The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-07-06
A GRAND GRAFTON,
What the South Has Done for tho
Union-A Brilliant Tribute
to Great Mississippians.

Ing it, but Attorney General McClurg
president of the Alumni Association
and who introduced Mr.. Walker to the
audience, is so enthusiastic in his
praise of the matter of the GRAFTON
and the manner of its delivery, we
requested Mr.. Walker to furnish us a
copy for publication. Mr.. Walker is
an alumni of the University, and il
has just reason to be proud of him
This Grafton is worth being committed
to memory by every student of national
and State history. We are sure that
all Mi%ssissippians will thank us for
giving them the opportunity of read.
ing it:
Mr.. President, Members Of the Alumni AZ.
ISOLATION, Ladies and Gentlemen:
When melancholy Hamlet, beset by dis,
turbing and contcnding emotions, lapsed
into that wonderful soliloquy--
ITO be. or not to be that Is the question =
Whether It's nobler in the mind, to suffer
The sings and arrows OF outrageous for
Or TO take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them"
he was no more perplexed thai was the
speaker when he contemplated his occa-
sion with Its possibilities and Limitations
Bldden by you to assume this responsibility
and the duties Of TINS hour, there comes
upon me an irresistible desire 20 D PRESENT for
your consideration a topic that at once in
t%erests these veterans in the affairs of life
whose feet for years. have pressed the
pathway of busy activity. and awaken a
springing hope in the breasts of these
young men and women looking with conf
dent faith into the inscrutable future.
Great is my temptation to enter the field
OF letters. garner there Its richest sheaves,
bind them with hands Clittering with gems.
and .reverently place them at your feet TO
my in9uiring eye the halls Of science and
applied knowledge swing wide their portals
and invite me to the spreading FEAST the
historic. page with its records of the rise
and fall of nations, the overthrow and up
building of dynasties, engages my passing
thought the scroll unon which is inscribed
In blood and tears, hope and joy, the aspira-
tons and achievements of the Anglo-Saxon
through the passing years witt its monu-
menls and ruins of successes and failures,
appeals to my hating purnose. But in the
midst OF this plethora, this ri oined field
awaiting my sickle, | catch the notes of a
strangely beautiful song that charms and en-
frances me with Its bewitching melody. lis
t tIh song of a great and glorious people.
fairest and richest domain of chis earth !:
Of her, as the stronghold of the American
taeigb OF CYL h1d Liberty DGdSi shall sneak to you
challenges our thought: Is it not the old,
old story that lies next our hearts and
thrills at each rehearsal : That was a force
- ~ 80 u itto VI IL TEA
Napoleon, when, at each army roll call. he
caused the name o. the sergeiIr. who, on
the field of battle was killed while dis
playing conspicuous courage, to be called
~ the orderly, and the answer made.
Dead on the field of honor" Though the
lips OF the brave sergeant were long since
closed in a soldiers death, the great genius
at the head of that army. by having his
name called with the living. disciplined his
men nnhio IN 6oo The lesson Of the Immortality Of
We go not to musty tones, nor to legen-
DAIRY epitaphs for inspiration for this occa-
sion. We search not among ancient tradi-
lions or mural inscriptions of doubtful au-
thentic1ty for material for our fashioning.
put with almost the actual contact of the
haad.elasp we COMPASS. { TcIiod of growth
man liberties and happiness not equaled
In the records of men. 1t shall be my pur-
pose to briefly. view the part the South and
southern genius PLAYED in this thrilling
drama; If there be those here who enter,
tain the maudlin sentiment that it were
better to the end of celebrating all sectional
feeling in our great Renublic that The
loyal Southerner's heart should not bound
with exultation and pride at the memories
and OFT recitals Of grand and glorious
such, my only apology Is. it Is mot that
! love Caesar less, but that l love Rome
To give the South her proper place in the
N personG Of the great drama that
eventuated in the American Republic
must needs go, to the very prologue, when
- ObDAtSElOH H0u
were grinding the lives and all
most the manhood itself out of powerless
people; when the proud and naughty Anglo.
saNon. calling under the yoke of wrongs
set his eve across the trackless
ocean and found upon this continent n soil
that dld not produce crowns nor coronets. a
climate that withered scepters. a land. ii
seems set apart by, Providence where
every man should be a sovereign. and
Sae u no e %8n sh9 I1bdrt reign; where the
every mountain top, and freighted Tho air
with Its perfme in every valley.
INTO this fair land came the lover of
TIE, virgin soil were. planted the seeds of
freedom of thought, freedom of speech. and
me right to life, liberty and the
Patriotism and Love Of Country. trans,
planted from the chilling. blighting shores
across the seas, found their congenial home.
ana pushing their roots anon the rocks OF
me eternal hills, threw out their stalwart
defying with their ~unbending
opposfitRIontl the sV WGSaFGF t fSrnq ! Ssa Of H. Ein 1El,
of a Michael Angelo that might pnt ,non
In speaking lines and c6lors the
aspirations, trials and disappoint-
hiehts that engaged our forefathers at the
olrth or this Republic. Though n vast and
ocean heaved its mighty billows
oeoweeh me OLD world and the new, the
secure OF the king reached across that
tracKIess expanse. and pressed down upon
me infant republic ,e~xactlng of its strug.
Siting patriots kinSli HOMAGE and p,just trib
ukases or potentates, though bounding for
ward In material prosDerltv with nney-
ampled rapidity. the people of the Ameri-
colonies submit to the tvrast's de-
nands with FESTIVE impatience and in
creaslng unwillingness Appeal after appeal
Is made to the throne for exact i%istice
and release from the CALLING servitude i'm
world. Amid the increasing discomfort the
voice Of modification Is heard. which for \
time, stills the impending conflict. onlv IA
out again with redoubled energv
all this tumult of Opposition and
rumDling OF the elements p%ortendIng some
great storm no voice seems to sound n
note that plerces the gloom. But when
tnlngs seem darkest for the anxious peo-
pie OF this defenseless country, when the
clouds that have hung alone the
horizon push themselves in a mighty surg
Ing mass of inky black far Into the skT.
mere comes a sharp. flashing light athyart
tho ominous pile. ~cleaving its breast. vital.
izlng ana electrifying the c~ontending, rest
less elements. furnishing a rallying point
around which the storm is precipltated.
Not from Plymouth Rock, nor from the
ny waters ploughed by the PROV of the
Mayhower when she touched our shores
with her pioneer freight, came their
flash, this piercing call to arms,
but from. the warm heart of n Southern
patriot. from out the Convention Of the
Colony where a clarion voice is
heard exciaimlng, Give me liberty. or give
me, DEATH" Born on Southern soil, and in
a heart with courage to do or die, born
IN the determinat' ON to end the peoples
comes a certainty. Need l pause here to
give a resume OF the stirring events that
followed In quick succession in the freeing
from the British yoke and estab.