Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-07-03

of Confederate Veterans, veteran cavalry
division
The cadets of the high school from
Washington, as well as the District vet
Grams, made an attractive feature of the
parade and were complimented all along
the route. The lady sponsors and their
maids of honor rode in separate carriages,
and made the brightest feature of the
procession. Each sponsor waved the flag
of the state she represented, and all of
them were royalty cheered as they passed
through the brilliantly decorated streets
and crowned with southern
blooming Womanhood and LONELINESS.
The Society of the Army and Navy of
the Confederate States in Maryland, es-
corted by the Fifth regiment veterans
corps, was in the procession. The society
Is the only organized body of veterans
in town which Is not affiliated with the
United Confederate Veterans. Many
members of it, however, are also members
of Herbert and Buchanan camps. Col.
George r Gather is in command of the
veteran corps, and Capt. George w.
Booth of the society Gen. Bradley T.
Johnston is the president of the society.
sirs. Jefferson Davis rode in a carriage
with Hon. ]. Taylor Ellison and Gen.
Peyton Wise, and she was everywhere
recognized and cheered.
Miss Shelby, daughter of General Shell
by of Missouri, rode a fine horse through
the whole route of the procession, and
was greatly admired.
The procession reached Monroe park
about 4 o'clock, after a very trying
march to some of the older veterans.
Here the grand Masonic lodge of Vir-
ginia took charge of the ceremonies and
escorted by the Knight Templars reach
ed the site selected for the Davis monu-
ment, where a stand for the orator and
distinguished guests had been erected
ha T,ri hppn
seated and the Richmond Blues and
other military organizations placed as a
supplementary escort to the Templars
the Masonic ceremonies of the laying of
a corner stone took place, concluding
with the following
Proclamation by the Grand Marshal:
"Oyez! All within the sound of the
gavel take due notice that the craft has
ceased from their labor and that the
corner stone of the Jefferson Davis mon
ument is now true, trusty and well laid
by the grand lodge of Virginia, in its
10th year"
After this announcement Hon. J. Tay-
lor Ellison, president of the Davis Monu-
ment association, came forward and
called upon Bishop John C. Granbery of
the Methodist Episcopal church to offer
prayer, and that eminent divine deliver
ed q most fervent and appropriate appeal
to the throne of the Almighty.
After this Gen. Stephen d. Lee, the
orator of the day, was introduced and
spoke as follows:
From a graceful exordium explaining
the purpose which had drawn this vast
audience together, General Lee asserted
that 1T was fitting that Jefferson Davis
remains should rest in Virginia, which
he characterized as the greatest of all
states. But for her generosity in ceding
her vast territory to the union Kentucky
would have still been hers, and he would
have been born her son. Many presi-
DENTS statesmen and soldiers lie in Vir-
ginia' soil-from Washington to the pres
ent ti1ne-none greater than Davis, but
more fortunate.
Throwing a glance backward he show
ed how thirty-one years ago the man
whose memory they had met today to
honor lay manacvled In a casemate of
with cine most atrocious crime known to
man--treason and murder. "And yet"
he continued, "he died by millions more
sincerely mourned and deeply beloved
than any other man in the history of
the nation. If his enemies had succeed
ed In putting him to death he, would
have been the most conspicuous figure
In American history"
General Lee expressed an abiding be-
lief that when the mists of passion and
prejudice have passed away the calm
light of justice will give the right niche
"The descendants of the men who
burned Joan of Arc" said he, "now re-
gard her as a character of heroism and
beauty. The posterity of the men who
hung witches in Salem as pious duty
now hear the story with horror. The
descendants of the men who today look
on Jefferson Davis with unkind express
sions will see him as we do--the STAIN
less gentleman, the gallant soldier, the
devoted patriot,
The Pure and Gifted Statesman"
General Lee declined to discussed the
causes leading to the war. The war had
settled that secession is impracticable
and the amendments to the constitution
have adjusted all other differences. The
southern people have fully accepted the
results. They represent the present and
Loyalty commit themselves to the future.
Passing to the early days of secession,
he predicted that the future historian
would note with astonishment that the
southern struggle for independence be-
gan not with committees of public safe
tys with declarations of the rights of
man or enunciations of the mighty doc
trine that governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the gov
erned, but it began with public statutes,
general elections and constitutional con-
ventions. Mr.. Davis himself rested in
his inaugural the case of the new, ma
tion at the bar of public opinion of the
world, not upon revolutionary, but upon
legal right.
He quoted the Junior senator from
Massachusetts (Mr LODGE as saying
that when the constitution was adopted
at Philadelphia no one, neither Wash
ington, Hamilton, Clinton nor Mason, re-
garded the new system as anything but
an experiment, from which every state
had the right, peaceably. to withdraw.
The southern states only exercised a
right which had often been threatened
by New England and which was gener-
ally conceded to be a constitutional one.
General Lee concluded a glowing eu-
logism of Jefferson Davis pure private
life, his exquisite courtesy and gallantry
as soldier with the declaration that his
dominant characteristic was his fidelity
to principle. 1t was well said of him,
"He Bent to None but God"
He came among us as a Roman born
out Of time. 1t was impossible for him to
ask pardon so long as he felt he had done
his duty conscientiously. as he saw it.
and he was never forgiven. One after
another his great comrades entered the
beyond until he stood alone, but he never
wavered He passed from us stern and
ma jestic figure, broken, but never bent
General Lee quoted from a speech de-