The Opelousas courier., 1893-05-06
Southern Chivalry.

i southern birth, is fast becoming a mat
ter secondary to the inordinate greed of
gain among our people, it is refreshing
. to read such words as those spoken by
Father DeLamorinier in a lecture in
New Orleans, recently, on Southern
ChiValry. Said he in opening the lee
ture IL am here tonight at your bid
ding to speak to you of Southern Chiv-
airy The task is a perilous one,
fraught with difficulties innumerable,
both by reason of its complex features
and it's broadness Of scope. Now, ON
the start, let me beg you to recall those
times in the heroic past, when truth
and honor, courtesy and Igentleness,
purity and faith, valor and courage,
kindness of heart and loftiness of soul
were the highest orders of nobility and
the surest, nay, the only sure claims to
greatness"
Dwelling a while on the age of chiv-
airy, and its concOmitant, war, he des-
cends to the natural subject of his
theme, Southern Chivalry, from his dis
cusslon of which We extract these elo-
Quent words:
"Why, then, have | awakened to-
night the slumbering echoes Of by gone
days! All! you know why. That you
might grave them on the tablets of
your hearts that you might bind them
like shields around your necks that
You might be reminded by them to
what achievements you are fallen heirs
and that great deeds are to be worked
for, bled for, died for. to-day as in the
days of Gettysburg, Richmond and Shi-
lob that though wal be the dreadful
thing and scourge it was meant to be,
you might be pardoned for thinking
n crowded hour of glorious life is
I worth an 1Dn y,Sfhnnt ~ ,-o rrl r..
wishing that your brilliant uniforms
might be more than a mere parade
dress and your good swords better than
glitterlng toys; but, especially to give
point to my assertion that loyal adher-
ence to duty was the true chevalier's
first and engrossing care.
All! forget that, gentlemen, and the
bones OF that greatest son of the south
will rattle with Indignation in the
grave, his honored dust will burst
through the confines of the tomb to
brand with cowardice a race fallen
from the path which his luminous ex-
ample had marked out with bleeding
hands and bleeding heart for their mar
tial tread.
Foe1t there are names that must not
Wlther though the earth forget her en-
pires if there are deeds that from their
immortality look straight in the suns
face, imperishablS pure, such a name,
U deeds are the name and deeds of
Robert Edward Lee. The idol momen-
tarlly set up for poliNic reasons crum-
bles in time into the dust from which
Its limbs We're originally moulded but
when the pillars on which the idol rests
are s~elt-reyerence and ~self-devotion,
no hand can tear the idol down; for no
snnoor Ui men ni,I or ting can shatter the
The grand figure of Lee towers above
all others in the history of our own
times and OF our W country, and will
tower still higher when future races of
American historians shall record its
stirring events with Impartiality, be-
cause the great Virginian forsook home,
fortune, a certain future, all-in his en-
deavor to choose what was right.
The creative hand of God, ladies and
gentlemen, cannot fashion a nobler
heart than that which takes such q mot
to for a shaping of its ways nor can
history record a nobler life than that
the actual deed is in keeping with such
a g1ldlng principle. 1t has been my
good fortune to live on terms of close
religious intimacy with a veteran chan
lain OF our gallant bands during those
days OF trying warfare.
From that day in April, 1851, when
the first shot was fired at Fort Sumpter,
Charleston harbor, to that day in April
1865, when the heroic struggle ended bv !
the surrender of Lees army at Ammo !
matox Courthouse, in Virginia, his !
prlestly zeal had ministered to our a
troops: He had shared their exulta- a
tons in the fitting hours of success,
t1e;had cheered their dropping spirits
and reused their energies in the brief
hours OF dark dependency, aud wheth- t
amid shell, shot, grape and canister .
had shriven the wounded, spoken of =
crow to the fallen, and made
for heaven and the land of nm
peace the parting spirits of the
dead.
When / told him of my p1rpose to "a
all in this lecture those scenes of past
glory and woe, and the memory of the
eader who had wrapped them round
With lmperlshable fame, AID shed over
hem the halo of Immortality, the aged
'rlest Wrenched himself as if by
Mighty effort from the vice-like grasp 3
lis voice shook with an emotion which W
shall never forget. His hand pressed to
is brow as if to stir again to fife his tt
uried thoughts. His eyes, dimmed by
ears, sparkled through, the large tears !,
hat filled them, as, after a pause he al
lade reply: "Ah j! tell them, the men =
t the south, that during four wears
lese eyes have been the daily witness
ss OF deeds OF selfess devotion and en-
urance,, which, when written, will 1
Warf the proudest records of ancient {
tell them that the chieftain I
hose hand SO often met mine in the
arm grasp of friendship, and who, B
ven at the head of a charging column IE
ways paid me, the humble minister B
Christ, the courteous homage Of a
'verential bow which a king might
ell envy, was a Christian KNIGHT.
uest of the true, from foot to brow
ON heel to crown, all noble.
"Tell them that when in OMEN and :,
DIVIDED convention the tall and hand >
soldier accepted the position to
that OF Commandments Ha
all her military forces, his was q in
Inn, self-possessed dignity, the like Of
nlch l nave no seen in other men. TIL,
men with the grace OF name which "
him, he accepted his new
trusting the Almighty c
od, the voice OF my approving con- fan
and the aid of my felloW-citi- -
MS ne was the picture of the patriot
as n to be forever remember
by all Americans. T
There never was in history a great
In whose life was one of such blame i,
record OF duty nobly done. fraE,
The most perfect gentleman of a war
ate io~ng-renoWned for its chivalry, was