The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1878-05-30
THE OLDEST PAPER
The Largest Circulation.

day in such scenes as this of which
, we are the centre. They four dead)
were heroes on the battlefield, but
woman vas hero and more at home.
+ woman doomed nightly in her dreams to
hear
The bolts of war around her rattle,
Has shed as sacred blood as e'er
Was poured upon the field Of battle.
Faithful among the faithless she
stands to day the beautiful evangel
of brighter hopes and sweeter joys,
as she teaches our children the great
lessons of republican principles, of
true democratic government her
eye fixed on the beautiful star
around which gIows in blazing letters
"peace on earth, good will among
men"
This spirit of Southern beroism,
devotion to native State, to wife and
child and home is the true altar
flame Of the South This love of
country and free self government, is
the dearest object of the Southern>
er's hope. This adherence to the
death to constitutional right and
constitutional duty is the most gem
ial element of his national heritage,
most generous, proud and indepen-
dent of the principles of his nation
al existence. This spirit nerves the
arm and flames the speech. 1t
makes the old man young again and
gives to youth manlier life. 1t
pulses through a generation and
forces it to hear the rushing of the
mighty stream of tendency. 1t
thrills for ages through the libres of
the human heart, pealing forth, in
no weak orchestra of cold regret or
languishing sentiment, but ringing
out n the glorious dapason of u
peoples harmony. This is the blaz-
ing torch that lights the flames of
the mind at the fires of the soul.
1t is this grand spirit that gave
to the South and to history those
choice spirits, those ever hallowed
names of Albert Sydney Johnson,
Stoncwall Jackson and that grand
old giant of battles, Robert E. Lee.
This mighty impelliug power that SO
splendidly illustrates Southern char
acter has tinged the heights of Get
tysburg and Manassas with its
golden glow, and spread over the
plains of-tEe blood stained South the
sunny suffusion of hope. 1t gave to
fredericksburg nav Thermopylse
and lit its beaaon fires along tho
Missionary Ridge and the Cihcas
manga. 1t mingled its gorgeous
dyes with the deep azure of Virgins
las skies aud rolled in effulgent
surges over the plains and hills of
Georgia. 1t Numbered in the can>
non of Sumter and flashed from
every surcharged spirit in the South.
1t cheered the patriot in his strug>
giles and pours to- day flood of ra-
dance into the bosom of the South
land AS we can not be everywhere
to-day and in laying our offering on
these graves we crown the thousands
of Southerners tombs and remember
the hosts of Southern and of North
ern dead where con every Hill they
lie on every field Of strife made red
by bloody victory" so can only
name 1.-THE of the fields of mighty
conflict and few of the glorious he's
roes who illumined history with
brave deeds while we have them all
in our heart of hearts and so with
wives and maids, with old men and
youths, with boys and girls, | lay
flowers over our dead and raise
peon of honor to their memories.
Comrades in arms of the noble
dead, you and know something of
their trials and sufferings. We re-
member the stains of blood from
shoeless feet on the SHOWS of Virgin
ian hills, the inadequate food and
scant clothing the best our Confed-
eracy had to give-the toilsome
march by day and tentless bivouac
by night, the dead picket or wound
ed skirmishers, or the heaps Of dead
and dying amid the rattle Of the
musketry and salvoes Of cannon in
the wild, mad shock of bloody battle.
They lie here and we are left to
learn from theiI glorious example TO
emulate their heroic virtues. We
are here around these sad memene
toes of lost cause, under the
broad folds Of the "stars and
stripes" once more sour flag" to
pledge to the world our fidelity to
the true principles of Constitutional
liberty and that the South will
ever be faithful to that century>old
flag while it remains the symbol of
freedom and guarantees its rights to
every state and its immunities to
every citizen, as agreed at Apps
mattox, between Ulysses S. Grant
and Robert e. Lee. Here they lie,
their graves attended by sweet wo-
mans hand, in the historic path of
"the march to the sea-" on the high
est point on this parallel between
the Atlantic and the Mississippi,
near up to the sun, 10 cannon sound
of where fell the gallant Polk, under
the shadows Of yon Kennesaws, well
come to the motherly bosom of Geor-
gis's soil. And here let them lie
while their fame sweeps on for aye;
their memory, growing grander as