The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-05-12

invoking with holy and solemn rites
Gods own very presence, consecrate
these names to the admiration the
dren. They go to those churches and
altar and then come here and build an
altar to Treason and Infamy It is
strange! 1t is very strange! Oh it is
very, very strange! Human example.
human logic fail to remove the veil from
this mystery. There is but one solution.
Where can it be found? Blessed be the
Omniscient God, who knows all Truth.
it is found in tho outpourings Of His own
Eternal Truth over the hearts and souls
of these women Of Carolina; and by
their gct under its dictates-by their deed
here to-day-it il proclaimed before God
and man that the worlds outcry Of shame
and infamy is a liza deep. dyed damned
lie; and that this monument to the Con.
federate soldiers is the emblem and the
substance Of Truth. Yes, women Of
South Carolina, by all that is holy, by
all that is sacred on earth and before
God, by all that is true, you are justified
IN placing this monument here, on this
spot. as the altar, the sanctuary, 10 which
In pious pilgrimage you may lead your
sons in all the days to come. You have
made this ground holy for all coming
time; and here today those who saw
these men fall on the battlefield, and
those who have grown in reverence for
them under your tntelage, come to the
sanctuary to invoke blessings on you aud
to worship the valor which demanded
this monument and the virtue which has
builded it," Memorable words all these :;
and we can repeat them, and believe
i'll them, and yet, in the active work of
patriotic life, be as far from John S.
Preston rs pole is from pole.
Gen. Preston was imposing in his ap-
pearance, as in the breadth Of his knowl-
edge and i'll the brilliancy of his public
utterances:
he was a scholar, and ripe and good ono;
Ef1Seedimg f1x %ise; da,i,rapoheI ,,p and psrsuadins
But to those that sought him sweet as summer.
A dcvout churchman, he was promi.
nent, too, and efficient in the support of
charitable and educational institutions.
And yet we take it, he will be remem-
bered chiefly for what he was not. Had
the South been compounded of such men
as he, the people whom he knew and
whom he valued would rest to- day in the
sixteen years ago. All was then lost save
honor. The honor ILL is ours; and we
have gained the free lom. the opporiuni.
ties of moral, intellectual and industrial
growth, which seemed to have departed
forever. Indeed, they had departed. It
was those who differed from Gen. Pres
ton, in their mode of discharging their
duty to their country and to themselves,
who severed the chain which bound the
South uselessly to the body CT the dead
past. What of that dead past is worth
saving is saved by those who went forth
into the new struggle after Appomattox,
and not by those who then Withdrew to
what tents were left, and remained there.
The life of su' IL man as John S.
Preston is not without its present signi-
ficance. 1t is life without which, in its
retarding and regulating influences the
State would not be what it is. Upon its
spotlessness we look with loving eyes,
wishing that, in this quality, each and
every career could be what his was.
| Upon his eloquence we look with fervent
admiration, wishing that, in this practical
day, grace could be always joined to force
and form to substance. Upon his single
mindedness we look with an earnest
| desire to have, in smaller persons, rs
much devotion, as, without thought OF
self, was always found in him. Vir 6o-
nus dicend ceritus! But the world moves.
We can no more be what he were than
the oak can become an acorn. Such q
man as John S. Preston stands out like
a monument in the plain marking the
| distance we have travelled. 1t should be
our boast that we have clung to the high
| qualities that his very name embodies,
and that, in ways that he never thought
of, in manner he had not conceived,
we find the means to make this State a
part of ono country, with one people and
one destiny. The dream is to be real
lied, but not AZ he and we expected. To
learn all that is worth learning and for
get what should not be remembered is
alike wise and profitable for the South.
Sorrows came swift and fast in the
| closing years of Gen. Preston's life. Of
his five children only two survive. The
last Of his three sons was snatched
away few months ago. It was too
much though
lie that doth the ravens feed,
Yea. providentially caters for the sparrow,
Was comfort to his age.