The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-05-04
MASS MEETING
LEE CAMP HALL
CONTINUED from First Page.)

is hut one thing that can preserve our
institutions, our liberties and the Blessed
heritage that has come down to US from
the past, and that is a recognition OF,
and firm adherence to the principles OF
human rights and liberty, and eternal
truth and justice towards all peoples
as exempliied in the cause for which
the Confederate soldier laid down his
life, a willing sacrifice, upon the altar of
his country.
III is ilsnt and proper that we should
meet once year to commemorate the
life and death of our Confederate heroes.
They made luminous our history, and
died for us.
This service in which we are engaged
demonstrates our loyalty to priaai2e AMI
those high ideals that eSalt people, and
in honoring the memory of these 4, en-
we are honoring ourselves.
Their fame is secure SO long as man
kind honor and revere devotion to duty,
sacrifice for principle, courage, forutude,
truth and chvalry.
PURPOSE OF THE GATHERING
I'VE come not for the purpose of her
aiding their aE.cGlhesS - nerpetuating
their memory, and if we dill the task is
useless for their names will never die;
but we come tor The purpose of refresll-
ing our own souls by communion with our.
81 cred dead and 10 drink from the f61,n-
tam tnElT-s none ana ESt!l-SdciI!lCiiSs
likes the inspiration that Will make us
better men and women, and strengthen
us for the high and noble duties Of ciu-
zenship and the responsibilities of life.
Mag God make IFS worthy Of their
memory and give us the grace to follow
their examples.
And TOW, while we are met in
memory of our heroes. let us not forget
our herofnes 1t is due to their love and
Nor ,,fo1t
the storms of the strife had past their
loving hearts turned towards the lonely
and scattered graves. where our heroes
lay resting in the shadow of death.
They could not bear the thought of
our sacred dead lying in unmarked and
unkept graves overgrown with briers. and
50 these noble women our our Southland
organized themselves into memorial as
ssociations t.
:" Gather the corpses strewn
Ger many a battle plain;
From many a grave that hes 50 lone,
Without name and without a stone
To gather the Southern Slain
How we'll they have accomplished their
task is witnessed by the weI-kept graves
of our Confederate dead in the cemeteries
throughout the South.
1--WE can never forget the noble part
our women played in the dark days that
are past, and their devotion and love in
the days that have followed.
History gives us record of one or more
heroic women in every age. but it has
been reserved to our own generation and
country TO present to the world the I'M
precedented spectacle of whole nation
o. heroines.
1T is needless for me to say that I re-
fer to the Southern women in that splen-
did though terrible drama in the history
of the American republic.
mo Spartan mother was equal in pa
tIIct;snl to our Southern matronS. and
10 women in all the history of time ever
made such sacrifices upon the affairs of
their country.
There were times in the sad past when
the issue trer1lbled in the balance, and
when many a stout heart in the South
almost desraired, but that is all past now
and we may look with lautiable pride u:on
our marvellous achievements, for in this
land that WAS worse than deS7olate thirty
years ago. we now hear the hum of in
dustry son every hand. and see wherever
We go unnlistakFble evidences OF peace,
prosperity and content,nent.
God grant that the time is not far dis
tart when history shall be written that
Will tell the story of their courage, ths3r
fortftude, their endurance and their pa
triotis1n and When monuments shah be
reared all over our land, of marble as
pure and spotless as their own characters
ard blameless lives, 10 preserve the MEM
,ory of their deeds and tell to future gen
erafions the history of their constance,
devotion heroisan and love"
Mr. Isanier was heartily applauded,
after which the choir sang Penny Blue
Flag when there was general hand
shaking and a real love feast, after
which the meeting adjourned.