The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1901-05-09
"TEACHERS IN GRAY"
Speech of Dr. j. A. Il. Scherer, at
Rivers's Bridge Memorial.

of Dr. J. A. B. Schcrcr, OF Charleston,
delivered at memorial day of the Riverss
Bridge Memorial Association on Friday,
April Goth. 1t contains so many thoughts
of practical value that we gladly give
space to it:
We come today with garlands in our
hands for the graves of our beloved dead.
For this is memorial day, and the gath
ering of a memorial association which
does more honor to this community than
all of its far-famed hospitality and culture
of human graces-intinitely more than
the garnered wealth of its fertile, smiling
| farms. There is no nobler instinct than
that which bids US ever to honor the
graves of those dead but Sceptred SOY
| ereigns, who rule us from their urns."
This garlanding has been indeed already
done by the affiuent eloquence of the dis
| tinguished speaker who preceded me, and
done so we'll that in me it would be folly
| to attempt addition. President Montague
has laid the tribute of ornate speech npon
the shrines of our soldier dead. What,
| then, is left for me to do? | shall not
| attempt to strew blossoms; | shall try
| rather to pluck them. What mean IS,
that from the dust of every conSecrated
grave there have sprung blossoms bright
with the loyelinesS of truth. And, re-
| membering how Cato said that The best
| way to keep good acts in memory is to
| refresh them with new" shall seek to-
day to gather truth from out the grave
dust, that in us may be planted somewhat
| of the same heroic seed which, in the per-
son of the true Confederate soldier,
| bloomed into the "white flower of stain
less life" In other words, passing from
the speech of metaphor to that of cold
prose, set as my theme, ''The Soldier as
a Teacher" and intend to hold before
your eyes as best as can two great prin-
ciples which, it seems to me, are the great
primal lessons left to the children of the
| South by the tattered schoolmaSter in
gray-God bless him!
Ask any intelligent child in this audi
ence what kind of men they were who
fought for the South those terrific battles
of the sixties, and he will tell you that,
first and foremost, they were patriots
The child is right. May the time never
come when he will answer otherwise, and
call them "rebels-foul, dishonoring
word" Never did truer patriots answer
to the stirring bugle note than were those
boys in gray, who sprang from the plow-
share to grasp the bayonet and follow
their peerless leaders thro' stress of con-
flict and poverty and ragged suffering
until at last, in the trenches around
Petersburg, they grimly massacred the
French language and called themselves
Lees miserables" Patriots they were,
| in very deed and truth-fighting with as
lofty spirit and as worthy motive as ever
filled the breasts of courageous men.
Patriots even when you set the highest
standard of patriotism, which can be no
other than the struggle for human liberty.
The soldiers of the South did not fight
for slavery, they fought for freedom.
| The right of church to be free made the
wars Of Cromwell. The right of colony
to be free made the war of the Revolution.
| The right of State to be free made the
war for Southern independence-the right
of State to be free. The world has
never known, nor will it ever know, a
loftier patriotism than the patriotism OF
the soldiers of the South.
But, gentlemen, what is patriotism ?
Have we ever stopped to define that word
clearly to ourselves? Are we not dis
posed on occasions of this kind to in
dulge in "glittering generalities," rather
than in sober reflection? Your hearts
swell and thrill at the magic of that word,
but do your minds instruct you why?
| You tell me that patriotism is love OF
country. That is true, and it is not true.
| It is not the clear truth. That definition
is too large and too vague to be useful.
What is mans country Is it his town
ship, his county, his State or territory,
an aggregation of States and territories,
or the continent on which he lives?
Sometimes it is one, sometimes another;
but always there is the same reason and
root for patriotism. And what is that !:
Well, it is the root of the word patriotism :;
there YOU will find the truth, for words
are indeed wonderful teachers when we
will let them teach US. The word pa
triot" comes from the Latin word for
father" The Germans precisely express
the original idea of our word when they
call their country the "Fatherland." Pa
triotism, both in word and in fact, IS
bound up with the family. Love OF
country is based on nothing else than
love of home The family is the unit OF
the nation. The reason why you love the
rocks and rills of this your native land is
because it is your native land, and the
land where your fathers died. Here your
hearts rest Patriotism is no longer !
vague and abstract thing when we see
that it consists in the love of home. Here
is definition that satisfies, carrying with
it the conviction both of the heart and of
the mind. Men 60 wild when they see
the flag waving before them through the
smoke of battle. Why? Because, though
they know it not, that tattered emblem
stands for little spot thousand miles
away, where the wife waits, with the babe
against her bosom; where the children
wonder when that man is coming home
who to them, if to none other, is the best
and brayest and wisest and strongest man
| in all the world where the very cattle in
the stalls, and the horses in the pasture,
strive to articulate their pleasure when
the voice of the master is heard; where
the faithful watchdog, fiercely Jealous of
| intruders, leaps in joyous welcome for
lust one man. And so the soldier fights
| for his country because it holds his home.
Patriotism in its last reduction is home
love And that is why the men of the
|
such glad eagerness-leaping to the en-
brace of the war god as babe into the
arms of its father; because they believed
their homes were endangered, invasion
was imminent; because the right of a
State to be free meant to them the right
of home to be free and sacred. The
first great lesson which the hand of the
schoolmaster in gray writes high upon
the tablets of his learning children is the
lesson of the love Of home. He was viii
ling to wade through blood for that, and
and battle with fire, and sleep out on the
bare wet ground, or else sleep beneath
the touch of its cold surface-damp for
ever; because if his home could not be
kept from profane alien touch, then to
die were better both for him and for them
he loved.
My friends, this word home is the dis
tinctive glory Of the Anglo-Saxon race.
No language bnt the Anglo-Saxon Ian
guage has such word. The Orientals
and the French and all the other peoples