The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-06-08
The Passing of Our President.
From the Charleston News and Courier, !

the mind of every true son and daugh- !
ter of our dead Confcderacy in view
of the mounful pageant which marks
the removal of the body of President
Davis from the banks of the Missis-
sippi to the banks of the James, the
final resting place, are so well express
ed, in the article of the Greenville
News, which we publish to-day, that
we hesitate to add aught to what it
says SO well.
1t is sad duty for all of US who
are true to our past, to its heroes and
to ourselves, for all whose pride and
love of principle have not been oblit-
Grated by the changed conditions
which followed our defeat, whose faith
in the cause to which we were then
so fully devoted and which we loved
so ardently has not been beclouded
by the enforced or eApedient hypoc-
risy of later years.
Our dream is past and gone forever.
It has vanished with the fires of the
bivouac and the smoke of the battle.
The bounds of the Confederacy have
faded from the map of nations as the
wind and rain have broken down and
moved away "the thin red line" of
intrenchments that extended around
our borders from the Potomac to the
Rio Grande. The grass that grows
over the thousands of graves of the
men who died for US sat the front"
grows over the cause that died with
them and that is as dead as they.
The hopes and dreams they shared
with us are buried with them. We
look for no resur1 ection for them in
any year, hour or minute Their flag
and ours is furled The government
of the people, by the people, and for
the people" for which they struggled
with us, aud for which they dared
death and embraced death for our
sakes, has persisted from the face of
the earth, never to take its place
again among the governments of the
earth. We who survived their failure
live under the conditions they gave
their lives to avert. And some of us
are content. The dream is ended,
gone, like vision of the night, and
we live in the time that has followed
the rude awakening.
And now across the scene of our
futile endeavors, fits a sad spectacle
to remind us of all the dead years,
and all that died with them. It is
the spectacle of the funeral process
! sion of the dead President of the
dead Confederacy!
From the banks of the Mississippi
to the banks of the James the funeral
cortege passes before US, and we
stand and wonder, while it passes, at
the changes the years have wrought
in their swift flight. It was only yes
terday that he represented to us all
that a man can represent to his fellow
men. Honored, beloved by his peo-
pie, chosen as their chief representa-
tive in their struggle for national ex-
istence, he was one of the mighty
ones of the earth. His word was the
law of millions of men, who believed
with him in the principles he assert
ed and defended in their behalf. Had
he and they won the cause in which
they were enlisted together he would
have ranked in the history of the
world with the worlds greatest
heroes
He failed, and that was the end oil
all his brave and patient and nearly
successful endeavor, so far as the
world cares for the record. It is not
the end with us! We remember the
long days of his struggles, what he
endured and what he suffered, how
he labored for us, and how patiently
he bore the results of our failure wher
he was singled out to bear them il
captivity and in chains. He was wor
thy of the honor we bestowed on him
He was worthy of the trust that was
committed to him. He was faithful
throughout all the years of his trial
to the bitter end!
And now that he, too, is dead, tina
he has gone to join the hosts of thos,
whom he led in war, and inspired il
war, our love goes out to him il
stronger and fuller current than i
ever flowed even in his life. His bod
has become one of our chief treas
ures. His grave will always be th
resort of every patriot among his PEG
pie. In the Capitol of the Confede
racy he will be among his soldiers, il
sight of the stream on whose bank
: Washington was born, and within tn
sound of whose murmurous wave
Jefferson and Jackson and Lee slee
their last sleep. It is fitting plac
to be his last resting place. There
no more glorious spot on earth, n
place that is more fully consecrate
to the cause of human liberty.
There let him rest. The breath c
his enemies and traducers will pas
as idly over his tomb as the winds tha
stir the weeds on the hillside aboa