The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1889-03-01
A LIVING HERO TO THE HEROIC DEAD.


before the Alabama Legislature APP
propriating 100000 to build mon
ument at Montgomery to Alaba-
mas Confederate dead. One OF
the most eloquent and effective
speeches made III favor Of the meas
ure was by the Hon. Charles Rat
terry, Of Cherokee county. This
gentleman has been IA gallant Col
onel in the Union Army during the
civil war, but had since become a
citizen of Alabama and a member
of the Legislature from pOpulous
county. In the course of very
fine speech he SAID:
The bill before the House pre-
sents a subject well calculated to
open mems mouths and move mems
hearts. 1t embraces a trinity un-
excelled on earth-affection, graft
tude and duty. Let us study these,
and then not as the cringing slaves
who fear the rod, but as the scions
of Illustrious sires, act
Some may ask why does he, who,
a quarter Of a century ago, was
shot at by the ones whose deaths
the money asked for in the bill
commentaries, defend the bill2
| answer: Npt because | loved
secession, but because ny brothers
died that it might live.
| am a firm believer in the all
powerful influence of circumstan-
ces and the inexorable logic of
events. saw a girl whose cheek
was as far as the lily, whose heart
was as tender as the mothers Tor
the infant that nestled its head
upon her breast; her soul was as
pure as the dew drop that sparkled
and trembIed upon the rose petals
that beaulifieG the garden of a
happy home. | saw her when the
black winged vulture of disease
fastened his talOns in her heart,
and when the death angel tore her
IRON her weeping friends. l saw
another, once as pure as she, sitting
by the wayside clothed in rags !;
her body was filled with pollution
and her soul was filled with crime
She cursed her own sex, and God
and man, and she, too, died and
was buried unknown and unwept.
saw the minister as he stood in
the sacred desk, his burning words
electrified his hearers, and a vast
crowd wept under the influence oil
his GOd-like eloquence. | was
proud to think that | could look
upon him as a man and call him
brother. | saw another sight, a
motley crowd gathering on an EN-
inence. | saw women jostled, and
heard the cries of little ones and
the jeering of the mob as it passed
on TO witness the dreadful scene.
! saw the scaffOld, and the pinion-
ed wretch whose crime demanded
his lie. saw the trap sprung and
a being launched into eternity.
Mr.. Speaker, all these came from
one great source alike, and circum-
stances made them benefactors-
fiends.
Had my boyhood years and ear
ly manhood been spent where the
ever bloom, and where
The mandates of The ice king are
laughed at by the sun, | might, if
not wearing the eagle, have carried
The Knapsack and the gun under
Ihe stars and bars, while you, if
reared in the North, would have
your name and country
under The stars and stripes.
came 10 this house not TO ask |
when duty called, is it POPULAR?
out to stare responsibility In the |
ace and act accordingly.
| thank God that all cold pru-
lence and all worldly selfshness
lave gone down the stream OF time,
With me, and like drlftwood in a
liver flooded with new rain from
would not be a slave to popu-
antv-io fan it when it sleeps and |
remble when it wakes, Tor al! the
lifts that sycOphancy Graves.
vas panied when | listened TO the
'emarks of the gentleman from
Jlark, reminding us that there was
else than sentiment in
he bill, a question OF $4,000. He
ne of The wretched mi
er, who when the wife who help
ID him accumulate his wealth had
he'd. concluded there was no ne
,essily TO furnish Ter with burial
clothes or coffin, and threw her in
/ ditch.
Mr.. Speaker, this house cannot
Ihuffe off The responsibility of this
luur. There never was q people
IA the earth that cringingly refused
o pay some substantial tribute or
,ifering to the memory of their
leroic dead, either by pyramid or
pink, by mound or shalt; the ma
ION that refused would be anathe
na marantha.
Had the Confederacy succeeded.
ollowlng the same common i'm
pulses aud VOWS of other peoples
md nations, she would have made
iome reasonable effort 10 recognize
he worth of the lives of her heroes
gho persisted for her cause.
When thu Confederacy went
iown in that terrible sea of blood,
with 100000 wounded and dying
soldiers chanting her requim, and
n the presence OF 50,000.O00 of
men, women and children dressed /