The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-31

started with $500, from lecture given in
Chicago by General Gordon of Georgia.
Citizens of Chicago also subscribed 10000,
and subscriptions by Confederate veterans
and others in the South brought the fund
up to the necessary amount. The monu-
ment was three years under construction.
The largest assemblage of distinguished
Confederate veterans ever seen IN the
North was one of the notable features OF
occasion. Those present included Gen
erals John B. Gordon, Wade Hampton,
James Longstreet, Stephen D. Lee, Fitz-
hugh Lee, Harry Heth, S. G. French. E. G..
Waltham, NJ. c. Butler, L. L. Tomax,
Marcus J. Wright, Frank G.. Armstrong,
Eppa Hunton, Joseph 0. Shelby, William
II. Payne, Fayette Hewitt, G. A. Evans
and Joseph ii. Lewis. Nearly all these
distinguished visitors, accompanied by
their wives and families, together with rep
resentatives of the Confederate Association
of Washington, D. c.; Camp Mouitrie Sons
of Veterans of Charleston, S. c., and rep
resentative delegations from Atlanta and
other points South, arrived yesterday.
They were met at the depots by comrades
in arms, composed of Federal and Confed-
crate veterans and the leading professional
and business men of the city with suit
able escort and driven to their hotel.
Later they attended a matinee perform
ance at the theater. In the evening they
were welcomed to the city by Mayor
Swift, General Gordon responding. This
was followed by most brilliant banquet
at Kinsley's.
To-days ceremonies began with the
ringing of the Columbian Liberty bell
firing of National salute by Battery D,
I. n. c., on the lake front. Then a large
parade of renowned Northern and South
ern generals was formed and moved under
military escort to the Twelfth street depot
and took trains in waiting for lakewood
Cemetery, where the dedication ceremonies
occurred. The military escort consisted of
the well-known First Regiment, I. N. g.,
under command of Henry L. Turner, as
well as the Chicago Hussars, mounted
military organization of seventy-ive men,
under command OF Captain Quincy.
The dedication ceremonies opened with
prayer by Colonel Joseph Desha Pickett,
chaplain of the Kentucky Orphans" Bri-
gade, C. S. A. Then General John C.
Underwood, in a few Introductory re-
marks, placed in the chair Rev. DR.. w. H.
Bolton, pastor of the Centenary Methodist
Church and past commander of U. S.
Grant Post No. %, G. A. r., of Chicago,
who delivered brief address on assuming
his duties. The dedicatory Grafton by
Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton of
South Carolina followed. He spoke as
follows:
he ont tod n 10 hot
could not be witnessed in any other country
but our own, and for this reason if for no other
it presents significance worthy of the gravest
consideration. Years ago brave men from the
North and from the South stood facing each
other in hostile array, and the best blood of the
country was poured out like water on many
battlefield. Thousands. hundreds of thousands
OF our bravest sleep in bloody graves; men
who CAV, their lives to prove the faith of
their convictions; and now North and South,
standing by these graves wherever they may
be, grasp hands across the bloody chasm and
proudly claim Federal and Confederate soldiers
as Americans, men who have given to the
world as noble examples of courage and devo-
ton to duty can be enrolled on the page OF
history. Nor is this all that marks this occa-
sion as remarkable and exceptional, and which
should render it memorable in our annals for
all time to come. No monument in the world
yonder one. That marks the graves OF no vic
torious soldiers, but of the followers of lost
cause; it stands not on Sou thern soil, but on
Northern; the men who rest under its shadows
come from far-off Southland, and il owes
its erection not to the comrades OF these dead
soldiers, but mainly to the generosity and mag
nanimity OF their former foes-the citiz ems of
this city.
All honor then, to the brave and liberal men
81 yho hora OH lit,
that they regard the war as over, and that they
can welcome friends on this solemn and
suspicious occasion their former enemies. AS
long as this lofty column points to heaven, as
long as one stone OF its foundation remains,
future genera tons of Americans should look
upon it with pride, not only as an honor to
those who conceived its construction, but as
silent though noble emblem of a restored Union
and reunited people. In the name of my
comrades, dead and living, and in my own
name, give grateful thanks to the brave men
OF Chicago who have done honor to our dead
here, not as Confederate soldiers, but as brave
men who preferred imprisonment end death
rather than freedom obtained by dishonor-
able sacrifice of the principles for which they
were willing to die
OF the 5000 Confeoerates buried here not one
was an officer; all were privates, and in no way
responsible for the unhappy war which brought
I'LL 4udQ VI woes upon our country. ana y6I
these hum BILE private soldiers, any one of whom
could have gained freedom by taxing the oath
of allegiance to the Federal Government pre-
ferred death to the sacrifice of their principles
Could any possible dishonor attach to these
brave men of Chicago because they were will
ing to recognize the courage and devotion to
duty of these dead Confederates?
We of the South measure our dead comrades
by the standard applied to men after death
and you of Chicago have measured them by
the same standard, the only standard by which
we can measure men, and by applying this you
have shown that you have come to the highest
standard vouchsafed to men, and on this North
and South can stand, with honor alike to both
sections.
Some of our Northern citizens seem to para
phrase the Biblical question: "Can any good
thing come out OF NAZARETH" by applying it
to the South; but, my friends, we really are
not all evil Put yourself in our places and
judge us from that standpoint. In the con-
vention which framed the constitution there
were two parties which held opposite posi-
tons; one urging the formation of a strong
central Government, and the other advocating
the doctrine of State rights. 1t was attempted
to reconcile these antagonistic views by COM
promise by which it was declared that all pow
ers not delegated to the General Government
L o.