The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-27

surviving general officer among those We
sent out and we all earnestly pray that We
may for many years more be permitted 10
honor Gen. Monkey Sorrel.
The success which attended the services
Of savannah's soldiers might be accounted
for by claiming for our people In all
things a pre-eminence not CONSISTENT vita
rnodestIy; but there is one view OF IL winch
readily suggests itself TO those familiar
with her history We have ever been a
martial city. In colonial days the soldiers
Of Georgia, under the Prince!y Ogiethorpe,
met and conquered the Spanlards on many a
hard-fought field; and the battles Of those
days, small though che contestants were
in numbers, were But an index TO the
good work which was to follow. This
city was twice besieged, attacked and dez
Tended during the Revolution, and our
streets are adorned with three monuments
to the heroes of those days. The blood
Of tho fathers descended to the children,
for the martial spirit has been prevalent
even in peace. Tho organization OF our
Ancient and Honorable Artillery fol-
lowed close on the heels of The Revolu-
tionary peace; and when the nineteenth
century was in It's swaddling clothes, in
fantry artillery and cavalry We're all rep
resented among our volunteer militia.
That ii was no ephemeral spirit. no pass
ing fad, is best shown by the fact that
to-day we have a proportionately larger
force of state troops than any other city
in the country, and that there is not one
compan% OF them that was organized after
1851 And l venture to say that 1t would
be difficult to find among the representa-
tives OF those families who have lived
long in Savannah a single man who is
not idcrtifed with one or more of these
organizations. This martial spirit was
manifested when Georgia was called upon
to furnish a regiment for the Mexican
War Savannahs quota was fixed at one
l,a ~ v o
1t again burst forth fifteen years later,
when the summons was TO fight, not for
international rights or foreign conquest,
but for hearth and fireside, for home rule,
for liberty itself. Then II was that the
training which so many of our best sons
had received in the volunteer militia as
serted itself and brought early promo
ton and much distinction 10 so many.
And. veterans of the Confederacy may
be par1oned dispersion sufficient only
to remind you that the example you nave
set has apparently not been a vain sacrf-
flee, but has planted itself deep and firm
in the hearts of your sons Thirty-three
years after you had turned the weapons
of war into the implements of peace and
industry, the drums again beat the call
to arms in the streets of our placid city;
and again did Savannah respond with
prcn}ptness and with zeal sending more
thar 500 of her sons, when her quota
would have been not quite 100 officers
and men.
Did time permit. It would be interesting
10 analyze the motives which impelled 10
war soldiers whom our city has sent out,
and particularly the 5000 who are repre-
scented by the small band whom I now
address. 1t would be interesting to dis
tfnguish between the national impulse
which brought on the war and the indl-
vidual impulse which sent the soldier into
the ranks. Georgia seeded to preserve
states rights. But why, veterans, did you
20 to the front? Was Ii because you be-
lieved as you did that states rights were
constituted the inalienable fundamental
basis of our constitutional compact ana
must not be interfered with? Or was 1t
because Georgia had seeded and Georgia
was fighting? In the exercise of your
franchise in selecting delega ties to the Sc
cession Convention you brought your Judg-
ment 10 bear on the political principles
involved; but in determining to shoulder
your musket and join that immortal army,
YOU did not stop to align yourself for or
against secession. You were for Georgia,
and Georgia being for the Confederacy,
You were for the Confederacy What sol
der in the ranks stopped TO inquire into
the right of the question which had split
q nation In twain, and about which states
men and publicists still argue and dispute
long after the arbitrament of war has
made II cease to he n living issue. The
soldiers of the Confederacy who believed
in secession were no Drawer than We're
those who differed from them. numbering
as they did among them the matches
Lee and many others whose opinions were
surrendered that they might make COM
mon cause with their country. Soldiers
when great questions of state and inter
national controversies are still the sub
iects of debate on the hustings or of dip
lomatic strategy, then indeed must each
citizen think for himself and act in ac-
cordance with his conscientious opinions
of the right and the wrong of them But
when peaceful means have been barren
Of peaceful settlements, and our country
has resorted to the arbitrament of war,
when "the race is to the swift, the battle
to the strong" there should be one voice
10 arise from end TO end of our land, and
that voice should acclaim with one ac-
cord, my country's cause is mine!"
I honor and respect the Georgian who
differed with the mass Of his fellow diti-
zens on the political questions which
brought on the war, but who laid them
! aside when the lines were drawn by shot
| and shell and not by the ballot box; but
| equally condemn the Southern man who
| allowed these political opinions to keep him
out of the ranks of the army in which
you fought, and the Northern copperhead
who expended his energies in the effort to
| assist the enemies Of his country.
| Mr.. Watson in his STORY of France"
tells us: Upon a question involving the
souls salvation for all eternity, the sons
| and daughters of Adam and Eve accept
the creed in which they happen 10 be born,
and give to the most vital OF all subjects
| less minalion than they would give 10
the age of a horse they are about 10 buy.
| Tremendous propositions in theology are
| accepted without question because they
are the hereditary beliefs in the family.
We take our religion as We take the fam
lily lands, tenements and herediaments;
they belonged to our father, and we are
| the next of kin.
Most of us are Christians because our
| fathers before us were Christians. Upon
the same reasoning your born Turk is al
ways a Mohammedan, and your born
| buddhist devoutly believes in Guatama."
If we can take on faith ana from the
head of The family propositions involving
the eternal life of the soul, can we rot
take on faith from the constituted powers
Of our government propositions involving
the salvation of that government?-aud i.
we cannot should we not in lime of war
/ Ia Nou did and az orr fathers azl