Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-05-20
DECORATION DAY AT EBENEZER.
Reported for the YOrkyille Enquirer.


Ebenezcr Cemetery OF Monday, the 10th of
May, and the graves of the Confederate
soldiers. buried there were covered with
flowers by loving mothers, sisters, wives
and children.
The services were opened with an appro-
pirate prayer by Rev. J. G. Kilgo, of Rock
Hill NJ. +. Church.
The presiding officer, Rev. J. II. Thorn
well, called the roll of those who gave their
lives in defence Of their country and are
buried in the cemetery. He then paid a
most beautiful tribute to the memory of Mr..
Samuel ID. Barron, the originator of these
services at EbeneZer, who since the last
decoration day has joined his departed
friends and brothers. Mr.. ThornWell then,
in a few Well-chosen remarks, introduced to
the large assemblage Capt. Iredell Jones,
the orator of the day, who delivered the
following address:
Ladies of the Memorial Association of Ebcn-
cZer: This is a solemn occasion. AS time pass
es, and the farther we leave in the distance the
records and deeds of the Confederate soldier, the
dearer to us becomes the memory of his acts,
because the nearer we approach an impartial
Judgment concerning those acts. This, | repeat,
is a solemn OCCASION. l wish it were otherwise.
I would like to feel happier than I do. / would
like to rejoice all of us together; but the impress
sion of the Lost Cause is too deeply imprinted
on my memory to bring forth smiles from me.
The occasion does not warrant it. We are here
to mourn and drop a tearof sympathy forthose OF
our friends and relatives and cOuntrymen who
offered and lost their lives in defence of their
country.
4 Confederate soldier! What memories hang
around him! What hopes lost; what trials suf-
fered what sins committed in attempting his
humiliation! To draw a picture of the tender
offerings made to-day, all over our Sunny South,
by our noble women, the deep sympathy, the
gentle thought, as they hover around the graves
of the Confederate dead and strew them with the
sweetest and choices flowers of Spring, and to
see the pretty and innocent children, as they fol-
low with their little arms full of garlands and
their hearts light and gay, and then to cast
around and witness some manned and aged
soldier in solemn thought over the scene, re-
quires, | must admit, a power for graphic de-
scription which | do not possess. Take the
soldier from the fond embrace of his home
circle, send him away with life and spirit, full of
hope and breathing the fresh air of liberty, and
return him in the cold arms OF death-bury him.
This makes a scene Of sorrow unequaled in the
sorrowful events of life. Yet sixty thousand
soldiers with sword and buckler FURNISHED for
the fray, with gay and Joyous hearts, left their
Coordination blood stained battle
fields. How many have returned? Let the
widows and the orphans and the desolate hearth
stones tell! Let the sorrows and the sufferings
ofthe brave, true women OF the State-not only
the cultured anu Tile euuClleu, luOSe III IL IlBH-
err circles of life, but the poor and needy and
humble-let all classes, all conditions ofour peo-
pie, answer. Yet we are asked to forget! For
get the genial smiles Of our loved ones as they
looked in life to us! Forget the tendercst ties
in nature our affections, our ruined hopes and
fortunes, fathers, brother, husbands, friends and
all that life holds dear! No we will forget these
memories never!
This day is the anniversary of the death of
"Stonewall Jackson" Twenty-Five years ago,
~ tI,ot yvhnn tho rrpnt rpyprSaS of the
Confederacy began and the brilliant laurels
won against heavy odds on many eventful bat
tle-fields looked as if they must be lost again,
the sad news was heralded over the country that
Stonewall Jackson was no more. He was wound
ed on the memorable night OF the End of May,
after making his last and most celebrated flank
movement, by which the right wing of Hookers
army was almost demolished and routed, the
military which resulted in a sweep
ing victory ut charlottesville He fell at the
time of his greatest glory, and the most untortu-
nate part of the CIRCUMSTANCE was that he fell by
the fire of his own men. That man OF genus,
a Christian soldier, was lost; lost to the cause
he loved so well, and lost to the people who had
learned to believe that victory must follow where
Jackson led! How appropriate, then, that in
dropping our tears of sympathy over the graves
of the Confederate dead, that We selected the day
on which their great Christian soldier died.
