Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-21

incalculable sums of money to have
 achieved success as did the union-
 The total taxable value of our proper
 ty at the beginning of the war was $5-
 250,000000. The cost to the union of our
 subjugation, including pensions, up to
 last year. has been $s.250, 900, ,000, or s.
 000, 100000 more than the property. in-
 cluding slaves, in the eleven seeding states was worth at the beginning of
 the struggle
 Though hard to do, we accepted the de-.
 cision with the same good faith and
 manliness with which we had fought for
 our convictions.
 While one might as we'll undertake to
 disprove the divinity of Christ to the
 ecumenical council as to argue to an
 old Confederate veteran against the
 right of secession, yet the exercise of
 that right at the time and in the man
 ner it was done will always be regarded
 by thoughtful men as a rash and in- considerate act.
 If success had not been impracticable
 on account of the disadvantages I have
 already enumerated, there were other
 almost insuperable difficulties in the
 way of success of our cause.
 Had there been any great obstacle for
 a dividing line, a range of high noun
 tains or a body of water similar to the
 English channel. or had the Mississippi
 river flowed from east to west instead
 of bisecting the Confederacy, complete separation would have been both wise and practicable.
 Had we succeeded with a mere imagi-
 nary line of separation the tendency to conflict would have been as certain and
 more frequent than that between Eng
 land and Scotland before they united in one government. Permanent peace would have been impossible. While the right of secession, to my
 mind. was beyond controversy, yet when put into practice 1t might have proven a boomerang, for it is equally clear that it would have established the right of disintegration.
 would have produced constant apprehen- sion, and confronted by our own prece- dent, We could not have questioned the right of any state to secede from the compact; and hence had we succeeded, we might ere this have had two or more Confederacies.
 Another consolation for our defeat is that we have escaped the danger of the multiplication of governments on this continent, which, if brought about, would result, as it has in Europe, in large stand ing armies, burdensome taxation to maintain them and involvement in bloody
 wars. threa tening the destruction of lib- erty itself.
 Slavery was destroyed as a result of the war, but it was an institution. which had served It's purpose in the civilization of the African race in our midst, fo far as it could be done through such an in- stitution; and under the laws of an all wise Providence when an institution ceases to be of utility it's destruction will follow. And rSw that it is numbered l with the things of the past, no one would | have it fe-eSta bliShed. The earnestness and gallantry of our | soldiers on both sides will forever com l mand the admiration of the world and | while hundreds of thousands of yalua- | ble lives were lost and the land draped in fl.N At1, 1o, fIasaY. | a vast impetus given to education, great advancement in science. the de- | velopment of genius which has given | to the nations of the world their iron | clad navies and other destructive en- | gineery, which are contributors to peace. and will in future save the lives or mil l lions of men.
 | Alabama, with white population of | 526271, equipped and sent to the field | 100000 brave Confederate soldiers and | 5000 who fought on the union side, while 1 we left at home 436, 900 slaves. My state furnished greater number of | soldiers to the war than she had voters. | My friend Gen. John B. Gordon, one of | the bravest of the brave, whom we have l with us today, went to the front from Alabama.
 The effect of the war upon the charac- | ter of the federal government was terse- l ly expressed by the supreme court of the | United States in single sentence: "An | indestructible union composed of inde- structible states"
 Blue and Gray. Something over two years ago, at the great naval review, when the Dolphin. with the secretary's flag flying. passed ! out of Hampton roads and by the long l line of splendid ships of our new navy | fifteen In number-each fired a salute of | seventeen guns; and when hhe longer | line of foreign ships was passed old ad- l with 6inra1 | their colors and each ship fired seven | feen guns, and the forts in New York r harbor gave forth like salutations to 8 l man who stood upon the forward deck of | the Dolphin in plain citizens attire. With his left hand he could not uncover his | head in acknowledgment of these saluta- | tions for that hand hung limp by his side in consequence of a wound he re- l ceived at the Wilderness in 1864, when | he was trying to dissolve the union. Under the old moribund statutes he | was ineligible to even a lieutenancy in | the army or navy, yet he is the com mander of all the powerful ships and skillful officers of the United states navy Who is this man and how did he ob- | tain that position?
 Hilary A. Herbert of Alabama, an old | Confederate colonel.
 | He obtained the position from the same | hand that made distinguished union general secretary of state. Gresham and Herbert-union and Con- federate-the blue and the gray-all dis tinction on account of the side man espoused in our war stricken down, and l ali alike, again citizens of this great re- public-thank God and Grover Cleveland. We recognize that the union and the constitution are one and inseparable now and forever.
 While we moisten with our tears the ashes of our fallen comrades we can say that
 ssThe graves of the dead with the grass overgroWn
 Shall still be the footstool of l.bertys throne"
 Awarded