Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-05-03

old tradition. Her youth volunteer I
serve and die in the streets of plague
stricken cities as readily as they wen
forth, boys and gray-halred men, to NEE
the threatened surprise Of. Petersburg
. as they volunteered to charge again an
again the cannon-crowned hills of Gel
tysbnrg, and to enrich with their blood
!. and honor with the name Of new vic
tory, every field around Richmond
Their sisters, mothers, wives aud daugll
terst are doing and suffering now, as the
suffered from famine, disease, incessan
anxiety and alarm throughout the fou
years Of the civil war. There may b.
among the various nations of the Aryal
family one or two who would claim tina
they could have furnished troops lik
: those which followed Lee and Johnston
Stuart and Stonewall jackson. But W,
doubt whether there be one race besid,
our own that could send forth it's chill
dren by hundreds, to face in towns desc
latea by the yellow fever the horrors
a nurses life and the immineIit terror O.
martyrs DEATH"
When, then, people capable of max
ing 70 glorious 0 war record; capable
since the surrender, Of so much f0rtitudt
in the patient endurance of injustice
misrale and political tyranny; capable Of
the splendid civic heroism shown BY
them during the months of plague; when
sach p people, capable Of highest achieve.
ments in war and in peace, left the old
Union, they did it on principle; and
fighting, they fought for principle; and,
dying, they died for principle, for truth,
for right, for home, family and country
for that which the true and brave are
ever willing to seal with their hearts
blood. They lost in the fight; they were
beaten; their flag no longer floats; they
went down and, rs nation, are without
a government and national existence;
but, they lost not because they should
not have won; they were not beaten be-
cause they were unworthy Of victory;
their flag no longer floats not because it
had no right; they went down and have
now no national life not because their
cause was wrong and they did not dare
and strive to live.
All, never did men have nobler cause,
nor treer bare their bosoms to the foe to
win that cause. Who shall deny this
when that nOblest man Of this age, that
Christian soldier, Robert e. Lee. es-
pOused that cause and led the Southern
trOOpsf
"Torth froEgits scabbard never hand
Waved stsord from stain as free,
Nor purer sword led Drawer band,
Nor Drawer bled for brighter light,
Nor brighter land had q cause more
grand,
Nor cause q chief--Iike Lee"
The cause of the South is a Lost
Cause, not because she neglected aught
of sacrifice and effort to make it other
wise; but, simply because (and the his
tory of her struggle tells no other taIe)
her matchless devotion and her splendid
herOism, scarce if ever eqnalled, were
pOwerless to drive back the numbers or
offset the resources Of her foe. The one
only reason for her non-snccess is in the
fact that the odds against her were too
heavy.ss Every man, woman and child
of us, then, may this day take an honest
pride in the thought, that, had it been
withsn human possibility, the men who
went to battle for us would have won
the fight.
However, it is not we'll to dwell much
on the past, for we live in the present
and, as did orr dead in their day, SO must
.ce in ours, do our whole duty, believing
it to be true, as our Lee said-"Duty Is
the snblimest word in our LANGUAGE
We are in the Union and it will stand.
The States are united under a common
government and we should have no wish
to sunder or disturb it. The men Of the
South took no small part in the making
OF the Union, their leaving it eighteen
years cost them the pains and anguish
of a woman On giving birth, the war ON
their part was the result Of honest and
Thorough conviction, they did their ut
most to get away from and to live out
side OF the Union; failing and forced
back by resistless power, there have
been, since then, no more loyal people
anywhere from Oregon to Florida,
or from Maine to Texas We are per-
tecsly satisfied that, though the charge
has often been made, yet at no time |
since the war, has there been any con-
siderable hatred of the men and the peo
pie who fought us so we'll. If there did |
exist any such feeling towards our North
err brethrens l am sure that it has gone
forever, washed away in the magnificent
tide of real fraternity and brothcrly love,
that last summer flooded our fever
stricken Southland in the shane of
prompt and princely relief, perhaps
never before equalled in tho worlds his
tory. This touch of genuine affection
and positive love on the part of the men
of the North reached and conquered the
men of the South, and the hearts of the
sections are welded into one.
With nothing but kindness and love
tor our countrymen all over this united
land, we yet feel that, loyal as any, we
have to-day the right to stand by the
graves of our dead and call IN their
loved forms and tell over their deeds of
valor, and, while our tears fall thick
and fast upon its every page, read again
the history that they made. The deck
ing of the graves of loved ones as carried
out once a year by my Roman Catholic
brethren has always had charm for
me. And why should not to-day be as
sacred to our every heart as we deck the
graves Of our braves and think upon
heir forms and ieeds9
The Confederates WHO sleep in this
beautiful spot were personally unknown
20 me; yet, though unknown, they are
lot unloved by mo- II is enough to
know they wore the gray-that makes
hem mine-for, had noble brother
who wore the same and who leading
,harge at second Manassas, fell and was
buried on the field. He fought, died,
md was buried in the gray and so, l say,
o you all-fathers, mothers, wives, bro
hers, sisters, children and friends of these
IGNORED dead-that l mingle my tears
With yours as you bedew the sods that
est so lightly above their dear forms.
there were none Drawer in all our hosts
han the sons of Louisiana, and Us brave {
IS the bravest were these whose bodies /
est here awaiting the resurrection morn. 3,
iuard these mounds, cherish the patriot
lust within them, and each April Spring