But, my friends, what are we to say of the
causes of the war Weare told to submit. We
NV lOi'a W 'ittNc hsA'' ">AOS" DOS
chasm : that the cause Of the Confederacy was
unjust; that its soldiers were inspired by no true
principles. We have been called Rebels, and all
the anathcmas in the catalogue of crime have
been attributed to us. Amidst it all we are
warned to forbear that treason stalks abroad in
every utterance. Shall we who are charged with
the important trust of handing down to posteri-
ty the facts of history, fear to speak the truth?
Shall we admit that the Southern soldiers whose
memories we are here to-day to commemorate,
,yoro nptuota,1 Inv no birhpr nrincinlp in their
great struggle than motives OF treason or rebel
ion? Which section first violated the c%onstitu-
tional principles Of the government of the Uni
ted States? Which section first lnterfered with
the institutions Of the South? The Constitution
of the United States, which was handed down to
us by our fathers, guaranteed the equal rights OF
the States Of the Union, and an equal protection
to their property. Which party, under the au.
thority of "a higher law" first raised its hand to
strike ut the rights of property in these South
ern States ? Read, young men, the record OF the
past, and believe, as tell you to-day, that there
never would have been a war between the States
if the Constitution had been respected. But the
greed for gain and the lust for power, added to a
wild fanaticism which a quarter OF a century OF
oppression and misrule has not been sufficient
to allay, was the true cause of the war. The
North was a manufacturing community; the
South was agricultural. Their interests at the
period preceding the war were more antaSonlStlc
than now. \ tariff for protection, which filled
lIlC lie VI AVN" lSistIi tS nv No
South, was the cause of the great Notification
movement in 1892. The restrictions of the rights
of the South in the territories, and the aggres-
siOns which were steadily made against the lnStl-
tutions Of the South, eliminated in the election
of a Republican President, elected by the North
upon a platform of hostility to Southern rights
and Southern institutions. Orators and states
men in vain appealed to the party in power to
treat the South with justice, and to adhere to the
constitutional principles of our government.
But on the wild wave of fanaticism the North
was deaf TO all entreaty, and the Confederate SOL
der believing that the steady cncroachments on
his rights would at last endangerhis liberty, and
what followed let the history of the CORY battle
fields ola fOur-yearS' war tell to succeeding gen.
e%rations. Remember this, my young friends.
Remember that slavery was not the only cause
of the war. 1t was the occasion not the only
cause. : The principles of liberty live to-day.
They will never die, l hope, while the blood of
an AnglO-SaXon courses i'll our veins.
The country IS at peace to day. trust II may
be an enduring peace. 1t is a qualification to us
all to feel so, and | believe to-day express the
feeling of all the people Of South Carolina that
the Union now preserved, should endure toreV-
err; and that the slaves now set free should re-
main so through countless ages.
But to-day the South feels that there has been
a rcvulsion in the great head of the Nation.
Misrulc and fanaticism have been hurled from
power, and there sits in the Presidential CHAIR OF
the United States Government a chief magls-
tratc who believes that the glory, the power,
and the welfare Of our country depend upon a
Just and equitable execution of its laws. and
who entertains Il proper respect for the rights
of the States. May God grant that the Govern
mcnt will always be Justly administered, AMI
countless ages witness Il united, prosperous and
happy people.
My young friends, you are sooner or later to
assist in guiding the destinies Of the Republic.
Let the animosities of sectional war pass out OF
vour minds, but cherish the memory OF your
dead forcfathcrs and love to sing their deeds
of valor. Love the spirit Of liberty and love
look upon her with Il jealous eye and be ready
to resent the first foul blow at her rights, and
rise in your might to still the tongue and shat
tor tho arm which maN be raised to lcSccratp