The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-05-25
THE SOUTH AND THE UNION.
Address of an ex-Confederate Kentucky
Soldier at the Dedication of a Monu-
ment.

Col. W. G. P. Breckinridge delivered
an address at the dedication of a monu-
ment to the Confederate dead, in Bowl
ug Green, KY, on Tuesday. He re-
ferred to the course and cause OF the
South in the late war, and then said:
"But whether we wish it or not, we are
of necessity citizens of this Republic, and
there are only two courses before us--one
to fold our arms and say it is none of our
afair-live in the past and abnegate our
manhood in the present. The other to
acknowledge our allegiance and perform
our whole duty as citizens. We ask no
favors-we make no claims. We are cit
izens equal with all other citizens, with
free tongues and brave hearts. We love
liberty and mean-God willing-to aid
all who desire to preserve it. We unite
with all good citizens to preserve to our
selves and to posterity the blessings of
good government, administered under
the law, and we reserve the privilege OF
resisting as may be necessary all who
may attempt. to usurp those powers OF
flch those rights; binding our children
to no other and different pledge than that
to which our fathers bound us, and to
which all alike are equally bound. We
bear no malice. We keep alive no ami.
mosities. We make no confessions of
guilt. We loved the cause and our COM
rades. We love their memories. we
will honor their graves. We stand by
their orphans; but we do this without
bitterness to any one and without apollo.
gy. While we remember that Lee and
Breckinridge died prescribed, and Louis
lana and South Carolina are held by the
throat, we wait without impatience or
servile opportunities for the dawn of
purer and better day-confdent that no
Polands can be kept enslaved in this
country, that all will be. free or all en-
shaved, and that the liberties of every
State are equally at stake, and the day OF
a true amnesty is not far distant. We
are not prodigals who return confesslng
that our substance has been wasted in
riotous living, even though fatted calves
be killed for our feast, and golden rings
be ready for our fingers. We simply
claim that we are equal citizens of a com
mon country, in which, with Gods aid,
we will strive to do our part. Ihls IS
the true basis of reconciliation. A man
ly defense of the causes for which we
fought, a frank confession of what was
lost. and an honest avowal of our pur-
poses to perform all the duties of citizen
Ship. More than this would be craven
and untrue; less than this unwise and
undutiful. Brave men will believe and
trust us; patriotic men will welcome our
aid; free men will applaud us, and thus,
true sons of our mother Commonwealths,
and faithful citizens of our common
country, we will. do our part to secure to
every State and citizen the blessings Of
constitutional liberty. We will build
up our own States by wider education,
in fuller development, and more liberal
culture, and thus add to the strength and
glory of the common government, ad-
ministered according to the principles OF
a revered constitution, and loved because
it will be just, impartial and pure. We
will do our part to maintain for all citl.
zens and every State the inalienable and
inestimable rights of American liberty,
regaining what may have been taken,
preserving what remains, securing to the
common government its just powers and
true glory. We will strive to realize the
glorious vision of our sires-a free coun-
try of sovereign States, SO strong that all
will respect it, so just that all will obey
it, so free that all will love it; country
where to do right is the whole compul-
sion, to prevent wrong the sole restraint;
where fealty is, through love and obedi-
ence, an act of the heart. We, my COM
rades, stand not in the way of the realiza-
ton of this bright future. Let the curse
of the patriot fall upon those who do"