The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1894-05-01

duIluOeItI, yeV Iho he"'s "ONN 80
cowardly and the tongue craven,
which, on occasions like this should
fail to hold up to youthful admira'
ton, the unrivaled deeds and peer
less valor of our own mortal heroes.
From their very early history,
Sparta and Athens were rival
Grecian cities; yet in the presence
of a common foe, at the pass of
Thermopolae and On the plains of
Marathon, Spartan and Athenian
blood commingled for the rescue of
common country.
Is the memory of Leonidas and
his immortal band less necessary to
the glory of Greece because the star
Of Spaita's fate declined? Do the
names of her Scipios and her Ca sar s
shine less bright because the Scandi.
navian hordes of the North clipped
the wings of Rome's proud eagle,
and tore down her standards of i'm.
perial progress and might? Is the
name of Marco Bozzaris less i'm.
mortal because he sleeps in land
polluted by the tread Of despots,
and filled with the groans of slaves?
Would Tell have deserved less
honor had his arrow missed the
mark? and has Poland forgotten in
her vassalage the example of her
kos ciusko? If not, should we
cease to venerate our Stuart, Hill,
Jackson and Lae, and all our host
of deathless dead, because the
rights for which they fought are
apparently lost, and the banner
which they bore so often to victory
is shrouded in defeat? No, ladies
and gentlemen, such men belong
not exclusively to any age or
country They are knights of
chlvalry, the defenders of honor,
champions of virtue, and martyrs of
principle.
From Manassas to Malvern Hill,
from the Father of Waters to the
grants crests of Gettysburg, through
four long years of blood and car
mage, with all the courage of the
Crusader, the Confederate legions
dashed and charged, until the world
stood breathless as they blazed
their way to glory. Trained in the
earlier political schools of the
fathers, the voice of their states was
the voice of God. To them By in.
heritance belonged the immortal
declaration of independence. They
had learned from it that .'to secure
life, liberty and the pursuit of hap.
piness, governments were institu-
ted, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed" and
that whenever any form of govern.
ment becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish it," Adopting
these lofty sentiments for them.
selves in the knightly spirit of the
cavalier, and recurring to them
day after day in the administration
OF our system, they had come to
regard them as great political axioms,
embodying rights as inalienable as
the right to breathe.
The constitution was theirs
theirs by bequest of brain and pen;
theirs in its powers and it's limita.
tons. 1t was the ark of their DO.
litlcai covenent; before them their
fathers had carried it in all their
Jonrneylngs, guarded by the pillar
of cloud by day, and guided by the
pillar of fire by night. Before it
the Red sea of war had rolled back
It's waters; and on the other side, i
when pursuing foes had been over.
whelmed, Miriam and her maidens
mad led their mothers in the songs
of national deliverance. Is it any
wonder that thus trained, to tamper
with that constitution was in their
estsmation treason, and to Law VIC.
lent hands upon it was death.
l do not speak to arouse ami.
mostly, far from it. | shall come
presently to the lesson left us, nv
,ountrymen. But when l am called
10 stand by the graves of my dead
-omrades; graves around which only
bereavement, widowhood and or.
phanage do gather; graves over
which no nation weeps and over
which no banner waves; graves
hat are dependent for the per oetu