The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-11
NORTH CAROLINA FLAG CF1EERED
ALL ALONG THE LINE.
Southern Enthusiasm at Full Flood-Charles
ton Thronged-"Dixie" and the "Bon-
ME Blue Flag''-Speech of Gordon
Care of Confederate Graves,

were waved frantically. When order
was finally secured the old Confederate
chieftain was presented by General Wal
ker and delivered an eloquent address.
He spoke with all the vigor. eioquence
and grace which have won for him
a national reputation as an orator.
General Gordon said:
Governor, Gentlemen of the Com
mittee, My Fellow Countrymen Of
South Carolina: The flood of emo
tions which stirs the sensibilities Of
these veterans today is their loving
answer to your gracious greeting.
These emotions will speak to you in
language far more impressive and
eloquent than any words that | could
utter. The ringing shouts from these
thousands of Confederate throats are
veritable echoes of the inspiring res
olutiOns of welcome unanimously
adopted by your General Assembly.
While those resolutions have cheered
and thrilled every Southern soldiers
heart, they were not needed to tell
us of the reception that awaited us
in South Carolina. Her whole history
and that of her commercial capital
were the promise and guarantee of
this magnificent reality. For more
than two hundred years, made memo
rable by heroic struggles in war and
brilliant achievements in peace, the
names of South Carolina and of
Charleston have been the synonyms
of hospitality, of chivalry, and of
valor. !,
What else could be expected of a
people in whose veins are commingled
the blood of the proud English Cava-
liers? the blood of those devoted and
resolute men, who protested against
the immoralities and grinding exact
ions of the Stuarts; the blood of the
stalwart Dissenters and of the heroic
HIghlanders of Scotland and of the
sturdy democratic Presbyterians of
ireland; the blood of those defenders
of freedom who came to your shores
from the mountain battlements< of
Switzerland, and lastly, but no less
pure and sacred, the blood of the
high-souled Huguenots of France,
whose martyrs, by glorious fidelity,
even unto death, have made sweeter
and richer the record of human de-
votiOn to conscience and liberty.
No resolutions, | repeat, by which
this great Commonwealth extends it's
loving welcome" were needed to as
sure these remnants of the South
immortal armies that the freedom
of the State was theirs, and that
every heart within her borders was a
soldiers shrine. We had but to re-
member that South Carolina was the
nursery of heroes. as well as of states
men and Of patriots-that no one
State, except that she be endowed with
an almost boundless affluence of
greatness, could in one century have
given to the cause of liberty and the
republic such splendid galaxy as
Souil Carolina presents i'm her Rut-
ledge, her Sumter, her MouItrie, her
McDutfie and her Calhoun; in her
butler, -ler Pinckney and her Pickens:
Hamilton, her Hayne, and her beloved
Hampton.
IF we turn from this incomplete ar
ray OF her noble sons to the cOntem-
plation OF the sears upon her bosom,
received in her battles for American
freedom at Cowpens, at Camden, and
Charleston; at Eutaw Springs, Fort
Moultrie and Kings Mountain, while
her Swamp Fox with his ragged
brigade, roasted their rations of
sweet potatoes in her forests at night
and by their sudden salles, now from
the mountains and now from the
marshes, amazed and bewldered, the
British invaders; if we add to this
, survey of her past the record of her
princely liberality in the donation of
her soil to the general government.
we shall gain a still better conception
of the lofty characteristics and un-
challenged patriotism of her people.
ITO me, personally, whose associa-
tiOns with South Carolinians through
the Civil War and the still more gall
ing period of reconstruction and re-
habilitation, gave a clearer insight in
to their motives and future aims, it is
proud privilege to stand in your
presence as the Representatives Of
these battle-bruised veterans ana tell
this people how fully we acknowledge
our Indebtedness to them.
II should esteem it still higher
honor to stand here today as the her.
aid of both the host and guests i'm
proclaiming message of good Will
to all our countrymen and to send the
fraternal greeting of this people, OF
all Confederates, and of their chill
dren to all patriots of all sections; to
unite with our American brethren
of every State in ascribing to the
guiding hand of God the unparalleled
victories of American arms in the late
war on land and sea; and lastly. by
the memory of the fathers. whose
spirits live in their sons, to pledge the
Souths unfailing support TO every
worthy cause for strengthening the
bonds of American unity and thus
accelerating the onward march of the