Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-06-19

ttempt with any words OF mine to
leepen the impressiveness of the ecca-
ion, or to interpret the emotions that |
ill the saddened hearts of those l see
around me for have no language in |
Hy vocabulary which can speak to you
with more emphasis, pathos and power
than the master eloquence OF the humble,
grass-grown graves, beneath which
In rank and file, in sad array
AS tho their watch still keeping,
Or waiting for the battle fray,
Our dead around are sleeping.
Shoulder to shoulder rests each rank
AS at their post still standing;
Subdued, yet steadfast, as they sank
To sleep, at deaths commanding,
No battle banner DER them waves,
No battle trump is sounded,
They've reached the citadel of graves,
And here their arms are grounded.
THE TRIUMPHS OF WAR.
Yes, here they fought their last fight,
here they finished their course, here they
kept their faith, and here, on the field
of their fame, they now crest from their
labors and their works do follow them"
And we, their surviving comrades, kins-
men, friends and countrymen, coming
with each returning spring on our an
nual pilgrimages of love, to renew our
memorial offerings at these mortuary
shrines, may learn at their lowly but
honorable graves lessons which, if right
ly applied, will prove to be rich and
lasting inheritance to us and our poster
ity-lessons of self-re!iance, self-denial,
elf-control-lessons of constancy, en-
durance, perseverance, patience, forth
tude, firmness and faith for their exam
Piles as soldiers should not be lost on US
as citizens. AS they were faithful to the
requirements of war, so should we be to
the obligations Of peace. And as war
for them had its triumphs as well as its
trials, so peace for us hath victories no
less renowned than war" AS duty was
their watchword, so should it be ours
and as they lived and died in its per-
Torrance, so should we order our lives,
as, like them, to be ready to lay them
down, whenever and wherever duty de-
mands the sacrifice. Our great and good
leader-the ilIustrious and lamented
Lee, is said to have declared the word
DUTY" to be the sublimest in the Eng
fish language, and his whole life, in
peace no less than in war, illustrating
his perception of the word, affords a
conspicuous and peculiarly fit example
which all his confederate followers may
we'll be proud to initiate, and who that
hears me doubts, that, if Jackson, our
Jackson-Stonewall Jackson-had been
permitted in the providence of the AL
mighty to live until allowed by duty to
lay aside the panoply of war; he too, like
him, whose fright arm" he was in battle
and whom-as he told me himself he
was willing to follow blindfold," would
not have won for himself in the paths OF
peace additional claims upon the graft
tude of his countrymen, and to the
beatitudes of his God, in the fearless and
faithful discharge of his duty as law
abiding, incorruptible, unassuming,
painstaking, unprejudicial, patient
peacemaking, patriotic, God-servine
American citizen. Applause.
MODIFICATION OF PUBLIC OPINION.
There is no one amongst us, care not
how humble may be his position, who
is not the centre of q circle of some in
sponsibilities as a citizen which he can
no more divest himself of than he can
shake offhis immortality ; and you will,
I am sure, concur with me in the opin-
ion that at this time it is peculiarly in
cumbent on us all, as American citizens,
to do what we properly can to promote
the development and diffusion of those
feelings of justice, Hberality and frater-
nifty which are beginning to prevail
amongst many of our influential men in
high positions, and extending them
selves to the people of both sections OF
our common country-nOw, for the first
time, really and truly 'the land of the
Free" as it always has been ''the home
of the brave" Those lately alienated
by the hostilities of a maddened epoch
are learning to do justice to the modifi-
cations of honest opinion on the part OF
those who, in the exercise of their I'M
questionable rights, see fit to differ from
themselves, and also to regard each 9TH
er with the jaundiced eyes of local jeal-
ousy from the low level of their preju-
dices. They are recognizing the fact,
and what is still better they are admit
ting it publicly, that all the good Amer
leans do not live on the same side OF
''Mason and Dixon's line" and that
all the bad people of the United States
don't belong to the same political party.
They now see and say that in cur un :
happy civil war-which you and 1 did
our utmost to avert-there were mis-
takes and misconceptions on both sides,
and good and brave and bad men also in
both armies; that the war itself was in
the nature of volcanic eruption-the
result of pent-up fires which could no
longer be suppressed, and which sud-
denly burst forth with fury which no
one anticipated. and which all deplored /;
that the controversial issue involved in
that sanguinary contest had agitated,
convulsed, and in some degree divided
the country for many years previously +;
that all efforts to compromise and com
pose them had failed, until, finally, they
were withdrawn from the forum of dis
cussion to be decided by the bloody ar
bitrament of the sword; that the deci-
sion thus made was against the South,
and has been accepted in good faith by
the entire South as an irrevocable settle
ment of the vexed questions between
the sections, of slavery and secession,
from which there can be, and from
which there should be, no appeal
[Great applause
TRIBUTE TO THE DEAD.
You will therefore perceive, and I
trust. appreciate, the motives which
prompt me to refrain to-day from all
discussion of the issues of the war. The
proprieties of the occasion, aswell as the
improving temper of the times, alike
forbid the intrusion here of any topics
to revive the angry feelings of those
dark and bloody days. The august
presence of the heroic dead who are rest
ing in peace around us, make all such
discussions out of place on the day "ded
icated only to the reverent and gentle
memories" of those whom we dearly
loved in life, and whose deaths we vet
deplore; and such discussions, too,
would fall harshly on the ears of the
brave, the generous, the gentle and the
good, who are gathered here on this oc-
casion. At the same time let it not be
inferred from this forbearance that we
are willing to abate in any degree the
Just claims of our dead comrades to all
the honors we habitually bestow upon
their memories. No; not ''in the esti-
nation of hair" not sin the twenti-
eth part of one poor scruple." No mat
ter what men may now say upon the
subject of the war; no matter what the