The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-07-11
VOLUME XI-NUMBER 95.

ent and valorous devotion, they went on |
building up grand and glorious struct-
urc on that foundation, strengthening |
and adorning it with the pillars and mu-
niments of the right of self-government |
and the mighty prcrogativc of the freed |
ON OF conscience. They were grandly |
inspired architects, those mastcr-build- !
crs, who came out of the first war for |
civil independence in this new world, |
and in fifty years they completed IN edi- |
flee dedicated to civil freedom md free
conscience, whose foundation was n con-
tincnt, whose boundaries were boundless
seas, and whose turrets aspired to heaven
to catch the light and blessing from
God of Truth. This wns the temple
which was to become the pride of his
tory, the JOY of n great and happy people
THE JOY, the pride, the glory Of man
kind"-in which no mans liberty was to
be judged by another mans conscience.
For this sacred purpose the covenants
were placed upon the altar, the gates
were opened to the people, and they
went in and prayed, with thanksgivings
and hymns of praise, and renewed the
covenants, and the world began to know
them and call them blessed:
In one loud, applauding sound,
The nations shout to her around,
How supremely art thou blessed"
How awful the holy purity, how wonder
full the grandeur of this temple, dcdi-
Gated to truth, to liberty, and to free con-
science-a temple fitted for the crowned
truth to dwell in forever.
Brothers. it was the design, the struct-
ure, the Offering of our very fathers-our
fathers who drank the waters of the Che
sapenke and the South Atlantic, and
built the University of Virginia. The
men who begat us were the royal priest
hood, who sanctificd themselves to bear
the ark with its covenants, and place it
securely rs they prayed on their Zion;
and they were those who called on the
earth to rejoice, and on the nations to
say that liberty again dwelleth on the
earth, and on US, their sons, in humble
faith to cry "Amenr' And what is our
answer? 1t was in this supreme hour
that there sprung from the god-like brain
Of the high-priest of that hierarchy this
our sanity and benignant nurse-mother,
whose generous breasts have nurtured
this generation, who have renewed all
with their blood-with our blood. younr
men. We are that generation-we are
the men who have haZarded our lives tor
that covenant. Here they are, to-day, Mt
their mothers knees, their palm branches
covered with cypress; but they are the
sons of the mnster-builders of the temple
OF liberty, who drank the waters of the
Chesapeake and the South Atlantic-thc
very sons of those sires who, three-score
and ten years ago, standing Mt james
town, by the waters of the Chesapeake,
with the voice of Gods own patriot
priest offered this prayer to Almighty
God. Bishop Madison, 1901
"Hallowed be this place where Thou
dldst manifest Thy goodness to our
foretathers, and where Thy heavenly
plan for spreading Thy blessings-the
blessings of social right-first bcalned
forth. 1t was here, OH God! it wns here,
on this chosen ground, TINT Thou didst
tirst lay the sure foundations of civil
happiness. Here lidst Thou say to our
iorefi.thers, who. under Thy guidance,
had deficd the pcrils of an untricd
ocean, Hero fix your abode forever.
Here shall the great work of political
salvation begin. Here I will strike lecp
the roots Of IN everlasting empire, where
justice, and liberty, and peace shall
flourish in immortal vigor, to the .lory
OF My name and the happiness Of maj
lierc yo shall sleep-but your sons an
your daughters shall possess the la,.a
which strctchcth wide before you. They
shall convert the wilderness and the
solitary places into fields smiling with
plenty. They shall, in ugcs to come, cx-
ceed the sands of the sea-shorc in num-
Der. They shall, when 200 years hive
gone. here resort, here recall to mind
your sufferings and your valor; and here.
in IL lively sense of the blessings vouch-
safed to them, they shall exnlt and adore
My name, and acknowledge that the
miehtiness of My arm, and the over
shndowing of My spirit, hAth done these
great and excellent things for them and
for their children forever"
Such was the prayer, md such the
promise made by the inmutablc God to
those from whose loins we sprung, M
they worshipped on the shores of the
Chesapeake, those shores now "obedient
to the stranger and the slave"
An age illustrated by travail of pntriot-
womb a generntion ready to defend md
maintain these attributes, with nil the