Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-31
THE DEAD AT BEAUFORT.
DECORATION DAY AYOBsERVANCEs.
The CeremcnIes at the National
Cemetery-A Large Attendance-A
Big Day for the COlOred People
Fine Military DIsplay-TemperaTe
Address of Judge COVgIey.

BEAUFORT, May 30.-Decoration day was
observed here to-day with the usual cere.
monies, and, although there was great
crowd Of negroes In town, the attendance
was not as large as has been customary on
such occasions.
The National Cemetery is just out of the
town, and is a lot of thirty acres enclosed
with a neat brick fence and regularly laid
OFF with trees and strawberries. 1t contains
the graves of nine thousand two hundred
and forty-one Federal and one hundred and
seventeen Confederate soldiers. The Fed
eral graves are marked with marble head
stones and those of the Confederates with
wooden boards. There was no distinction
observable in the decorations, which were
very few, but seemed to be distributed with
out any especial regard to sections.
The military parade, in which the Geor-
gla Artillery Of Savannah took part, was
very creditable, and seemed to be the chief
object OF attraction to the colored people.
The ceremonies at the cemetery were
opened by prayer, after which Mr.. j. w.
Collins, the Intendant of the town, deliv-
cred conservative opening address.
The celebration, he said, brought them
together, forgetting all the differences
OF the past, to doibonor to the memory of
the men who had died for principle. He
introduced Judge Charles CowleY, of
Lowell, Mass, who was Judge Advocate
General of Dahlgren's feet during the late
war.
Mr.. Cowley opened his address with a
historic review of Port Royal and it's sur
roundtngs. This he said was not the occa-
sion to trace the incidents of the struggles
between France and Spain and France and
England which occurred near this place.
but attention was called to the fact that one
contest begat the other. The slave trade, so
far as the territory of the United States
was concerned, first began at Port Roval
aud was continued there until the war
ended it. He referred to the efforts that
had been made at Port Royal for the
amelioration of the wards Of the nation by
General Sherman and read a letter from
that gentleman explaining why his orders
distributing the sea islands among the
freedmen We're not carried out. In the letter
Sherman says:
"My army was far away from our sup
plies, and it was with lnfnite difficulty I
could procure for it the food, clothing and
stores necessary for daily maintenance, much
less to fill our wagons for the next campaign
across the Carolinas to Virginia, which cam
paign, contend, was one of the principal
causes OF the sudden collapse of the South
ern ConfederacY. Had I postponed the
execution of that campaign, in order to
feed the vast crowd Of refugees at and near
Savannah, we might have been forced to
wait another year under load of expense
which might have proved fatal to the gov.
eminent itself. at least, such was the ex-
pressed opinion Of Mr.. Stanton, who had
come to Savannah partly to represent this
TACT, to stimulate my further movements,
and to give me the full benefit of his official
authority to hurry up the necessary pre-.
parations.
'Some people at the South, as we'll as
North, were so wrapt with the humanita-
rian idea to help the poor slave that they
would have ignored the greater purpose, tO
use our magnificent armies, then full of
confidence, streBgth and experience, to
conquer our defiant enemy, thus to create
peace and give ample time to adjust all
the civil questions resulting from the war
itself"
He adds that the order issued by him neces
sarlly ceased to be of force upon the cessa-
ton of hostilities.
Coming down to the present time, the
speaker, after reviewing the respective doc
trines of States rights and Federalism from
a very high national" point of view, ad.
AAlIGLuE tnhb WnIl6 tue n6u VINO were DQrlc0
in the Federal cemetery at Beaufort had
died in the defense of principle which
was their Inheritance, and which
they believed to be right, the men
who had died in the defense of
the Lost Cause were just as honest, as patri-
otic and as disinterested. He said that he
had been surprised to find such broad and
liberal sentiment in the South He cited a
conversation with the Rev A. Toomer Por-
ter, of Charleston. That distinguished di-
vine, he said, had told him that while he
would never admit that he was rebel or q
traitor in espousing the cause of the South
in the late war, yet he had taken the oath OF
allegiance to the Government of the United
States, and having accepted the "national''
view, he would not be enabled to enter into
another war against the government with
out being guilty Of treason and rebellion.
The rest OF the Grafton was devoted to a
very practical and encouraging summary of
the wonderful progress that had been made
by the State of South Carolina since the
war, to the development of manufactures
and to the earnest efforts in the South to
educate the negro. He had found, he said,
cheerful and progressive spirit prevailing
in the South, and he predicted for her peo.
pie happy, useful and prosperous future.