The herald., 1896-07-01
Of Grizzled Veterans Who Wore
the Gray
ELOQUENT SPEECHES MADE
In Laudatiou Of Leaders Of the Great
Rebellion
And Pledglng Devotion to the Laws, the
Honor and the Plag Of the Amer.
lean Republic
Associated Press Special Wire.

RICHMOND, va, June 3O.-The Con-
federate reunion opened today with
charming weather and an immense
throng present. Gen. Gordon showed
his face on the rostrum this morning
and mighty Confederate yell went up.
Rev. ]. William Jones offered prayer
to the memory of Lee, of Jackson and
of Davis.
Gov O'Ferrall was introduced who
on behalf of Virginia. welcomed the vet
Grams. Gov. O'Ferrall said:
Veterans and Comrades: You were
enlisted in those bands who wrote their
name in glory's skies and carved them
deep in the temple of fame, who made
the cause of the south so imperishable
and the renown of her armies SO fault
less. 1t was neither conquest nor power
for which you fought; it was defense
of home and country. The rights for
which the founders of this republic
struck were no more sacred to them
than the rights for which you struck
were dear to you. If you were rebels, so
were the fathers of constitutional lib
erty of 120 years ago. If you fought to
sever your connections with union
whose bonds were calling, so did the men
now immortalized in song and story when
they snapped the cord of British alleg-
lance in 1776. If you had within spirit
that would not submit to wrong and
ancestral inheritance, or, If foreign, you
imbued it from the air you breathed."
He closed with an eulogy of Lee and
called attention to the fact that the mon
ument to him would be erected without
governmental aid.
While Gov. O'Ferrall was speaking,
Wade Hampton came in, and was re-
ceived with cheers.
At the conclusion of the governors ad-
dress, Mayor Taylor delivered an ad-
dress of welcome on behalf Of the CITY,
Gen. Gordon introduced Gen. Pey-
ton Wise, to turn over to the veterans
the building in which the convention is
being he'd. Seveia times during the
day there had been calls for a speech
from Gen. Hampton. When Gen. Wise
took his seat the calls were renewed, and
the South Carolinian walked to the front
of the stage. The band struck up Dixie,
while the whole audience arose and ap-
plauded. A veteran was passed to the
front bearing an old battlefiag that had
been shot through in many Places and
waved it before the vast assemblage
When Gen. Hampton was permitted to
speak he said words could not express
his gratitude for the great honor which
had been done him. He had come to
mingle with the veterans perhaps for the
last time, and to do honor to the MEM
ory of that great man, President Davis.
The general said he would be still fight
ing now if the Confederate flag was
waving. (Applause).
He had no apology to make for his
course.
In conclusion he said the only epitaph
he wanted written on his tombstone
was that he was Confederate soldier.
Gen. Gordon responded to the ad-
dress of welcome and received the build
ing in behalf of the veterans.
Gen. Gordons speech was, in part, as
follows:
You will not wonder that am literal
ly overwhelmed by the flood of emotious
which this scene evokes. AS we look
upon the grizzled locks and furrowed
brows of these stalwarts who thirty
years ago were soldiers of an army which
they imortalized by their deeds, how
utterly inadequate are words of our lips
to express the emotions of our hearts?
mo popular assemblies of intelligent
and high-spirited citizens in the worlds
posterity were freer from partisan zeal
or self-seeking spirit or ignoble jealousy
or sinister intent, and the muse of his
tory will yet embalm, in one of her
sweetest stories, the unselfish character
and exalted aims of these Confederate
gatherings. The pathos of that recital
will be deepened by it's simplicity and
it's beauty. heightened by the lesson
which it will teach to humanity. That
story will record the simple but sublime
truth that these reunions year after
year convey the indisputable proofs that
these broadminded men were neither en-
bittered nor disappointed nor warped by
political passions nor narrowed by Sec
tional prejudice, nor blinded to the COM
mon interests of country by selfish aims:
but that, made unselfish by suffering,
broadened and ennobled by sacrifice, re-
fined and purified in the fires of afflic-
ton, they embrace as a brother every
true lover of their country and acknowl-
edge no superiors in devotion to the COM
monweal and unfaltering support to the
laws, the flag, the honor and the free
dom of this American republic.
"And now by the memory of that white
robed army of comrades who have gone
before us to the better land, but whose
spirits are with us today, and voicing
the sentiments of the thousands who
long to be with Js, in their name and
as their represe1 tative. I lay at Vir-
ginia's feet the sihcerest tribute of our
grateful hearts,"
The speakers tribute to Virginia and
Virginians was greeted with prolonged
cheering. Gen. Stephen D. Lee was in
troduced to present the report of the
committee on history. 1t was a lengthy
paper and dealt with the whole subject
Of histories. The report recommended
the establishment of chair of Ameri-
can history in southern colleges and uni
versities and the more thorough teach
ing of history in the schools. public and
private throughout the south.