The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-05-08
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.
A MAsTERLY MEDICATION OF
THE SOUTH.

THE SOUTH.
Address or General stephen y: Lee
Of the Confederate Monument at
BirmingeaDl, Ala.
My FRIENDS: We have assembled
here today TO discharge q glorious and
solemn duty--to lay the cornerstone
OF u monument which shall commemo-
rate the valor of the living and the
dead. We have met to keep alive the
memories of Il comrades who fell in
battle that vast army OF heroes and
patriots, and to renew the new ties of
friendship between the gray-haried
survivors, who were their comrades in
1855. When we praise them we
glorify ourselves when we speak
of their invincible corage, Of their
heroic sacrifices, we feel q thrill
OF pride that we shared the same
privations and the same perils. We
moved in the same line of battle, and
brayed the same showers of schrapnell
and mimic balls. We charged tho
same breastworks. We heard the
echoes ofthe same artillery and the
rattle Of the same m%usketry. The
bullet that took n of them whistled
by us when it took him, and from our
~ WSh IN ohbiO JOlI luO
babe defiance to our foes. We shared
or went without the same scanty
rations, endured the same fatiguing
march, the same chilling rain. We
did ell that they did. except it was
theirs to die for their country
Loyalty to the past is a duty. Feel
ing that we were right, we staked all
on the uncertain chances of battle, and
we lost. We were overpowered and
we had to submit to the result, but
We cannot be otherwise than proud of
the history we made while q nation.
We are. here today, not to praise the
victorious, but to claim imperishable
renown for the vapquished.
When we look backward from the
zenith Of life we see things with a
clearer vision. We see many causes
that brought on the struggle. Slavery,
the indirect cause of the war, the
North is as much responsible for as the
South. AS to the doctrine OF States
rights the right of a sovereign State
to withdraw from the union, the ques-
ton is decided forever against as. If
we are not convinced, we are quieted,
we accept the inevitable with such
grace as we can, but we cannot blot it
yield the belief in the principles we
inherited from'our revolutionary fore
fathers. We fought for what they
did, but they had better luck. War
was forced on us. Constitutional and
sacred guarantees agreed on in one
union OF sovereign States were
trampled under foot, under the theory
promulgated by Mr.. Seward and ac-
copied by the North, of a higher law
than the constitution We were in
vaded. We were forced to defend our
hearthstones and III property, and the
inherited rights Of local self-govern-
ment bequeated us by our forefathers.
We need no justification for our con-
should defend his own. We did that
. and that only. We would have de-
served TO be trampled on if we had not
resisted. See how gloriously We did
it. Look at our record. Never did q
nation contend against such odds. 1
defy contradiction. Read for your
selves the war records now being
honestly published by our government.
My young fellow countrymen, young
gentlemen, young ladies, listen to me
you who have lived since the war
and have only heard Of it from others.
Learn now what this monument, the
cornerstone of which is now to be laid,
Is intended to commemorate. Look at
these gray-haired veterans. Who are
they? l will tell you. They are some
of the survivors Of an army of GOO, 600
men, who fought and kept back from
our Southern soil an invading army of
1854, PIP men mot including three and
six months volunteers,) or with the
odds of 2,264, PIP men more than they
had to confront them. To this great
odds must be added 600 vessels of war
~blockading our coasts and occupying
our rivers, manned by $4,000 sailors,
preventing. our getting supplies of
arms, provisions, clothing, medicines
and necessaries of all kinds. In this
UNEQUAL contest the Confederate army
did not lay down it's arms until it was
completely overpowered, and it had
only 100000 effective fighting men for
duty in the field left of that army of
100000 men, while the Federals had
over 1000, OUO men for duty, or ten men
for every Confederate soldier. and all
our arsenals, munitions of war and
supplies were exhausted or captured.
BEFORE the end Of the conflict She
Confederate army had lost Over one
half OF the 600, 600 men, or $50, 900 men
on the death roll. 1t had fought over
our beloved Southland almost foot by
foot, on nearly 1000 battleiields. 1t
had inflicted a death roll on the enemy
VI ooo,o-o hiCH, Lio,oOo vi WlOln llC
buried beneath our Southern soil.
Comrades of the gray, we made q
record unsurpassed in the annals Of
wal or history.
Let us GO a little moro into details.
In the bloodiest Of European wars
statistics show that the number killed
or mOrtally wounded on the battle
field, has not exceeded 3 per cent of
the soldiers actually engaged, while in
the great American war between the
States the Federals lost 5 per cent and
me- onfedecatcs 10 per cent. We see
hat the American soldier stands
ahead Of the European soldier, and
that in heroic aspect, SO long as tho
Confederate banner foatcd to the
breeze, tho Confederate soldier stands
at the head in the history of the world.
The moro the facts connected with the
war arc brought out. the more honor
is reelected on the valor, endurance of
hardships and fortitude of the soldiers
of the Confederacy.
Tell me we did not believe our cause
was a just one No people could have
made such a fight, could have stood up
so long against such odds, had they not
been actuuted by a firm and u~nwavering
adherence TO the principles of self
government, and q determination TO
maintain inalienable right which they
had inherited from .hoir forefathers.
This is said in no boastful spirit, but
to show what q gallant resistance was