as
to embrace the degradation of un-
sheathing the sword to destroy our
kindred in the South I?
On our part, it was a war
of defence-a circumstance that tend
ed to unite our people, and to promote
| the GREATEST enthusiasm am0np our