The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-05-22

sations of your hearts. For that venera-
tion you need no aid of association or of
memory; it lives in every faculty of your
being and in the vital convictions of your
existence. Memory may be lost in OBJ
livion-nature knows no apostacy. In
obedience to her dictates, kneel in the
pride and the purity of tilial piety, and
dedicate this monument to the truth for
which your fathers died. Their justified
spirits are approving your act.
At this point the four young girls,
dressed in white, who were to perform
the act of unveiling the monument, were
handed from the stand to the base of the
monument by four one-armed Confed-
crate soldiers. Four ropes were sus-
pended from the statue, and one of these
was placed in the hands of each of the
girls, and, by means of them, they drew
away the veil. The names of these girls
are Miss Chever McCord, Miss Roberta
Beck, Miss May Dargan and Miss Bev-
erly Means. The one-armed soldiers
who handed them from the stand were
Col. John G. Haskell, Capt. S. L. Leap
hart, Mr.. S. w. Rowan and Mr.. James
Fraser.
AS the veil fell from the noble and
beautiful and impressive proportions Of
the monument, hush fell upon the null
titude for moment as they gazed upon
it, and then their admiration and SYM
pathy burst forth in rounds of prolonged
and enthusiastic applause.
A member of the Richland Volunteers,
who was on the ladder behind the statue,
placed beautiful wreath upon the bay
onet of the Confederate soldier, and this
incident was greeted by the assemblage
with renewed cheers.
General Preston then resumed and
spoke thus:
And now, my countrymen, standing by
this consecrated symbol of the gravest
event in our own history--the grandest
and most pregnant event in the history
of civilization on this contnent-if we
look back through the time of twenty
centuries, we may see the mighty repub-
lie of Rome glowing sublime with the
power Of thousand States, her curule
chair on the thrones of an hundred kings
and the arm of Roman liberty aweing a
subject world, PROSTATE at her feet, to
the DEGREES of right and justice, when her
laws were more powerful than the COM
mands of men or the cohorts of soldiers
and these DEGREES are still her monu-
ments, challenging the admiration and
the adoption of civilized nations.
On the tomb of Alexander of Macedon
was written: "This is the grave of Alex
ander-his monument is two continents"
They were the worlds conquerors. The
monument of our conquerors is consol-
idated power from the Atlantic 10 the
Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf; the
graves of our soldiers is the sodden earth,
without name, on which these women
three days ago placed pale white flowers.
Their monument is subjugation and obe-
dience, honest obedience, 10 the consoli-
dated power of their conquerors.
True philosophy and the religion of
the Lord Jesus Christ teach us that the
hand of God is at all times in the dis
pensation of Providence. We dare not
scrutinize His purposes, and mortals' in
genuity cannot penetrate his designs.
May all his visitations to US be messages
of mercy to bring our faith closer to
Him, for the liberty of people is the
gift of God. This monument of stone is
placed on the spot where these women
stood shelterless in the bleak winter
night, with their old men and half naked
children, gazing thitherward at their
crumbling houses and the things sacred
to God but not secure from man, burned
to the ground by those who had slain the
men whose effigy ovcrtops that column.
1t looks toward that scene which you all
must remember, for it is scared with fire
on your hearts and brains. Go, ladies,
and call your sculptor here and bid him
complete his half-told tale and carve
there in deep relief your own images
crouching and shuddering and huddling
around the base, and then, if he can, give
it the supernatural power to utter the
voices of woe and terror, as an undertone
to the cracking flames Of your homes
and the shouts of your pursuers.
Is not this monument meant in part to
commemorate that scene? Many of you
remember Columbia before that day and
night. How beautiful the dear old town
was with its quiet, deep-shaded streets,
its comfortable, cheery-looking houses,
surrounded by gardens bright with ever.
greens and gorgeous with flowers, redo
lent of natures sweetest incense, its peo-
pie happy, cheerful and busy in honest
prosperous toll. We all knew each other
and every one trusted his neighbor, and
gentle charity waved her wand and
sceptre over us all. l remember itabout
ten months before its destruction. | had
come from the battle fields around Rich
mond, where the thunderbolts of war
were flashing perpetually. 1t was a
bright morning in the early May. The
earth was moist with dew, the balmy air
was laden with the perfume and spark
ling with the glow of flowers, the shaded
streets calm and quiet as if the war was
not raging. 1t was very beautiful as l
walked up to this very spot, as familiar
with every foot of the ways, with every
turn and corner, as with my own home.
I went back to the battlefield far away
and came here again one March morn
ing. In hunting for morsel of food for
my wife and children, l lost my way
among the smouldering and still smoking
ruins and was sickened by the stencil OF
decay and death. The conqueror was in
the capitol there and in that temple.
He was in your house and mine, and we
were shelterless. Like Syila at Athens,
he did not come here to learn our past
history, but to punish rebels-and of
course he could not pardon the living for
the sake Of their dead.
The day is past-the scene partly
changed. The memory is here-the re-
cord is there and there. When written
history shall truly record the struggle
which ended thus, every leaf may be
dripping with the tears of grief and woe,
but not page will be stained with a
stigma of shame. These women may
wreathc their cypress around the fetters
of martyrs and plant willows which over
shadow the laurcls they have won
their anthems may he wailing over un-
marked graves and their songs sound