The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1878-05-10
THE CONFEDERATE 1EMoR1AI.

ATE DEAD.
The following letter, addressed to COM
mlttee of citizens, was read at the memorial
celebration in Macon, Ga, on the 26tB ult.:
MIssIssIPpI -CItY, April IL, 1878.
GENTLEMEN: 1 sincerely regret hy in
ability to DO present at Sthe laying of the
corner stone OF So fionu9icnt to be erected
at Macon, Ga, in Honor of our dead Con-
federate soldiers" The event possesses
every attraction to me it is inspired by
the Ladies' Memorial Association the
monument is to be located in the key. stone
State of the Confederate arch; and to com.
fmemegates tbes sscri6o 6oessef, those Ahqs sdiod,
infhe defense OF our INHERITED AID ssinaIie.
nable" rights.
What though we were overborne by num-
bers, and accessories not less efficient, truth
is not to be measured by success in main
tanning it against force; nor is the glory
less Of him who upholds it in the face of
unequal odds, but is it not rather more to
his credit that he counted all else as dust
in the balance when weighed with honor
and duty? On many stricken field our
still, for they wore the panoply of uaques-
tloning confidence in the rectitudc of their
cause, and knew how to die but not to sur
render. Let not any of their survivors
impugn their faith by Offering the peniten-
tial plea that "they believed they were
right" BE it ours to transmit to posterity
our unequivocal testimony to the justice of
their convictions, to their virtues, and the
sanctity of the motives by which they were
actuated.
1t Is meet that this monument should
have originated with the ladies of the land,
whose selfdenial was conspicuous through
all the trials and sufferings of war, whose
gentle ministrations in the hospitals, and at
way-side refsctories, so largely contributed
to relieve the sick and tho wounded, and
whose unfaltering devotion to their country's
cause in the darkest hours of our struggle
illustrated the fidelity of the sex which was
last at the cross and first at the sepulchre.
| am profoundly thankful to them for in.
viting me to represent them, as their orator,
on the approaching occasion. Had it been
practicable to accept, their request would
have been, to me, o command. oheyed with.
no other reluctance than the consciousness
OF inability to do justice to the theme
Thanks to the merits of our Confederate
dead, they need neither orator nor bard to
commend their deeds to the present genera
tion of their c0ur .rymen. Many fell far
from home and Dindrcd, and sleep in un-
marked graves; but all are gathered in the
love Of those for whom they died, and their
memories are halowed in the hearts of all
true Confederates.
by the pious efforts of oar people, many
humble cemeteries, such as, in their impoy-
erishment, were possible, have been pre-
pared, and the Confederate dead have been
collected in them from neighboring battle
fields. There annually, with reyerential
affection, the graves, alike Of. the known
and the unknown, are decked With vernal
flowers, expressive of gratitude renewable
forever, and typical of the hope Of resur-
rection and reanion where the wicked cease
from troubling and the weary are at rest
To be remembered, honored, beloved by
their people is the reward bestowed on our
Confederate dead. 1t is the highest which
a good and purely patriotic man could de-
sire. Should it be asked, why, then, build
this monument! the answer is, they do not
need it, but postcrity may. II is not their
reward, but our debt If the greatest gift
a hero s ives his race is to have been hero,
in order that this gift may be utilized to
coming generations, its appreciation by con-
tcmporares should be rendered as visible
and enduring as possible. Let the monu-
ment, rising from earth toward heaven, lift
the minds Of those who come after us to n
higher standard than the common test of
success. Let it teach that man Is born for
duty, not for expediency; that when an
attack is made on the community to which
he belongs, by which he is protected and
to which his allegiance is due, his first OBJ
legation is to defend that community; and
that under such conditions it is better to
have "fought and lost than never to have
fought at ALL" Let postcrity learn by this
monument that you commemorate men who
died in defensive war; that they did not,
as has bccn idly stated, submit to the arb-
trament of arms the question at issue
questions which involved the inaiienable
rights inherited from their ancestors and
held in trust for their postcrity-but that
they strove to maintain the State sovereignty
which their fathers left them, and which it
was their duty if possible to transmit to
their children. A..
Away, then, with such feeble excuse for