The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-21

dies and Gentlemen:
Bismarck, the great German, speak
ing to the world through an address
lately made to his own people, has said
that, though he stood confronted by the
infirmities of old age, to him there was
a blessed comfort. 1t was this. The
great law of compensation underlying
the equities of Gods government brings
to an old man the recognition Of the
fact, that, as he has largely done with
the world, and the world has largely
lone with him, he Is alone responsible
to God both for what he may say and
for VIA he may do. keenly alive to
that immunity from sharp and rancor-
GUS criticism of what may be aid on
this ocosion, one may be allowed to
proceed in the performance of that
duty which has been assigned him by
the kind women of North Carolina. One
might think thai here was the proper
place to pass some words Of high and
courteous eulogium upon the women Of
North Carolina. But it may be said
in the face of all that transpired with
in the borders Of tina great old com
monwealth that the women Of North
Carolina need no eulogium. From the
early settlement Of Roanoke Island,
during the dark days Of her cOlonia
history; during the revolution; pending
the great trouble between the step
mother, England, and her daughters,
the Colonies; during the string times
Of 1872; during the bright hours Of
Democratic supremacy. when the
country was expanding from ocean to
ocean,; pending the war with Mexico;
and 1nen nWar 6 a q aoctinna1 strife he
gan to develop, al through those dark
est hours Of '61-'65; some men were
found who were recreant to their high
trust, and noble heritage as North Car
olinians, and were willing to sell their
birth right for a pitiful mess of pOtage,
but from Cherokee to Currituck, near
the Virginia line to the waters of the
Pee Dee, no woman was ever found
within the borders of his old COM
monwealth whose features suggested
the slightest resemblance to a Rebecca
Wright, an alien to your civilization,
fair women of Virginia.; that woman
who put Sheridan in possession of Ear
ly's movements, dispositions and num-
bers, so as to suggest to all fair-minded
men and women that she was the twin
sister of Judas %Iscariot. No, the wo-
men of North Carolina have always
been true, and from them has sprung
that noble race that has put the world
in love with the touches Of civil and
religious liberty. They lave comision--
ed me to-day to speak in their behalf,
and the only regret that l have is
that 1 bring not to the discharge of this
high commission the commanding elO-
quence Of a. Francis Hawkes., or the per-
suative oratory Of a Henry Watkins
Miller. But / should be unjust to the
memory of my father and mother, or
my only brother who yielded up his life
in front Of Atlanta, as we'll as of the
sweetest recOllectiOnS Of that Salnted
sister who yielded up her young life
from wounds in the lungs contracted in
overwhelming n Over-WOrk in the
wards of the Confederate Hospital at
Goldsboro, were / to allow my sense of
insufficiency, my i~nadeQuacy to the full
performance of the duties assigned me,
to falter one m in the pathway
of duty which woman has assigned me.
1t may be pardOned me, if just here
before entering upon the discussion OF
the great question which Will occupy
the web and the hOOf of this address, 1
pause sufficiently long to barely init
mate to the women of the southland
the debt of gratitude which they owe
to the fair women Of the Shenandoah
Valley, and notably so to the dwell
ers in this old War-wOrn town of Win
chester, Virginia, changing hands 81
times during the war, as, from the
spring days of 1861 throughout the en-
tire struggle, they did their full duty in
nerving the arm and Strengthening the
hearts of that noble band of men ar
rayed in gray, who followed the lead
of Joseph E. johnson, Ashby, Stone
wall Jackson and Rob-rt E. Lee. 1t
may not be known to the world, nor
can it be known the one 1.-THE of all
those blessed women did in the hos
Dital, in the closet on bended knee, on
the battlefield, out watching the ST.
Rent stars in ministering to the Confed-
crate wounded, but this consolation re-
mains, as long as the Blue Ridge,
whose peaks are now enVelOped with
the morning mists, as many a time
they have been wrapped up in smoke
Of battle, occupies the place assigned
it by Almighty God, the names of Mrs.
Philip Williams, Mrs. Andrew Hunter
BOYD, Mrs. Robert Y. Conrad, Miss
Kurtz, the Richardson's, the Russells,
the Jenkins, the Glaizes, the Mesmers,
and many others who were associated
with those already mentioned, Will
never be forgotten by the citizen SOL
diery of the South. They nobly plan
ned and faithfully executed the hlgh
commission from God, which led them
in their labor of love to develop this
beautiful bivouac Of the dead, this
blessed mother of all the Southern
cemeteries. fifty named, and worthlly
wearing that name, Stonewall Gene
sery. All, how these women tolleo'
how they prayed, how they Desseo'
walking among the ashes of Southern
Glory and Southern wealth. as long
weary months elapsed before they
were able to complete in all it's admlra.
bic appointments this beautiful City or
the Dead. They finished the work. All
through this lovely valley, all through
Piedmont, Va, the signal was given,
and perhaps the largest civil gathering
ever known in this valley witnessed
the conservation of these grounds TO
the high n holy purpose Of the mem
DRY Of our dead. 1t was then that the
war-worn veteran, the late Brigadler
General, Henry A. Wise, Ex-Governor
of this commonwealth in closing his
Grafton gave utterance to that mag
nificent climax, Lost Cause! Lost
Cause! Lost Cause!!! If lost, twas
falca-if tr,1o II iC NOT 1oSfip when ten