Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-06-12

mountains of West Augusta, and I will rally
around me the men who will raise our eleeo-
ing country from the dust and set her free!'
with such traditions and such a heritage OF
glory, again it is no source of wonder when the
sons OF West Augusta, in q later and more ter
rifle strife, with the spirit and prowess OF a
conquering race, formed that immorta! brl-
gade, whose name and whose deeds will be
ever associated with the lustrous history OF
their peerless leader, who in hundred DatJles
here on the shores of your classic stream, ana
on the plains of the East breasted the ava
lanche of invasion and ever stood unterrifed
amid appalling dangers, steady and hrm as
wall of stonel
Amid these peaceful scenes and hallowed
associations, We cannot let the occasion pass
without recalling the part taken in those
bloody days by the women OF Virginia ana the
History tells us that the Carthagenian mai
deDs-those Godesses of WARM the hour OF
their city's direst stress, clipped from tnelr
heads their beautiful f1aXen tresseS, and with
their own hands twisted them into bow strings
Inese they gave as willing offering TO thelr
defenders and they rejoced to think that their
silken skeins would send kissing messengers
OF death to the hearts of the beleaguerlng
hosts.
The Southern woman, in q cause dearer to
her heart, more than equaed the heather
maiden in her devotion. In the presence of
such exalted excellence, it were tame to tell
OF Roman or of Spartan mothers. For TOUR
long years, in the hour of victory and IN the
day of tribulation and disaster, the southern
woman shed the matchless radiance Geo, OF her
presence, and her sympathy at the fireside, in
the hospital, and on the Dattleneld Win a
heart bleeding with grief, but with the smile
of an angel she sent forth from the portals of
her home those that were nearest and dearest
to face the storm of war. Sharing every labor,
soothing every wound fond mothers, tender
or crushed by fearful news of death and
slaughter, still worked and prayed for the
common cause, and patiently struggled under
burdens and privations that would have
brought
"Tears down Pluto's iron cheek -
thus giving assurance to the world and to us
the proud boast that our beauty will also ever
But we 1sust turn from the past and look to
the present and the future. These silent
mounds emit no influence of bitterness or of
strife. Their'dead tenants did their duty and
nobly died. 1t is for us to do our duty while
still we live. Let us waste no time in hopeless
repinings. Be it ours to carry into the enter
prises OF civic life the same lofty courage, the
same high purposes and splendid energies that
were illustrated by Southern sodiery 'in the
day and hour OF dangerr Our shattered towns
have already been rebuilt, our devastated
fields burdened with fruitful harvests.
From the mountains to the sca-b board, on ev-
cry hand, we see manifold evidences of a rich
and Fastening prosperity.
But the men of the South have still higher
and nobler mission to perform. We need
native Literature! We have already accom-
plishet much in this line of development, but
still the lives and deeds or our great leaders
and of our people of the Revolutionary era,
and of the nearer and dearer past come to us
too much filtered through the prejudice and
judgment of alien and foreign intellect We
of the South must be no longer spendthrifts of
our glory.
Our land and our cline are redolent of pre-
ciOus and splendid memories. May the pen of
some Southern Tacitus yet mould into endur-
ing form the annals of our people, and call
forth from the bosom of our historic soil all
the sleeping fragrance of sentiment, Of thought,
and of action.
Then will our dead be indeed secure and
their names and their deeds VIII glisten high
up on the pillars of fame along with, and at
home among, the SageS and the heroes. whose
of all ages and OF all generations of men.
"Great men have lived amongst US, heads that
planned,
And tongues that uttered wisdom, better none"
Quoting almost the language of one of vir-
ginia's most gifted orators. my invocation is,
that the pious hands of her sons may renew
the fading coors of our Southern picture; that
native genius may lend its listening ear to
catch the broken words in which the breathing
of tradition is yet murmuring the fame of our
comrades and fathers, and utter them IN the
living and imperishable voice of History!
Felow-v volunteers of the city of stanton
and county of Augusta to you would in clos
ing, say, that you are appropriately here on this
occasion in military array. The unroubled
faces of this assembly; the sweet Influences Of
the day; the presence of beauty-ail tell US
that it is Peace. Long may this Peace continue
to bless the land! But it is well for each of
you to treasure up the memories that are kim
died by these ceremonies, aud to cOntemp ate
that these dead heroes, of your blood and lin
cage, have had their part in deeds and strug-
giles far mightier than those that were wrought
Dy mail clau DOSCS WIN DlllS ana BOWS, auG
knightly lances at Poictiers and at Greasy. Cling
to these memories; for such treasures of heroic
action and sacrifice are pregnant with hopes
TOR humanity itself And while. as the circli G
years are ambered with the past. we should
rejoice in the blessings of a once more united
and peaceful country; yet should war come.
our volun teers, our Virginia volunteers, ami
mated by such dauntless EXAMPLES by the
hearth and the altar, and on the fields
where the mighty stood, would Il ach an
invading foe that cleaning arms and bur-
nshed bayonets are not emblems OF mere
passing pageantry, and that the fires still liv-
ing in the ashes of the fathers glow slso1n hn-
SONS of the sons. and thGs. in II the Vcisi-
tudes of peace and war, whether of victory or
disaster it will be ours to know that our Vir-
ginia honor and our Virginia fame, in the fu-
ture as in the past, untarnished, win be guard
ed as by q shield of firei