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

Gods own very presence, consecrate
these names to the admiration the
gratitude and reverence of their chill.
dren. They go to those churches and
commune with the Son of God at His
altar and then come here and build an
altar to Treason and Infamy! 1t is
strange It 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 the outpourings of His own
Eternal Truth over the hearts and souls
of these women of Carolina; and by
their act under its dictates-by their deed
here to-day-it is proclaimed before God
and man that the worlds outcry of shame
and infamy is lie-a 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, to 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 to-day those who saw
these men fall on the battlefield, and
those who have grown in reverence for
them under your tutelage, come to the
sanctuary to invoke blessings on you and
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
in them, and yet, in the active work OF
patriotic life, be as far from John S.
Preston as pole is from pole.
Gen. Preston was imposing in his ap-
pearance, as in the breadth of his knowl-
edge and III the brilliancy of his public
utterances:
He was scholar. and ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading;
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
But TO those that sought him sweet as summer
A devout churchman, he was promi-
nent, too, and efficient in the support of
charitable and educational institutions.
And yet, we takeit 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 day in the
ruins which surrounded them fifteen or
sixteen years ago. All was then lostsave
honor. The honor still is ours; and we
have gained the freedom, the opportuni.
ties of moral, intellectual and industrial
growth, which seemed to have departed
forever. Indeed, they had departed. 1t
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 cf 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 such q man as John S.
Preston is not without its present signi-
fcance. 1t is a 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, as
much devotion, as, without thought of
self, was always found in him. Vir 6o-
mus dicen& peritus! But the world moves.
We can no more be what he were than
the oak can become an acorn. Such a
man as John S. Preston stands out like
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 be had not conceived,
we find the means to make this State q
part of one country, with one people and
one destiny. The dream is to be real
lied, but not as 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. Ereston's life. OF
his five children only two survive. The
last of his three sons was snatched
away q few months ago. 1t was too
much; though
He that doth the raTens feed,
Yea, providentially caters for the sparrow,
Was comfort to his age.