Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1889-07-30

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wore the gray, now blended into one, can re-
call the rapid march or the pleasant halt in
your historic place.
Devastated, dismantled and impoverished
then, you have outlived the ravages of war,
and in the three decades succeeding have made
that material progress indicative of the energy
OF your people.
Tue avenues of prosperity have been opened
and improved the iron rail now links your
town with distant places. Morgan's Grove in
vites the friendly rivalry of various produc-
tons A fire department well equipped pro-
tects your property from the consuming ele-
ment
Your citizons, ever patriotic, ever true, have
gathered the Confederate dead into your beau
tiful cemetery aud have reared over their last
resting place the monumental stone, at tribute
of the living to departed worth aud Yalor.
1t has been aptly said that the brightest
jewels in the coronet of a nation are the ashes
of her heroic dead" and It was meet and
proper, it was becoming and obligatory, that
they thought just should rest together in the
sleep of death, and the surviving friends and
comrades should honor their memory and pay
tribute to their valor.
And as each year rolls round, repairing to
that sacred spot, we mean to go with flowers
culled as natures latest offering, to decorate
their graves.
But there are other indications of enterprise
and progress. This hall that has been 30 aus
piciously begun is a present evidence of the
liberality of your citizens. the energy and in
huencc or your ladies. In defining the char
acter of your people IL is self-evident that what
they undertake is sure to be accomplished
The generous gift of tho land. the courage and
industry of those who have it in charge. the
public interest excited, insure its speedy COM
pletiOn.
The history of the undertaking is worthy of
more than passing notice. a conception of
the ladies of Shepherdstown. it has like the
acorn grown into the promising oak. Tho
dream of five years ago has reached the con-
fines of possibility and reality. For it was in
1854 that the Ladies' Town Hall and Library
Association of Shepherdstown was organized
without means, hut rich in hope and purpose
beset with difficulties on every hand. but rcsO-
lutte. determining and unyielding; each mem
Der imbued with the idea that in tue Lexicon
of their Society there were such word as
fail, they struggled onward over the rocks of
doubts and through the thorns and brambles
of discontinue inuumerable, gathering little
by little until their zeal. influence and fidelity
enlisted the attention of one of your leading
philanthropists who secured this beautiful and
coEveuient'site and other valuable assistance.
Aud though to-day great work has been ac-
complished, the location fixed. the corner
stone laid, there is much yet to be done. The
ladies appeal to all present to assist them iu
the labor. a bOuntiful collation. has been pre-
pared and the funds realized are to be applied
to this purpose and object. To every one this
appeal is made by the ladies of your town.
You soldiers who are here and who have so
recently recalled your comradeshp over the
turf that marks the graves of fallen friends
and comradc. remember that it was the moth
ers of these young ladies who during the dark
and lowering days of go to 6j who with a he
roism unexccllcd administered to your COM
forts; remember that chiefly through their eff
forts, that city of the dead now holds their
honored clay and the enduring marble shaft
commentaries their lives And having COM
pleted that loving task committed to their
keeping, With equal arder they have embarked
in this enterprise of great benefit With
claims upon your gratitude and respect they
ask your hearty support and unwavering en-
courageluent
IN this desultory manner / have traced with
rapid pen the Improvement in your town. 1t
is in harmony with the material advance of
the Anglo-Saxon race. In affairs. political
material and scientific, in both State and ma
ton, the bird of progress has winged rapid
flight
Coming forth into the century as an expert
ment yet untried i'll the science of government
weak, impoverished and exhausted-the great
American people. whether in their entirety or
separated into States and into localities, have
brushed aside the difficulties that besct their
paths. From thirteen States. occupying G
small portion of this great land, thinly p0pu-
lated and widely scattered. they have grown
into an ocean-bound, ContinCnt-coyerinp. re-
public. Their scheme of government tested
by experience and tried in the crucibIe of war
the genius of the master minds who designed
it and fitted to the wants, needs and destinies
OF the treemen who support it.
Most propitious are the circumstances that
surround them to-day. Standing on the sun
Get side OF the 18th century. in the full light of
a superior civilization, looking backward or
forward as we may-wo find. the past and tho
present full OF glorious achievement and NAV
walk into tho future with the proud assuraueo
of rapid and more comprehensive progression.
Brethren of the Masonic Lodges-in accord
ance with the ancient usage of our Craft, we
have laid the cornerstone of this edffice this
morning. The history of the world is replete
with instances of such masonic labor From
the distant mists of the early dawn of creation
come the eternal precePts of our order, and
since the time when man first learned to how
the shaft and lay the archltrave, it has been
the mission Of the Mason to adjust in place the
ponderouh and enduring cornerstone. Fitting
eInbicms have hosn Selected to clucidate great
truths on t1nEc public occasions md 10 FIX
them In tho mind OF tho attentive listener az
tTmIy ast1 Stone is nbedded in the embracing
wall. S
tue pGn OF MASTER builder, "Is beautiful svs-
TEN of mortality yelled in allegory and illIns-
trated by symbol" In all its rights. forms and
ceremonies, us mission is to spread some ray
OF trnth and dissipate some gathered clouds of
error. Whatever may be it's antiquity, whether
coeval with ADAM fellow-traveler with time
or springing from the glories of Solomon and
his majestic crcation-the temDle-or oripino-
ing in the mysteries OF Egypt on the dark
banks of the Nile moulded by the classic
minds OF Greece, or with the Druids in the Al
bion GroVes-it matters not the living pages
of the remotest history attest its noe and do
rify its life. The truths that it inculcates the
morality it has cOdicd. spring from revelation
and along the pike of time. BY crumbled EN-
pres and departed nutionulities its steady
step has brought it's unchanging tenets up to
the glorious present.
II has enrolled among its records the bright
est names IN the empire of mind. and to-day
nearly million freemen of these United States
are in possession of it's tokens and have i'm
bibed its moral teachings.
FROM external nature it borrows illustrations
20 elucdate the truths of revelation and SYM
bolize unerriug principles.
In the selection of these symbols 1t extends
from mother earth to the starry deckcd heav-
ems, including all unture--that not one raw of
truth may escape, that not one star of lirht
may be hidden from tho gaze of human intel
Beginning with the Fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of man, it leads the initiate
to his allegiance ia his country his duty to his
neighbor and to himself
by sign and symbol, by precept and example
its Yotaries behold the highest standard OF
manhood.
No virtue escapes its contemplation, no vice
its condemnation.
In all its rites and ritual it borrows from ma
ture her choicest product for instructive pur-
poses; It takes her cereals to instill religious
truth; from the hard hand of the workman it
plucks his tools the square. the level. the
plumb. the trOWel, the spade. 10. point with
them moral or elucidate some eternal prin-
ciplc.
From revelation flows its great code of NOR
ais and from it it derives those unchanginp
landmarks. on which the sea of time has
surgcd with unavailing fury.
brethren, as we stand here to-day with
square; plumb and level. and in the rrlyalia of
the order. assisting to dedicate this Halt so I'M
the PRINCIPLES of Onr do VIZ,