The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-06-21

dwelling Of Confederate Monument
n jacksonville Fla. Confederate
and Federal Veterans and Federal
Troops from the North and the
South Join i'm the Exercises.

Jacksonville. Fla, June 1s.-The IN
yelling OF the SO. 600 confederate monu-
ment today marked one Of the most pa
triotic incidents IN our national annals.
Indeed. il was surrounded by so many
peculiar circumstances that nothing in
this country has ever equaled Ii. It be-
comes a chapter in history strange in
coincidence and remarkable in sur
r~oundings.
Eighteen years ago on the piazza of
one OF the hotels OF this city sat a SOL
der ex-president, while the citizens OF
Jacksonville passed and re-passed,
marking the presence OF a statesman
who had made the laurels of a victor
unfading forever by proclaiming over
a sea OF bitterness: Let US have
peace"
Today his grand son as a member
Of the staff of General Lee, stood with
in a few feet of the same spot review
ing an army Of soldiers in blue, veter-
ans who a opposed ZACH other on
the battlefields, and thousands Of Flor
idians marching TO do honor to a con-
federate soldier in bronze, Who viewed
with the cold stoney eyes Of the past,
a living chapter of our current history.
A regimental and from the land OF
the old yankees stepped proudly TO the
strains Of a march n Old Glory waved
in the southern breeze. The new yam
KEGS from North Carolina and Virginia.
clad in blue too, took up the cho
with the spirit stirring strain ot
Dixie" Behind them trooped the old
federal veterans, and then came the
old confederates. under the stars and
bars floating besides the stars and
stripes-peaceful; all the men over
whom the banners f1oated grim but
quiet, with eyes looking to the future
and not to the past.
A federal army in Jacksonville
marched amid the plaudits of the peo-
pie of an extreme southern state past
the reviewing stand occupied by a Lee
and a Grant, under the eyes of Harri-
son, whose father was a federal gener-
al and a republican president, and of a
nephew of the vice president, to unveil
a monument dedicated by ex-con-
federateS to the confederate, who is
dead except on the pages of history.
Victory Will perch on u banners in
the al with Spain, but not even the
victory of Manila or a victory on land
as decisive, could promise more for our
future han the peaceful exercises that
a southern sun smiled upon in Jack
sOnville today.
Through the streets of a southern
w. an oIIIS Il oIuO. ~ ~
Lee, in whose name and fame is on
centrated southern history from the
beginning, and at the foot of a pedes-
tai that lifts up the typical southern
soldier to the reverence of the age
stood a SartOris, who is Grant to US
now, and a Harrison at HON with the
people from whom his ancestors
sprang. The south and the west and
the north marched through the streets
the boys in blue from Illinois, New Jer-
sey, Iowa, Wisconsin, Virginia and
North Carolina, brothers all save as
they are rivals for the first place in
the charge and the last in retreat
when they face the enemies of their
native land.
On the other hand the flag of a re-
united country floated in the semi
tropical sun. Veterans of both the
blue and the gray remarked on every
side hat it was their hearts delight to
witness at last such a sight. 1t was
a great lesson to the nation, an event
hat must become historic.