The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-06-13
ECHOES OF THE
LOUISVILLE REUNION
WHY STIR ASHES OF THE pASCp
Because Our Dead Heroes Shall Mt
Go without Their Fame

Because Our Dead Heroes Shall NJ.
Go without Their Fame.
Rev. b. NJ. Palmer, DID,, the annua
orator of the Confederate reunion IL
Louisville, answered this question a
follows:
Accustomed through sixty years t,
address public assemblies, am never
theless subdued with awe in your pres
ence today; for we stapd together IN
der the shadow OF the past. IL is III,
solemn reverence one mig ht feel In th,
gloom Of Westminster Abbcv, cur.
rounded by England's lllustrious uraG
Indeed, we are here the living repre-
sentatives OF countless comrades W uu
sleep In lonely cemeteries throughout
the land; where perchance single
monumental shaft Is the gno,tly senu
mel keeping watch over the blvouau VI
the dead.
" 1t is i've and thirty years since the
Confederate war was closed, and about
thirty nine years since 1t WAS bcgun;
and 1t Ia sometimes n keu Why we
should stir the usAls OF that ancient
feud, why we should not bury the past
In Its own grave, and turn to the living
Issues OF the present and the future
10 this question, comrades, we return
the answer with voice loud rs seven
and the history OF our dead heroes,
who shall not go without their
fame. AS long as there are men who
wear the gray, they will gather the
charred embers OF their old camp fires,
and in the blaze OF these reunions tell
the story OF the martyrs who fell
In the defense OF country and OF truth.
May, more than this: 1t j. The story
OF strife that marks an epoch in tho
sl D In nf l,.N "A ,t<p, II
known to every school boy in the lana
that two parties existed at the forma
tlon OF our government, who could not
agree In locating the paramount sOver-
eighty which should decide upon all
Issues arising between the States anu
themselves. The Federalists, as thew
were termed, demanded strong gov
ernment, concentrating power In the
national administrations; the Itepubli
cans, on the otner hand, contended for
the distribution OF power among the
States, claiming their original sover-
eignity among their reserved rights
Both parties We're too strong to a.low
the question to be determined by arbi-
tratlon or through forensic discussion
1t was, therefore, permitted to slum Der
beneath certain antiquities OF ex-
precision In the constitution itself, to be
settled by the exigencies Of the future,
not as an abstract principle, but as an
accomplished fact. | need not
raised In 1892, and was postponed
through the conciliatory legislation OF
that period, Such an issue could NOT,
however, sleep forever. The admls
sion OF new States into the Union with
their conflicting interests, must reopen
the question and compel discussion.
Thus 1T arose in our day, leading to the
establishment OF the Southern COnfod-
eracy and to the civil war that followed.
1t is simple folly to suppose that
such spontaneous uprising as that OF
our people in 1860 and 1861 could be
effected through the Vaccinations of
politicians alone. A movement SO sud
den and so vast instantly swallowing
up all minor contentious, would only
spring from some great faith deeply
planted In tho human heart and for
which men were willing to die. What.
ever may have been the occasion
OF the war, it's 'cardo causae,' the
hinge on which 1t turned, was this
old question OF State sovereignty as
against national supremacy AS there
could be no compromise between the
two, the only resort was an appeal to
the law Of force, the ultima ratio
regum." The surrender al Appomat-
tox, when the tattered remnant of
Lees great army stood guard for the
last time over Southern liberties and
rights, drew the equatorial line divid
Ing between the past and the future of
American history. When the will of
the strongest instead OF the consent OF
the governed became the base of our
national structure, radical transfer
nation took place. The principle Of
confederation gave way to that OF con-
aOlldatiOD and the Amarirap nation
emerged out OF the American republic.