The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-06-14
4 REBEL SOLDIER AT THE GRAVES
OF FEDERAL SOLDIERS.
Address of Editor Watterson, Of Louis
Vile, at tho National Cemetery
q. Nashville, Tennessee.

Mr.. PRECEDENT, FELLOW.SOLDIERS
AND FELLOW CITIZENS: should not
have ventured to come here to-day-I
should not trust myself TO speak in this
presence, if were conscious Of any Sec
tional or partisan feeling that may not
do honor to citizen of the United States.
It would be an affectation IN me if I
should ignore the exceptional circum.
stances Of my coming, or fail TO be guided
in the discharge of the duty you have
assigned mo by recognition of that cir
cumstance. Herein, il has seemed to me,
lies all that is good or fit in the occasion
which brings us together. "On the Ii
brary wall of one of the most famous
writersof America"-I use the words Of
one Of the most famous writer's of Eng.
land-"there hang two croszed swords
which his relatives wore in the great war
of independence; the one sword was
gallantly drawn in the service of the
king, the other was tho weapon of a
brave and hOnored republican soldier"
The noble service has been given us to
cross in the everlasting peace of death
swords that were crossed in the death
struggle, proud Of the undoubting spirit
which carried them in life; proud Of the
fortitude and courage which sustained
them to the end; proud still, though sor-
rowful, of the tragedy which made them
flash the p.owess Of our era, our country
and our race throughout the world The
day will come when the picture of the
soldier who wore the gray will hang side
by side with that Of the soldier who wore
the blue, and be pointed to with n glow
of honest love and pride by common
progeny. The day has already como
when the animosities of war, growing
less anS less distinct as the years have
passed, should disappear altogether from
the hearts of brave men and good women.
can truly say that each soldier who laid
down his life for his opinions was my
comrade, no matter where he fought.
We are assembled, my countrymen, to
commemorate the patriotism and valor
of the brave men who died to save the
Union. We stand upon consecrated
ground. In the deep seclusion of this
hallowed spot there is nothing to disturb
the mind or infeme tho heart. The sea-
son brings its tribute to the scene; pays
its homage to the dead; inspires the
living. There are images of tranquility
all about us: in the calm sunshine
upon the ridges; in the tender shadows
that creep along the streams; in the
waving grass and grain that mark Gods
love and bounty; in the flowers that
bloom over the many, many graves.
There is peace everywhere II this land
to-day. u fse
'Peace in the quiet dales
Made rankly fertile by the blood Of men !;
Peace in the woodland and the lonely glen !;
Peace in the peopled wales,
Peace in the open sess,
In all our sheltered bays and ample streams,
Peace where'cr our starry banner CLEANS,
And peace in every breeze"
The war is over. 1t is for us to bury
its passions with its dead to bury them
beneath monument raised by the Amer.
lean people I, American manhood and
the American system, in order that "the
nation shall, under God, have new birth
of freedom, and that the government of
the people, by the people aud for the
people shall not perish from the EARTH"
There is no one of US, wore he .he one
cloth or the other, come he from the
granite hills of New England or
the orange groves of the Mississippi
valley, who has not an interest for him.
self and for bis children in the preserva-
ton and perpetuation of our republican
system. It is reciprocal, as we'll Us .
joint interest; and, relating to the great
est of hurian affairs, it ought to be sa-
cred interest. The most obstinate of par
tisans, the most untraveled of provincials
cannot efface or obscure, still less dispute,
the story of heroism in war, Of modera-
tion in peace, which, written in letters of
living light, will blaze forever upon our
national tablets. The occasion that brings
US here has this Significance: 1t is illus
trative; 1t tells us that We have come to
understand that there could be no lasting
peace, nor real rcpublicanism, whilst any
freemen's rights was abridged, or any
patriots grave .unhonored. The freedom
of each and every State, of each and ev-
cry citizen, is at length assured; and
there remains no longer so much as q
pretext why the glory ofthe past, marked
by the graves Of all who fell in the battle,
should not be the common property of
Of treason do not belong to our institu-
public affairs, has been hostile to our ma
tional unity and peace. Our future is to
be secured by generous concessions, for
ours was q war of mistakes, not of dis
graces.
There was an organic question left ia
tally open by the authors of our consti-
tution. There was property interest
madly entangled ws:.!: The moral nature
OF the time. There was no tribunal hav.
ing power to determine the issue It is,
perhaps, little to say that, had tho people
ioreseen all the Consequences, they would
not have resorted to arms but recent ex-
.perience shows us that they would have
made supreme sacrifices for the sake Of
peace, History teaches us that wars are
more or less the subjects of misconcep.
ton and mischance. 1t is rare indeed
II ever, when all the right is on the one
side and ell the wrong on the other. In
our casa, and take leave to speak fol
both sides, we have much TO deplore
nothing to make us ashamed. Assured
iy, the world has never seen terms go lib
eral extended to soldiers beaten in civil
hrni!; CO known such abstinence from
sanguinary revenges during the progress
OF the strife. It is necessary to remind
no one of the conduct of Grant and
sherman in the moment of their triumph
ihe conflicts of this present hour, cannot
smut out from the hearts of grateful mer
me spectacle of that dismal day, whom
rising above tho passions of victory nnc
Inc ruins of conQuests, the chiefs of tht
armies ofthe North remembered not mare
" that thay were soldiers and men o
honor, but that they were Ameri
cans. It was our Lee who paid thl
nonors of war to your Kearney, Wher
.he body of Morgan was borne TO its las
resting-place, soldiers of the Union as
:;sm6led by chance on the public square
IN Nashville, stood, solditr-like, uncov
ered w, as their fallen adversary passed
hHAn r. 81 -c