Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-31
the other, to save and perpetuate the bless
iprc of n onspar,tp5 Union

| the other, to save and perpetuate the bless
| ings of consecrated Union.
am sure l voice the convictions OF my
| Confederate associates when say that we
entered the service from sense Of duty,
| believing that our cause was just, and that
| the unimpassioned teachings of the twenty
six years that have since gone by have
strengthened and confirmed the convictions
we then held
The questions Of difference between the
| parties were submitted to the arbitrament
| Of the sword. Four years of desperate
| conflict followed. Our ranks were deci-
! mated. The cradle and the grave con-
| tributed to replenish our depleted lines, to
| be again and again depleted by the with
! ering, merciless fire of an implacable foe.
| Regiments were reduced to Spartan bands,
| when the god of war, the red-eyed Mars,
| up to his knees in blood, waived his soepter
| of surrender over the heads Of the remnants
| Of the victorious hosts who had followed
| Beauregard, the Johnstons and Lee, and
pressing on his overwhelming forces,
| thick as the leaves of Vallombrosa,
| enforced obedience to his command,
| The Confederate armies were conquered,
| but they We're never subdued.
Reasoning from q different standpoint,
| those who fought for the maintenance of
| the Union We're equally as honest in believ-
| ing that they, too, We're right, and that
| their cause was just. No true Confederate
| would wish TO deprive them Of the comfort
| that comes from the conscientious dis
| charge Of duty.
The streams of conviction entertained by
each, and Of which neither should desire to
deprive the other, meet and flow on in one
peaceful and perpetual stream, Through
union of lakes, a union of lands, under the
flag of our Union. forever Whatever may
| have been the merits of the cause, whether
the Southern states had the right TO secede
from the Union-as to which the wisest
differ; whether the circumstances justified
the exercise of the right of revolution--a
question which each community, in the very
nature of things, must determine for itself,
and maintain if it can, are problems which
the war has not, could not solve.
But there can certainly be no doubt at
the present day, that the states that were
attempting to establish a separate and in
dependent government are destined to be-
come the greatest benefciaries of the re-
sistless result. Look at our thrifty, pros
porous, happy homes. Look at our waving
fields and glowing furnaces. Look at our
busy factories, at our railroads comprising
our territory with their iron bands. Look
at our cities, Roanoke and Admission, Birm-
ingham and Fort Worth, cities building as
by magic touch of the scorers wand.
Lamb OF the South, imperial land,
How proud thy mountains rise,
How fair thy scenes on every hand,
How blue thy lowering skies
But not for this ah not for these.
love thy fields to roam;
Thou hast q Cearer charm for me,
Thou art my native home
We have assembled my compatriots to
do homage to the departed brave, who
fought in that unhappy war; men who
loved honor better than country, better
than they loved themselves. It is not to
the leaders alone that honor is due The
rank aud file in their places invaded
the dauntless Jackson and the peer
ess Lee! We meet every day heroes
who have exemplifed heroism! Men who
advanced through the smoke and din of bat
tie, in the face of cannon belching forth
grapeshot and canister; through hail
storms of bullets, midst death and carnage,
to plant their shattered iagstaffs upon the
ramparts of the enemy; men, unknown to
fame, who have performed deeds of valor,
unsurpassed in the annals of war!
OF such were our sainted dead We
may not be able to measure their claims
on our admiration-we may cot be able so
much as to recall their matchless names;
but we can Glove them for the dangers they
have passed through" We can all of US
place a flower upon their graves. We
can honor them by commencing
and emulating their noble deeds:
by being true to their loved ones.
to ourselves, to our country ard
10 our God; by teaching their children and
our children to practice and to exercise
their virtues in extending and transmit
ting, for all the time, the benefits and the
blessings of re-established Union-the
wonder and the admiration of the world.
Their lives and their deeds are a COM
mon heritage. They add luster to, make
respondent, emblazon the pages of our na-
tional history. Men everywhere re-
count their wonderful acts of
proves; unborn babes will lis
ten, entranced, to the simple
stories of their gallant lives. A grateful
posterity wiki erect monuments to perpetu-
ate their glorious memories while the gal
axy of Southern sovereign states, the
proudest of the peoples on earth, will ever
point with reference to their graves and
say, "Here lie my jewels''
Mr. Goodell said they had heard from
the army but now there was speaker
from the navy-A. L. Lowe.
The speaker said the boys who fought on
the sea did not have their graves decorated,
for they slept at the bottom of the ocean.
He paid glowing tribute to the bravery
of the sailors, North and South.
Mrs. Dale was escorted to the stage and
read that beautiful poem The Blue and the
Gray" The lady has cultivated, melodi-
Gus voice and touched the hearts of all by
her rendition Of the words that will never
grow old.
1t was discovered that Col. Henry E.
Peyton of Arkansas Pass, who was o men,
Der of Gen. r. L. Lees staff, was in the
house, and he was escorted to the stage
and introduced to the audience He
spoke eloquently and was frequently ap-
plauded. He said Col. Hurley's suggestion
about the Worlds fair was an excellent
one and Texas should show that peace had
triumphed over war.
Announcements of the services at the
Cumberland Presbyterian church ut IL this
morning and at the opera house
at 2:30 this afternoon were
made. and then after benediction by
Chaplain Gavin of the Grand Army of the
Republic, the audience dispersed.
The occasion will long be remembered by
those who We're present