The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1897-07-10
A Great Speacll.

|
! member of President Davis cabinet de
| llvered the annual Grafton at the Nash
willie reunion. Following are the clos
ing paragraphs of the great effort:
And now that We are again citizens
of the government Of the United States,
living under the same government
and constitutional flag. our late adver-
| saries ought not to desire to degrade us
| in the eyes of posteiity. and if they
would be wise and ust they should not
wish to place our people III history in
the position OF being unworthy of the
rights, liberty and character of citizens
of our great and common country.
"And while | have accepted, and do ac
suits of the war, and while | am. and
will be, as true to my allegiance and du
ty to our cummon government rs any
other citizen can be, shall insist on my
right to tell the truth which show that
in that great struggle we were guided
and controlled by a spirit of patriotism
which caused ns to stake life, liberty
and property in contest with Il greatly
superior power, rather than basely sur
render our rights without a struggle.
cit is fitting and proper at his point
that | should refer To Il matter which
fifty illustrates the character of the
SOuLHefu people. mere WAS never
time during all the perils and suffering
of reconstruction that men of prOml-
nence Who had been on the Confederate
side could not have obtained positions
OF honor and emolnment under the fed
eral government if they would have con
sented to surrender their convictions
and hetray their people. A few did SO
and thereby earned an everlasting III
fanny. But nearly all OF them stood 10y
their convictions and preserved their
honor, andi thereby proved them
selves worthy Of citizenship in the
greatest and pFondest government OIL
earth.
The name of Jefferson Davis, II. E.
Lee, Stonewail jackson, Albert Sidney
Johnston and many others of our heroic
leaders will go into history, illuminated
by halo of courage and skill and puri-
ty of life and patriotism unsurpassed by
any names III history. AS Indicating
the faith Of President Davis i'll God and
his devout earnrstness, | recall atten
ton to the closing sentence OF his inau-
gural address, after his election under
the constitutional government OF the
Confederacy, made the 22d day Of Feb
rnary, 1862 Raising his hands at the
closing of his address, ard looking to-
wards heaven, he said : And now, y
God, | commit my es'nntry and her
cause into thy holy Keeping" thus
showing the aoIemnItyt'vitli which he
assumed anew the dla+IAs OF president
of the CunfederacS Az
History notes with its richest prnis.ts,
the matrons of Romef They wers mo
doubt warthv of all sIfat.s. has be.-A Anid
of them. But their K'ss-s Cluster
about them when Rome was II great
and victorious nation. This is not said
to their discredlt, hut to contrast with
them the noble and devoted women of
the Cunfederacy. The grandeur ri
their lives and conduct was exhibited IN
a cause in which the odds ware greatly
against their country, in which sacri-
fees were necessary, and in which sue
cess was at all times doubtful.
80 illustrate the character and devo-
NtiOn of the women of the Confederacy,
repeat a statement made TO me during
the war by Governor Letcher, nf Viz
ginii. He had visited his home in the
Shenandoah valley, and Oh his return
to the State capital, called at the house
Of an old friend who had large family.
He found no one but the good old
mother at home. She told him that her
husband, her husbands father and her
ten sons were IN the army. Can mod
ern or ancient history show IA nober or
more uBseltish and patriotic devotion to
any cause
There have been, aud t,eie may still
be, those who affect to speak lightly of
the Confederaey but IA cause and a
country which it required more than
four years of terrible war, and armies
of more than two million men, and
which cost the lives of hundreds of
thousands, the expenditure of billions
of dollars worth of property to over
come, can hardly he belittled by any
honest and sensible man. We can we'll
afford to wait the verdict which history
will render on the men and woman of
the late Confederacy"