Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-05-30

l = n
prejudices and passions which it engendere
shall have passed away-when the people {
! the North as well as the South, will do Justlc
4 to the heroism and proves of their country
men upon both sides of that contest an
when the valor of the soldiers of the Soutl
and the genius and talents and exalted privat
worth of their great leaders, will be enshrine
as among the most precious possessions of
4 reunited country. s.sA-es7 zia sof
4 If energy persistency, perseverance, an
consistency be among the virtues that eleyat
and adorn our race, then the men and wome
1 of the South, who in the face of overwheln
/ ing numbers and resources, and of appallin
/ obstacles, and in spite of repeated crushin
disasters conducted that unequal contest wit
| unfaltering steadfastness until compelled t
yieldby the absolute exhaustionyo of their re
sources, merit and in all time will receive tn
plandits of their impartial fellow men.
| Ii sublime courage, a courage that with I'm
blanched cheek and unquail1ng eye coul
| walk calmly into the very jaws of DEATH a
did our men at Gettysburg-a courage tina
without complaining or repining ''could al
ways suffer and be strong'-the gloriou
| courage alike of our women and our men-b
worthy of honor and commemoration. thel
the people of the Southern Confederate States
/ n four years of fire and sword, sacrifice ant
suffering. won an Immortality of renown.
| If unseltish and uncalculating devotion t.
| principle and to duty as God gave them ligh
to see their path, and willingness to sacrifice
their all for cause which to. them wa;
| righte us and Just, and the cause of thei
| country, be among the things that are de
serving of admiration and approval, then thu
women and the men of the Confederate Soutl
have earned title to the homage of men anC
of angels
To fifty honor the men who yielded thei
lives in illustrating these virtues, and annu-
ally to lay our yernal offerings of flowers anl
our Inadequate tributes of praise upon theil
graves, and more than all thus year by veal
to make our imperishable protest against any
words of detraction or. injustice, with which
passion or prejudice may seek to assail then
memories is sacred duty and privilege.
But we come not here to exuIt Still les:
do we come to detract from the prowess Of
the soldiers of the armies of the Union, or the
talents or abilities of their great commanders
Nor do we come to repine over results which
an all-wise God has ordered in His supreme
wisdom.
Less courageous, less ably commanded
could never have overcome the desperate re-
sistance of the trained armies .of-the South
fighting upon their own soil, with short and
generally easily guarded lines of communica
ton. and possessing the great advantage OF
conducting for the most part, defensive war
upon these interior lines.
To the result bitter as was the ordeal at
first, our people bowed as to the decree of
God; and in good faith they have accepted its
consequences, Its responsibilities, and its
duties.
They have long since recognized that their
allegiance is due to the government and the
Constitution of the United States--a govern
ment and constitution which owe their exis-
tence largely to the wisdom, the statesman
ship, and the patriotism of Southern men.
Their fealty to that government is today a
fealty of the heart as well as of the head and
is generally rendered as loyalty by the men
of these Southern States as by the citizens of
any other portion of the Union.
Devotion to the memory of our heroic dead
who were martyrs to the cause of local self
government, and to the very principles enun-
ciated in the Declaration of Independence, is
not disloyalty to the restored government of
the Union.
If there is one quality more than another
which has ever been a conspicuous character
istic of the people of the Southern States it is
answering loyalty. EE
The narrow men who object to such demon
STATIONS and to such utterances as we have
here to-day ought to remember that: You
cannot expect him to be true to the new love
who is false to the old.'
The speaker then referred as an illustration
of Southern manhood and loyalty to the Hon.
Charles +. Crisp, of Georgia, speaker of the
House of Representatives whose fairest laurels
were won under the Confederate banner as a
private in Virginia regiment.
Our COuHITv dSdtu Is Olo, one III us priceless
heritage of Anglo-American llberty-liberty
regulated by law; one in its destiny fraught
with momentous consequences to mankind;
one in its glorious constitution, the creation,
under God, of Washington and Madison,
Hamilton and Franklin, and their immortal
compatriots-th constitution whose guaran
ties are designed to secure to all the States as
well as to all the people equal rights under
just and equal laws.
Recognizing these truths, it is meet that the
people of the South, not unmindful of the
lessons of duty and patriotism learned in the
school of adversely. address themselves with
earnestness and fidelity to meeting the duties
of the present and to preparing to meet grayer
responsibilities which will confront them in
the future. G
In the past questions of far-reaching magni-
tude and importance have arisen, and have
been manfully and nobly met by the people
of these States; but there are problems already
engaging the attention of the thoughtful low
ers of their Country of as serious import as
any with which the men of this generation or
their fathers have ever had to grapple: prob
lens involving the relations of the employer
and the employed, and relating to the distr-
button of wealth. and the increase of poverty;
problems touching more or less Immediately
the sacredness of home, and the due freedo m
and independence of the citizen: problems
some of them menacing change in the very
form and structure of our government, the
readjustment of the laws of property, and the
reorganization of the body polite upon con-
ditions which would imperil the safety puri-
ty and good order of society. 41u
With the rapid increase of population in
our cOuntry-an increase which, if maintain
ed at its present ratio will within three-quar
tiers of century give us a census of 200, 900 GOO
and with the enormous aggregations of
wealth and of poverty-and the tremendous
competition in the struggle for advancement,
on ind 1cfn no HI h hos adj
tons will here, as in other lands, necessarily
superinduce, some of these problems must
long before that time arrive, assume alarming
proportions, and some of them, it may be,
present somewhat iurid aspects.
There is one comfort in their contemplation
regarded as involving distinctively sectional
questions.
The land has suffered enough from sectional
strife. But whether they more intensely en-
gross the attention of one section of our coun-
try than another Or directly affect the inter
ests of all parts, the just and righteous settle
ment of these momentous issues will ultimate
ly involve the well being of all portions of the
Republic.
In the troubous times that are to come in
this land, the men of these Southern States if
they will take their inspiration from the
heroes whose characters and services we are
met to commemorate, will prove to be the
the bulwark of our free institutions, and
the very rampant of our social order.
When those times of trial and of conflict
come, as in the mutations of the affairs of
men they are sure to come to us unless we are
vouchsafed an immunity which NJ other peo-
pie under like conditions have enjoyed, God
grant that the sons of the men who followed
Stonewall Jackson, may be as true as their ia
theirs were to duty and the right, as God shall
give them power to discern the right.
And here to-day, surrounded by the precious
dust of these heroic dead, and IN the presence
it may be of the spirits of .the just men made
perfect" the great and good men of that great
cause, and this goodly land l would adjure
you, in the name and by the fame of Au-
gusta's greatest son, the hon-hearted States
man, Soldier, Patriot, your own beloved John
B. Baldwin, and Of that other lllustrious Vlr-
ginian hero, the noblest type of all his race,
Robert E. Lee, in the conflicts of the future,
to be as faithful and as fearless as dutiful and
as true to God and your country, as were those
immortal men and the heroes whom they led
along the paths of glory and honor.
MEETING OF THE MEMORIAL, ASSOCIATION.
In the afternoon, after the exercises at the
cemetery, there was a meeting of the Augusta
Memorial Association in the Hall of the
Stonewall Jackson Camp when business of
importance was considered, and the follow
ing were elected: Rev. George w. Finley,
president; Captain F. B. Berkeley, G. A