Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1897-06-01

CndHBedOlc. I.
Commander Dickinson accepted the
gift in behalf of the camp.
HON. wM. l.. WILSON'S ADDRESS.
The most interesting feature of the oc-
casion was the brief address of Hon. Will
liam l.. Wilson, ex-Postmaster General.
He arrived from Washington during the
PROCESS of the ceremonies and was imme-
diately conducted 10 the stand. Mr..
Wilson spoke with considerable emotion,
substantially as follows, being frequently
cheered:
Comrades, Ladies aud Gentlemen !:
Thirty-two years ago the donor of this
summoned by the ties of lifelong friend
ship to utter few informal words on
this occasion, laid aside the equipments
they had worn as private soldiers, in the
same company in the Army of Northern
Virginia, and entered by separate paths
what then seemed to be harder struggle
with an unknown future. In the years
that haye interVeued wealth and affliction
have come in unusual measure to Charles
Broadway Rouss. But friendship and
love for his fellow-ma and his devotion
to the land of his birth are undimned.
Touching, indeed, is the pathOs of this
act by which the darkened curtain shuts
out from his vision the monument which
we are privileged to see. Such a cere-
mony as this would be significant any
where. 1t is doubly significant in this
the Empire State of the Union. The
monument reared to the dead soldiers of
votion of their surviving comrades.-
Reared in the State of New York it
speaks of the friendship, generosity and
kindly sentiment of the great aud victo
rious North. But few days have passed
since the people from all parts of the
country victor and vanquished met to ded
icate, with equal sincerity of feeling,
fitting mausoleum to the memory aud
ashes OF The commander of the Union
army. Commingling with us to-day in
this service are not only the veterans of
Lee and Jackson, but the veterans who
followed the great commander of the
Army of the Potomac. Those who have
met here have, by their presence, fulfill
ed the realization of the final message
which General Grant wrote to all Amer
ican people as he passed into the presence
of vanquisher greater than himself L
believe he said, we are on the eve of
new era, when there is to be great har
mony between Federals and Confederates
L cannot stay to see the realization of
this prophesy, but 1 feel it is to be so.-
The universally kind feeling expressed
for me that has come to me from all parts
of the country when it was supposed that
every day was to be my last have seemed
to me the beginning of the answer to
Let us have peace And as the pen
dropped from his dying hand his last
words were, Il hope this feeling will con-
tinue to the end
"Your presence here, veterans of the
army of the Union, is the fulfillment of
the prophecy and realization of the dying
prayer of your illustrious commander
1t is visible and blessed sign that the
arrangement has given place to friend
ship and the lines of jealousy and Sec
tionalism have faded from the hearts of
the soldiers of both armies, and that
henceforth there is no rivalry between
them except the generous rivalry of who
shall best serve the common country.
"Cankered, indeed, must be the heart
that begrudges the simple honors and
tributes which they can pay to the mem
ory of their comrades, whether it be a
monument of stone or simply flowers that
we strew on their graves. For us the
memory of their bravery in battle, of he
roism in hardships and dangers, of their
endurance of hunger and suffering, of
their compauionship, is a memory too sa-
cred for mortal speech. And those who
have most sacredly cherished that memo
ry are those who have kept with most
unsulied faith the oath by which they
were to gain place in the citizenship of
a reunited country, and as their dead died
with their faces toward the front, so have
the living lived with their faces toward
the front, and not servilely, but with
hearty and ungrudging faithfulness, have
performed every duty to society and to
country. In that spirit to-day they ded-
icate this pillar to the memory of rare
and heroic virtue, feeling that to cherish
that memory is for them mute and Po-
tent influence to exhibit like virtue in
every struggle that may confront them as
men and patriots"
Gen. John c. Underwood, OF Nashville,
Tenn, also spoke The ceremonies closed
with the decoration of the monument and
graves by the Federal and Confederate
veterans and women and children, the
bugles sounding taps"
THE RECEPTION.
Iu the evening at the LennoI Lyceum,
corner Fifty-Dinth street and Madison
avenue, at least three thousand people
attended the reception given by the New