Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-12-14

10 conquer. fne mower OF nope WHICH
springs eternslly is the hope to change
the law OF power into the power OF law !;
and in this strife OF opposites the first
born son of mediation Is federal
union the union of choice and affinity
in place OF constraint the union OF
force in place of the union by force.
As the tie is willing ii is real as IL is
real it is strong. 1t is through fedora
ton, not through Capitalization, that
the true synthesis of the peoples comes.
FEDERATION or THE WORLD.
II the day ever comes "when the war
drum shall throb no longer" it will be
ushered in. not by the empire, not by
the imperial consolidation, but by "the
federation of the world" The mighty
import of this heaving and throbbing
time is that by its constitutions, rear
rangements, and resources, by the grace
of its swift light and ready movement,
for mans coerced and driven obedience,
there may now be inaugnrated his spon-
taneous energies in willing union. 1t
was for the exalted idea OF self.goveined
freedom, which Virginia had been fore
most TO proclaim, that sho now took up
arms aud suffered martyrdom.
But if hostile criticism urge, Your
own involuntary seryitude at home was
ct war with all this fine preachment Of
willing umon." the answer is:
/. IL was the condition with which
YOU deliberately made your bargain and
received your redundant consideration,
which was and still is redundantly re-
tanned.
Q. The institution Of slavery was fast
ened upon us by others, and very large
" by those who seized it AS a pretext for
war against us. 1t is notion them to re-
vile us Tor not solving in a day the tre-
mendous problem which, on scale so
diminntiye, consumed more than half a
century Of their own time. Slavery was
the fail in their hand wherewith to
beat down freedom. 1t was constitu-
tiopal government and the rights OF the
States it was the reality OF a federal
union, which they sought to put in
course of ultimate extinction.
They were guilty OF what Jefferson
called "treason against human hope.
Slavery was our mode of dealing with
a problem, for whose presence in our
midst our accusers in Old England and
New England were responsible.
3. Had emancipation been the only
thing desired, the economic reasons
which had been so successful at the
North would not have been wholly idle
at the South The forces which put an
end TO slavery in Russia and Brazil were
not obliged to lose their cunning else
where-those irresistible forces Of the
brain OF commerce, ont of whose cease
less throD is nurtured the opinion, which
rules at last the world and all the brave
empire thereof. BY the side of this
Titan the Abolitionist wac puny arm
which could only misdirect the mightier
one and make it mischieyous-" DASH
ing with his oar TO hasten the cataract,
waving with his fan to give speed to the
winds" Cur accusers dealt with their
own problem at their own convenience.
What right had they to force US to do
otherwise :?
Undoubtedly we were not prepared TO
exchange the freedom of the white race
for the slavery of the black. Undoubt-
edly we were not prepared for an eman-
cipation which meant the enforcement
of the negro.
4. Never was there great trust so
nobly fulfilled as that incurred by the
South for the institution of slavery, i'm
posed upon her from the same magnani-
nous source whence her crucihxlon for
it also proceeded. IL any labor in any
land ever moro convincingly proclaimed
that it was subject to more enlightened
supremacy than force | do not recall it..
For four years of war all force was with
drawn from the negro, but his affection,
his obedience, and his fidelity did not
withdraw. A beneficial subOrdination
and no other could have stood this test.
EMBLEMATIC OF THIS CAUSE.
OF this cause the statue this day I'M
yelled is emblematic and if have left
myself but little time to tell the story of
valor, Of which it is also an emblem, it is
because that story is beyond the reach
of controversy. On the 9th OF Noyem-
Der, 1859, the Howitzer Company was
organized. 1t saw service for the first
time in the John Brown raid-the real
beginning OF the war. 1t seemed then
to George Wythe Randolph, the first
captain Of this glowing strength, that if
his mighty ancestor could speak once
more from his lofty eminence. he would
shout, ITO arms For the practical
Interpretation of the Constitution and
the Federal Union which it or
gained, had come to this: That
peaceful village south of the Po-
tomac might be invaded st midnight
for the purpose Of midnight murder, and
the invader be made by legal execution
not a murderer but martyr, so that the
bells Of northern churches tolled his
requiem as he expired, and in the words
Of one of his eulogists, "the Rallows
was made as sacred as the cross. The
John Brown raid was the vivid reve-
lation OF spirit which left no alterna-
tive between q battle for the compact Of
the Constitution or its unconditional sur
render.
The Richmond Howltzers did not or
ganize to surrender without a blow
the heritage of their fathers, and at the
tap Of the drum the company grew to a
battalion. Like Gonsalvo when he
pointed to Naples, they preferred to die
one foot forward than to secure long life
by one foot of retreat. We hear much
OF "the land OF the free and the home
of the brave" but the two are one. 1t IS
only "home of the brave" which can
be Gland OF the free Only so long
as men are brave in the assertion OF
their rights are they free in the posses
sion OF them. The rights which We have
now we owe to the fact that we once
stood, not languidly. but with clear de-
termination for them-to the respect
which is compelled by the courage OF
conviction.
THE HowITZEB CHAPTER
II is the Howtzer chapter of this his
tory that We are here to celebrate to-
day. Wonderful must it have been to
any soldier of the "Old World to wit
ness the daily picture in that Howitzer
camp-ofiicers and men seated around
the common campfire, as though the
difference of rank were nominal and
temporal only, and the only real and
eternal thing the cause which joined
their hearts and hands. 1t was the pic
ture of what Jefferson called the Roman
principle, which esteems it honorable
- tn OF ac q