The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-10-07
O gate of self sacrifice. IL was gate OF
blood. It was q gate Of carbuncle.

blood 1t was Satc or carOunCle.
Rcd Letter Days.
We are not indebted to history fer
our knowledge CT the greatest OF nation
al crises Many Of Us remember 1t, and
fathers and mothers now living had bet
ter keep telling that story to their chill
dren, SO that instead Of their being de-.
pendent upon cold type and obliged to
say, ION such page CT such book
you can read that" will they rather be
able to say: MY father told me so, y
my mother told me So" Men and
women who vividly remember 1861,
and 1862, and 1868, and 1864, be your
selves the historians. telling 1t, not with
pen, but with living tongue and voice
ard gesture. That is the great use OF
Memorial decoration day, for tho Gala
lilies en- the grave tops soon become
breathless of perfume, AID in week
turn to dust like unto that which lies
beneath them. But the story CT courage
and self sacrifice and patriotism told Oh
platforms and in households and by the
roadside and in churches end in ceme.
terics BY that annual recital will be
kept fresh in the memory Of generations
as long as our American institutions
are worthy of preservation. Long after
you are dead your children will be able
to say, with the psalmist, eve have
reard with our ears, o God, our ia
ttcrs have told Us, what work thou
didst in their days in the times CT old. "
Eut what time it was. Four years OF
hcnesickness. -Four years Of brotherly
and sisteriy cstrargement. -Four years
of rlartyrdom. -Four years Of massacre.
Put them in long hne, the cordagra.
tion Of cities. and sec them light up a
whole continent Put them in long
rows, the hospitals, making vast me-
tropclis of pain and paroxysm. Gather
them in oro vast asscmblage, tho mil
liors CT bereft from the st. Lawrence
to the cuff, and from the Atlantic to
the Pacific beaches Put the tears into
lakes, and the blood into rivers, and
the shrieks into whiriwinds. During
those four years many good and wise
men at the north and south saw nothing
ahead but annihilation. With such a
national debt we could never meet our
obligations. With such mortal antipa-
thies northern aud southern men could
never come into amity. Representatives
of Louisiana and Georgia and the Caro-
linas could never agaiu sit side by side
with the representatives of Maine, Mas
sachusetts and New York at the nation
al capital
Lord John Russell had declared that
we were "a bubble bursting national
ity," and it had come true. The ma
tions of Europe had gathered with very
resigned spirit at the funeral Of our
American republic. They had tolled the
bells Oh parliaments and reichstags and
lowered their flags ct half mast, and
even The lion on the oticr side Of the
sea had whined for the dead eagle Oh
this side. The deep grave had !! ecn dug,
and beside Babylon, and Thetcs, and
Tyre, and other dead nations of the past
our dead republic was to be buried. The
epitaph was all ready, ,"Rere lies the
American republic. Born at Philadel-
phia, July 4, 1776. Killed at Bull Run
July 21, 1861. aged IS years and II
days. Peace to its ashes. " But before
the obscquies had quite closed thcro was
an interruption Of the ceremonies, and
our dead ration rose from its mcrtuary
surroundings. God had made fer it a
special resurrection day, and cried:
"Con,e forth, thou republic CT Washing.
ton, and John Adams, and Thomas JEFF
fcrscu, and Patrick Henry, and John
Hancock, and Daniel Webster, ard S.
S. Prentiss, and Henry Clay. Come
forthr' And she came forth, to be
stronger than she had ever been. Her
miahtiest properties have Ccme since
that sine. Who would want to push
back this country to what it was in
1860 or 1850? Bot, Ch, what high
gate, what strong gate, she had to push
back before she could make one step III
advanced Gate Of fame! See Norfolk
! navy yard, and Columbia, and Cham
bersburg, and Charleston Oh fire! Gate
Ct baycncts! See glitte1iug rifles ard
carbincs flash from the Susquehanna
ard the James to the Mississippi and
the Arkansas! Gate Of heavy artillery,
making the mountains of Tennessee and
Kentucky and Virginia tremble as
though the earth itself were struggling
in its last agony. The gate was so fiery
and SO rcd that can think of nothing
more appropriate than TO take the sug'
gestion of Isaiah in the text and call il
q gate CT carbuncles.
God Save the Nation.
This country has been fer the most
part of its history passing through
crises, and after each crisis was better
off than before it entered it, and now
we are 1t another crisis. We are told on
one hand that if geld is kept as a stand
ard and silver is net elevated confidence
will te restored, and this nation will
rise triumphant from all the financial
r,;sfCrtUnes that have been afflictlna
Us. On the Other hand, we are told th:.i