The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-23

the imminent breach their wounded forms
may stay the torrent OF invasion; eloquence
and bravery, craftsmanship and wisdom,
charity and patriotism, we await the maj
arbitrament OF ceath 10 place the record OF
public appreciation upon human e1ort. mat
the sacrificing devotion Of lifetime IS not
blaZoned upon our highways means nothing IN
conservative and loving community. Inc
deeds Of our great and good live in our hearts
Their memory makes portion or our ives,
and as 10 walks with Us along the thorough
fares OF our beautiful city, so we tell II 10 the
Hsping intelligence OF our children, and strive
as best we may 20 live up TO the Ideals our
hOnored dead have left. / stand today In the
presence OF our past. ! see before me the
vision OF the south we love; the south which
loved honor as il did its women. and It's women
as II did the angels OF poetic fancy. L
see the tender sunlight Sitting its splcnG0rS
upon the gllsteuiug nayonets II Barlow men
Us they pass from their bOylSh home into the
mysteries OF death and suffering. ] see the
uprising OF people for conscience sake; the
crowded hospitals, the weary march, the ter
rltle battlefield; the prison pen and 1 see
the uudimmed courage shine through the
darkness OF defeat like Lightning through the
storm. And aroye all see, fearless and
falthtul,' the armies Of our heroes, covered
with wounds and broken in fortunes return
upon the devastated fields OF their youth and
the dying embers OF their hresides as brave
hearted as the day they left proud OF their
lineage and their state as II victory had
spread her wings above their tired forms and
triumph had marked their every step. Need
! recall to you that he in whose memory we
have met today was among the first in re
sponse to his people call: His opportuni-
ties had htted him for the duties TO the dis
charge Of which the necessities OF his
country had invited him. The instinct
OF profession which so frequently controls
us, ike the migratory instinct Of birds sends
them upon their long flight without volitIon
or preference, led him to West Point,
whence, after a brief service in the regular
army he passed into the armies OF the con
tederacy equipped by technical training and
natural courage for the great struggle which
nj g
not recall to this audience that IN that great
conflict, he Tore himself as became GeOr-
gan and the representative OF distinguished
ancestry In these cantlng, crtnging times
when we are wont to do obeiSance to the
strange conditions Of wealth and
politics which encompass us like
the net OF NeSsus il is not popular
to speak OF the confederate soldier at
mention OF his name and deeds the monirity
hand uplfts itself and the startled look takes
cOgnizanCe of conseq ueuces to an impoyer-
lshed community from rash assertions of the
truth OF history. And yet one Of the glories
OF this man VIC honor is, that he was a confed-
crate soldier and did his duty as he saw it.
40 not hesitate to say in this or any other
presence that upon questions OF American in
tegrityi upon the issue OF our constitutional
liberties; IN vindication Of American institu-
lions, the one section upon which absolute
dependence can be rested. at any time and in
any place, is the south. / mean the old south
not IN spite Of the war but because of it,
because its glorious memories make
their allegiance to the government under
which they live. But, ] protest we must be
taken as we are, confederate soldier and all
me story OF what he did has become to many
a threadbare romance. He did not seem to
US countless host az we saw his bOyish form
ana bright face on the way to the hills and
valleys OF virginia, but in the history OF these
Jlmes he has come to be as myriad as the
sands OF the Seashore. What a marvel he
must have been this necromancer of the
sixties Ills torn shoes carried him like the
sandals of MpTpuTV bpDpath
garm ents seemed to move the action Of god
At the Ferry to day. at Winchester tomorrow
racing the foe at Port Republic and away
with the dawn TO the plains. SwaTming up
Malvern Hill; holding Mayre awful nights;
plunglng through the Wilderness to victory;
rushing upon the certain death Of Cemetery
Hill laying down his bright muslSet and keep
ing MS brighter faith at AppOmattox. How
IS history TO account for him and Justify him
ana MS -FOUR long years OF glory without the
increasing myth of his multiplicitvY There
could be no glory In receiving the arms OF
starved and hunted antagonist and yet what
we remember and love in him was that he
was both, Wounds did not disable him nor
deteat take from the spirit which carried him
on. Nourished by the consciousness of patriot
&c duty he could depise the cravings Of nature
Lighted by the fres Of patriotic conviction,
the darkness OF disaster had no terrors for
him. We rest the issue of our fame upon the
pleadings Of his noble and pathetic career and
as every people must at last be tried before
the tar OF human history upon the question
OF their contribution to the general good, we
give in evidence the best we have, the con
federate soldier To have been accounted
brave IN that concourse of heroic souls: to
nave Deen held faithful in the midst of their
trials and temptations; to have lain down
with honor the arms which had been borne
with patriotism and courage, finds some
recompense in God economy of dutiful eff
fort and 1t Is in the hearts of all of you to be
proud that this man whose memory we are
now honoring was confederate soldier. For
that reason may the dews of heaven fall
geQtler his resting nlncR he
ers bloom brighter. May long years OF men,
DRY be granted to his fame, and we be unfor-
getting.
With the changed conditions which con.
fronted the defeated armies OF the south
came new responsibilities. The old life had
passed away, and the currents OF existence
forced into new channels, must lind their
limits and their levels as best they may
Wealth had become a memory. Society had
been shaken to its foundations. The lawyer
might not practice his craft, or the priest
cure souls, If he had been true TO his people
The rich and the poor who had done their duty
as they saw il lived in the momentary expec-
tatiOn of Imprisonment and the certainty OF
poverty and want The furnished buttons
upon the ragged homespun Jacket disap-
pcared under the pruning knife of the con
QuerOr and the slave who had lived upon his
master smile and basked in the influence Of
his sunny nature, was now master himself.
Politically, the southerner was dead: the fos-
sill Of an age gone by; the reminder Of con
dtlon when had no place In the present econ
omy OF governmental science. Stripped of
his power; denuded OF his wealth his
! bravery reproach: his devotion, n thing to
contemn; naked OF influence: the veriest pau.
per who ever stood confessed before an un-
| friendly world, he entered upon his new exis.
tence as we see 1t now, with more of God
than of man within him. In the moment OF
his apparent humiliation his PROSTATE form
attra ted the vision of vultureS, TO which the
harpies Of Virgil were as angels Of ncht
Roasting upon property and character. their
filthy beaks struck deep down into the vitals
OF the commonwealth, and beneath the gloomy
uappings OF their obscene wings the agony of
outraged manhood sent its eloquent protest
to the historian OF other times At such
moment when hope had almost gone; when
the deliberations OF the best and wisest OF the
community had exhausted the devices Of pro
lection, THIS man, whose honored dust has
the control OF the peace and order OF Savan-
worked TO its solution. The condition
was serious but the confidence was great
We lay down to rest with the,consciousness
that Georgian was on guard that through
the silent watches of the night; at the polls
in quiet and in danger, his constant presence
held the outpost OF our lines aqd his life
would answer for our safety. My fellow citi-
ZenS, do not travel beyond the duties OF nv
position when say in all earnestness and
truth, in the period OF reconstruction Robert
Anderson saved Savannah Oh, the darkness
ana despair OF those days Riot upon every
hand and tnfamy at every turn! The fury OF
the storm crushed through the tenderest as
sociauons OF our lives as the tempest tears
its remOrseless way through the
ancient trees Of our forest. II was