The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1893-05-03


been invaded by the ruthless hands of
the carpet Dagger, our public buildings
and houses of divine worship consecrated
to God, which bespeak the love of the
noble women of our southland, were de-
stroyed in the maddened career of our
enemies, as they scattered death and de
struction in their desecrated tracks.
We have not assembled here to discuss
the causes which produced the war, all
those questions have been left to the
! Judgment of mankind and to history,
and impartial history has woven wreath
of fame and truth will entwine it around
our deathless name.
We have gathered new hopes from the
! ocean of despair; we have rebuilt our
waste places. Where was Atlanta in
| 1865? her ashes were scattered 10 the
four winds of Heaven, her beautiful
stru ,tures we're consumed by fire to APP
pease the hate of desperate enemy, and
the light from that confagratiOn illumi-
mated his pathway to the sea. Where
and what is she to-day? Phoenix-like
she has risen to be the pride of every Geor-
gian, and the wonderful transformation
was wrought thu ough the united efforts
of those who wore the blue and those
who wore the grey. Her business and
f1ninancial powers are cemented to the
fiaan 3ial world, as firmly as the rocky
foundation upon which she stands. If
those who ignited the fagots in 1864 could
gaze upon her to-day, they would be in
| troduced to a transformation scene so
powerful and sublime, that establishment
would greet them, and the record of
what she was in the past would haunt
/ them like an unhappy dream.
| GENTLEMEN OF THE GUARDs:-Why
these flowers? Why these ceremonies?
Why this array of beauty and chivalry?
Are you sponsors for the Dawson Vol
unteers? On many we'll fought fields the
| Angel of Death mellowed the tone of the
brass thwarted cannon, and whispered tC
| the souls Of some of those for whom you
are sponsors: peace be still"' and the
sublime thought could not be more ap-
propriately expressed to-day, echoing
through this happy southland, peace
on earth, good will to men,
Those noble boys who fell in the salient
front of their line, with the names of
those they loved on their lips, their mus
kets still grasped in their hands, their
hearts patriotic and true, leaving no me-
mentoes IN the archives of fame, are at
peace with the world, at peace with their
God. They were the brave fellows who
left this country in 81, and have not an
swered the roll call of home.
Is 1t encum0ent upon us to ask, did
, they cringe amidst disaster, compromise
in defeat or falter in their noble endeav-
ors to protect ours, the grandest nation
on earth? No, nature forbade it and his
tory attests with wonderful accuracy the
resignation with which they accepted
the inevitable decree of numerical pow
erS.
The angel of death lowered over the
howell and the palace and claimed the
bravest of the brave and the truest of
the true; and the angel of peace has
adorned his registry with tie names of
the noblest and the truest which deco
rate the unsullied pages of the book of
life.
The immortal Milton, with an almost
prophetic vision, eulogized and immor-
talized the surviving heroes of our south |
oIs, he of i &c
sion. 'Peace hath her victories, no less |
renowned than war;" The sonth has no
lordly castles representing the garnered |
wealth of an aristOcratic ancestry, whose
inspiring columns of magnificent grand !
eur cleave the ethereal blue; yet she has
greater than these, for every humble cot
tage which dots the roadside in this
happy Dixie land of ours stands boldly
out in the foreground of progress to con-
meet the ''Old South with the New"
1t was principle it was character, it
was virtue, it was honor, it was patriotic
devotion to his country which sustained
the southern soldier amidst the disasters
and the calamities of war; and we'll does
he deserves the flowers which we will
place above his grave to-day. M
The grandest heritage which lies near
est and dearest the hearts of southern
manhood and womanhOod, which our
posterity will protect from dishonOr, are
the hallowed traditions of our country.
With his heart responsive to every senti-
ment of national pride, gladly the En-
glishman points to Tr4falger with a sad
dened heart, glowing with every senti-
ment which patriotism could invoke.
The gallant French holds the memory of
Bonaparte to his heart, and sadly turns
to Waterloo.
Yet the undimmed glories and martial
splendOrs of southern martyrdom, when