The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-11-17


through the red blaze of war. We at
tended as unwilling guests at the feast
where the war gods held their high
carnival of blood and of death.
We had fought you like men, as you
will attest, and am here to say to you
tonight on behalf of the great mass OF
the Southern people, not our pOiItl-
clans, | have naught to say for them,
but on behalf of the brave men who
met you | am here to say to you to-
night. that when they surrendered,
they surrendered like men.
God Almighty decreed on the 9th day
of April, 1865, that hencefOrth we
should be brethren and that this be
one country with one flag. Evil and
designing men came between us, ana
you and have been taught to look at
each other through distorted mediums
held up h5'<heS8 men. If there be a
Union soldier here tonight who cannot
clasp my. hand; if there be a Union
soldier here to night who is not big
enough and brave enough to take the
prOstrate Johnny" by the hand when
he has cried enough, help him up,
brush the dirt from his coat and say to
him: Johnny. | am proud OF you, my
boy; am proud of you as an Amerl
can brother, but you are in the wrong
cause; but | want to shake hands with
you now, my brother and | want to
say to you that hencefOrth we are go
ing to stand together III this country. "
If there be man in this audience who
had the honor of wearing the uniform
of his country who cannot do that for
us, | beg you, in the name of the COM
ing generations, in the name Of your
boy and my boy, thank tod whose
young eyes first greeted the light of
heaven unObscured by the smoke of
battle, your daughter and my daughter,
whose ears first caught the h allowed
sounds of peace unmingled with hOarse
laundering of hostile cannon, | beg
you, for their sake, that we shall not
entail upon them a legacy of hate. One
of the results of that war was the abO-
litiOn of slavery, chattel slavery. There
Is not a genuine brave old Confederate
in this audience tonight who will not
join me in saying that we thank God
for it.
There is not a brave man who wore
| the blue nor a brave man who wore the
gray in the struggle, that does not say
In his manly heart to night, let the hi5
| ternesS, let the prejudice. let the ami
! mOsiJieS that were born of the eXIs-
tenCe of slavery, in God s name, and in
the name of the country, perish with 1t
and forever. | stand here and claim
tonight that IrepreSenJ the only Org3ni-
ZatiOn of men in this country that has
come forward since the war with the
avowed purpose OF accomplishing the
grand and God like work Of restoring
unity and fraternity between the sec
tiOnS
1t is not the men who fought or who
stood in the bloody angles III the field
of battle who have kept up this un
natural estrangement between the sec
tiOnS Ordinarily it Is the man, North
and South, who never smelled gun
powder. Ordinarily it is the man who
never heard the whistle of a mimic bali.
Ordinarily 1t is the man who wa lnVIs-
IDLE in war and became glOriOusly in
vincible in peace. They are the men
who loaded up their long mouths in
1865 and have been firing at each other
at the safe distance of from 1000 to
5000 miles ever since. [ note among
YOU the badge which is the badge Of
honor everywhere, the passport to re
spect all over the civilized land [ re
fer to that Grand Army button. If
you won that button and deserve to
wear it, if you took that flag in one
hand and your life in the other, and
offered that life a5 Il sacrifice in the de-
tense of the flag, | am not afraid of
you. lam afraid Of your lOud-mOuthed
politician. One Of the results of that
war. as [ have said, was the abolition
of Chattel slavery. I have a message
for you boys in blue from the boys in
gray. They faced yOu through four
long years Of terrible war to defend
that Institution One of the results of
that war wassthe sweeping OF it away.
They charged me to say to you, and
trust l may do so with prOpriety, that
they are ready, willing and anxious to
clasp your hands in fraternaI brother
hood, and to beg your co cooperation to
Join the forces of the heroic blue and
the heroic gray in another grander and
mightier struggle, not for the freedom
of the cOlOred man of the South. bu5 in
the struggle for the upraising of honest
labor from u slavery more degra ling
than the negro ever knew. We believe
that you will do it, and in this struggle
for God and for humanity, with Him
as your guide, with you as our allies,
and with the approving smiles simply
of the noble women of this blessed
and, we will do it.
NV brethren, | have been betrayed
into making a speech which | did not
intend. But there is one thing else
which I wish to say tOyOu, and would
be false to myself, false to my section
and to the cause [ represent tonight,
and absolutely false to those ladies
who honor us with their presence if |
did not say something in regard to
them
The ladies in all good works are ever
present. Proud as you may be of your
soldier record, and as you should be,
yet IT you were to ask me to point you
to model of moral herOism, | would
not go to the immortal lists of the names
AE tho Ec.llo1.rn,... AE C,.-.,.4 L I