The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1898-04-30
SOUTHERN OR4 TORY.

! 4
birthday anniversary. Judge Emory
Speer, of Georgia, was the orator
of the day and delivered an elo-
quent tribute to the memory of the
great general. Messrs. Watterson
and Speer voiced the sentiments of
the Southern people and alluded to
the patriotism that is being dis
played with equal ardor North and
In the course Of his beautiful
Grafton Judge Specr said:
eve are brethren now, shoulder
to shoulder, under the glory bright
EMS gn of our common country
and I thank God that, with
the clear vision Of the dying, the
noble patriot whom we cOnmemor
ated lived to see this truth. He
wrote: 81 feel that we are on the
verge of a new era when there is to
be greater harmony between the
Federal and the Confederate.
cannot stay to be a living witness to
the correctness Of this prophecy;
but l feel it within me that it is to
be SO. The universal kind feeling
for me at the time when 1T was sup
posed that each day would prove
my last seemed to me the beginning
of an answer to sLet us have peace"
sNith such emotions in his heart
this great American died and, my
countrymen, his prophetic words
were true. Now in our country's
need we are a reunited people.
His magnanimity to southern men,
his soldierly fidelity to his great
adversary, has found its reward in
the devotion to lis country Of tn at
other Lee, who amii the curses and
the treachery Of the stealthy Span
iards, the pestience among their
victims and the cruel massacre Of
mate courage AMI manliness. has
ma intained the honor of the stripes.
Colonel Watterson, who was the
next speaker, in response to the
toast, The Reunited Sections, !"
said:
elf there was any doubt any
where about the restoration Of the
Union: not merely in fact and in
name, but in the spirit to which it
owes its birth, the manifestations OF
the last few weeks can not have
failed TO dissipate it. That Spanish
gentleman VINO proposed to supple
nlent the forces Of his country in
Cuba by inciting the South TO an
other rebellion must surely have
been the Knight Of La Mancha
come to life again, but quite as
bereft Of reason as he was in the
days of Sancllo Panza and the lady
Of Toboso; though in truth, most
Of those supporting Spain in her
ill., starred contention, seem to be
ineal descendants of the famous
Don! Sir, the reunited sections Of
the Union stand a wall Of iron be-
tween the Nations honor and, if
need be, all the world; stand a wall
Of fire between the stricken CuOans
and any further hurt from Spain.
We want no other warrant for our
act Of war than the cruel, the heart
less story of the Spaniard in Amer
lea. From the coming OF C"rtez
and Pizarro, to the going Of Weyler
three centuries of brutality, ir
radiated only by the pirates lust
for plumber and the tigers thirst for
blOOd-each succeeding Captain
General has seemed to emulate
Alva as rival Of Satan by seeking
a second Immortality Of damn alton.
Before such an array, historical and
contemporary, the true American
neither consults his geography, nor
counts the cost. His pulsebeats
are the same in Massachusetts, and
in Mississippi, and whether the
band plays :Yankee Doodle" or
''Dixie' is all one to him! Assum
ing that in ordinary it takes but a
few months and a change OF raiment
to convert typical Vermonter into
a typical Texan, it has taken but
a few weeks to impress upon the re-
united sections Of the Union the
truth that we are the most homoGe
neous people on the face Of the
globe; that such differences as exist
among us are local and external,
and not skin deep, and, along with
this lesson, to reawaken in all hearts
Decatur's ringing words:
''Our cOuntry-may she be ever