The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1897-07-03
An 0RAT0RIC1L GEN.
Bob Taylor Asserts that the South VIII
let BE the Bnlwark, the Very
Citadel, Of American
Liberty.


Nashville, which was wildly applauded.
and rightly. for it is a gem. He said;
Ladies and Gentlemen-Why need |
say welcome to the men Of the SOUTH
Every heart in Tennessee throbs a
welcome 70 you. and every loyal home
smiles a welcome. I think If | could
draw back the veil which separates
immortality from this vale Of tears, yOu
would see vision Of your old comrades,
who have answered TO the roll call Of
eternity. crowding the air, and you
would hear them shout welcome, thrice
welcomed
| love 10 live in the land Of Dixie,
under the soft southern skies, where
summer pours ont her food of sunshine
and showers, and the greatest earth
smiles with plenty. I love to live ON
southern soil, where the cotton fields
wave their white banners Of peace, and
where the wheat fields wave back their
banners Of gold from the hills and
valleys which were once drenched with
the blood Of heroes. l love to live
where the moeking birds fiutter and
sing in the shadowy coves and bright
waters ripple in eternal melody by the
graves where our heroes are buried.
love to breathe the southern air that
comes filtered through jungles Of roses.
whispering the story of southern deeds
of bravery. | love to drink from
southern springs and southern babbling
brooks which once cooled the lips of
| Leo and Jackson and Forrest and
Gordon. and the worn and weary
columns of brave men who wore the
gray. | love to live among southern
men and women, where every heart Is
as warm as the southern sunshine, and
every home is a temple of love and
liberty. / love to listen to the sweet
old southern melodies which touch the
soul and melt the heart and awaken to
life ten thousand precious memories OF
the happy long ago, when the old time
darkeys used TO laugh and sing, and
when the old time black NANNY
soothed the children to slumber with
her lullabies. But, oh, the music that
thrills me most is the melody that died
away on the lips of many Confederate
soldier az he sank into the sleep that
knows no waking
| II am glad / am in Dixie.
| I doubt If the world will ever see
another civilization as brilliant as that
which persisted in the South third Of
century ago. Its white columned
mansions, under cool, spreading groves,
its orange trees waving their sprays of
snowy blossoms, and its cotton fields
stretching away to the horizon alive
with toiling slaves who sang as they
toiled from early morn until the close of
day it's pomp and pride and revelry its
splendid manhood and the dazzling
beauty of its women, placed it in history
as the high tide of earthly glory. But
the hurricane of civil war shattered it
and swept it away. Billions of wealth
dissolved and vanished in smoke and
flame. The South lost all save honor.
But the Confederate soldier, the purest
and proudest type of the Anglo Saxon
race. stood erect amid its charred and
blackened ruins. The earth was red
beneath him, the sky was black above
him. his sword was broken, his country
was crushed But without throne he
was no less a ruler; his palace had
persisted, he was no less king. Slavery
was dead, but magnificent in the gloom
of defeat, he was still master. Has
he not mastered adversity2 Has he not
built the ruined SouthY
Look yonder at those flashing domes
and glittering spires look at the works
Of art and all the fabrics and pictured
tapestries of beauty. Look what
southern brain and southern hands have
wrought See the victories Of peace we
have won, all represented within the
white columns of our great industrial
exposition, and you will receive an
inspiration of the old South, and you
will catch glimpses of her future glory.
| trust in God that the struggles of
the future will be the struggles of
peace, and not of war. The hand Of
secession will never be lifted mp again.
The danger to the republic now lies in
the mailed hand of centralized power,
and the South will yet be the bulwark
Of American liberty. If you ask me
why, / answer, it is the only section
left which is purely American l answer
that anarchy cannot live on southern
soil ] answer that the South has started
on new line of march, and while we
love the past for its precious memories,
our faces are turned toward the morn
ing
Time has furled the battle flags and
snelted the hostile gun. Time has torn
down the forts and leveled the trenches
and rife pits on the bloody field Of
glory, where courage and high born
chivalry on prancing chargers once rode
to the front with shimmering epaulettes
and bright swords cleaning, where
thousands of charging bayonets at
uniform angles reflected thousands of
suns, where the shrill fife screamed and
the kettle drum timed the heavy tramp,
tramp of the shining battalions as the
infantry deployed into battle line and
disappeared in the seething waves of