The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-07-03

Let US glance backward. Thirty one
years ago, on the soil of this very Com
monwealth, the man to whom we erect
this monument lay manacled in a case
mate of stronglygarrisoned fortress,
charged with the most atrocious crime
Known to man-treason and murder.
lie mad been the unanimously-cho
leader of n true people, who, actuated
by pure and lofty patriotism, after
eNhausting every effort at compromise,
made an attempt to establish q new
nation: and after a bitter struggle OF
four years. after nearly four million
soldiers had met in the shock OF battle.
and over two thousand battlefields had
blazed with glorious deeds, went down
In darkness and blood.
Success is the measure of merit ap-
piled alike to every man, to every
cause, and even in our moral Judgment
we sentence the unfortunate. Men do
not idly erect monuments 10 lost causes.
Fame has no trumpet for failure. The
world hears not the voice of the van
quished. Yet history might teach us
strange things of men who fail and
causes that are lost. Genius did not
keep Hannibal or Napoleon from defeat:
heroism went with Joan of Arc to
the stake, and Emmett to the scaffold
The eloquence of DemoStheneS did not
save Greece. or Cato's virtue Rome
The courage of Kosciusko availed
naught for Poland, and Hungary went
down for all the patriotism of Kossuth.
Sometimes defeat gives tragic pathos
which lifts the common place into the
immortal, and tenderly preserves the
memory of the vanQuished long after
the victor has been forgotten.
Since the death OF Napoleon there has
been no career which illustrates so dra-
maticaEy the vicissitudeS of fortune as
that of jefferson Davis. Born amid the
rugged surroundings Of ~ frontier State.
he lived to win the triple glo;y of the
soldier, the orator and the statesman.
He became the ruler of 100000 of peo-
pie. His government was overwhelmed,
his fortune swept away. He was bound
as a criminal and prosecuted for his
life. He became an exile. He was de-
MED the rights of citizenship. He was
def,auded, denounced, iEsuited, rid.cul-
ed, to the hour of his death. And yet
he died, by millions more sincerely
mourned and deeply beloved, than any
other man in the history of the nation.
If his enemies had succeeded in putting
him TO death he would have been the
most conspicuous figure ili American
history.
When the mists OF passion and preju-
dice have passed away the calm light Of
justice gives the right n:chel to each fig
ure in history The descendants of the
men who burned Joan of Arc now regard
her as a character of heroism and beau
~. The posterity of the men who hung
witches in Salem as a pious duty, now
hear the story with horror. The DESCEND.
ants of the men who to-day look on JEFF
ferson Davis with unkind expressions
Will see him as we do-the stainlcsss gen
tleman, the gallant soldier, the devoted
pat, lot, the pure and gifted statesman.
WILL NOT RECALL OUR WRONGS.
do not propose 10 discuss now the
unhappy causes leading to the war be-
a iG ct
Crminating and recrminat!ng over ir-
rbtat,ng causes of differences cannot
readjust what the war has settled We
must walt for the mistS to clear away
and that viii take another generation.
1t does no good TO recall our wrongs,
real or fanc!ed; 1t keeps up partisan
feeling; It gives an excuse for i'll will
Others have ably treated the Southern
view of the controversy. their al igument
is submitted TO impa rtial history. Suf-"
iice ii 10 say on this occa sion that the
war has settled that secession is i'm
practicable and the amendments to the
Constitution have adjusted all the other
differences. The Southern people have
fully accepted the results: they accept
the present, and Loyalty commit them
selves to the future. Neither shall I
attempt TO recount his life. for II is a
part of history. The record is made up;
If We protect it from falsification while
we live the verdict of history will not
shame our posteiity when we are dead
To-day we meet and the past and the
present join hands. Looking around me,
viewing the faces of the fair women
and brave men before me, I realize that
the past is behind me, ithat this is the
living present. / feel the Influence of
the new hopes. of the new gaheration TO
which you belong. Our task is to COM
NIT icto< your hands what our failing
hands cannot much longer hold-4the sa-
cred rights for which your fathers sacri-
feed their lives, their property, every
thing; these liberties and the land which
was so dear to them, we commit to
you. j will only say you cannot excel
your fathers; reverence them. emulate
them; may you be worthy of them!
1t is hard to believe THAT the Ameri-
can people will always desire to have
the epithets of traitor and rebel applied
TO names which are new. and, unless
human nature changes. always will be
dea" and honored in the hearts of a
large part of their number-honored by
men who mde duty a passion, reli-
sion-dear 10 the pos'terity of those who
were foremost in sacrifice, in the esta b.
lishment of the Republic in the increase
of its area. and in the vindication OF
principles Of government, inherited
from their forefathe,S and accepted as
correct for the first fifty years of the
Republic.
l cannot hold him wise who would
willingly wound the patriotism of any
citizen OF the Republic. To brand such
men az Albert Sidney Johnston StOpa