The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1901-05-04
Welcome Address.

The following address was de-
livered by Rev. w. T. Billing to
the Daughters of the Confederacy
at their State convention held at
Shreveport last Tuesday:
I Daughters of the Confederacy-La-
dies ana gentlemen: There comes now
and then to public man. period
when the ordinary dull day of duty
gives way to one of pleasure, and such
period comes to me today as the priv
| ilege and pleasure of addressing you
| falls TO my lot
Great questions pertaining to the fu
ture and ever disturbing our mind. and
rightly SO, in order that we may have
Il wider view and form broader plans
to meet the ever Increasing privileges
and responsibilities involved in home,
country and humanity; yet it remains
true that they who forget the past are
untitled TO meet the demands of the
present in relation to the future.
Those who forget colonial history
and the men who with their blood pur-
chased freedom from the monarchial
yoke. can never he nen and women
who will keep alive the spirit in the
hearts of the people of this land.
The same thing is true of the great
conflict which forty years ago shook
this country from Maine TO Florida
and from Virginia to California. When
The trampof marching armies and the
clash of arms constituted the festive
measures of wars upon more than a
hundred fields of carnage. and braye
men made the world wonder at their
heroic suffering and deeds of daring in
behalf of cause dearer than life to
them.
PAST IS SACRED.
We repine not at the past, we MUIR
mer not at the present and indulge in
no glowing prophecies as TO the future
and yet that past IS sacred to us, for it
is the tomb of cherished hopes. TO which
in loyal love we 90 and worship in gen.
tie memories born in suffering and bap-
tized with blond. He who would deny
us this poor boon is too brutal for our
regard, and too small IN atom of hui
mainly on which to waste moment of
consideration, for he who is dead to the
sediment of loyal love. is dead to.cvery
enobling quality of man.
With no desire to detract from the !
brave men who wore the blue and bat
tied foi-their convictions and rights /
with no desire to cast one blot upon
the flag which today floats over a !
united people. we of the south who /
wore the gray insist upon the eight
eousness of our motive in which, and |
our love for the cause for which we
contended for four years with all the
means in our power, and as we look
over the past we are troubled by no !
regrets and indulge in no blush of
shsme for the part we acted in that /
awful bloody drama.
Conditions do not change principles |
and facts remain amid all the muta-
tions of time, so that going down in
defeat the principles for which the Con-
fedGrate soldier commended are the same /
today. and he is as loyal to them as
in the stormy Gays of 1S6l-65. When
he assisted in writing chapters in histo-
ry which the world reads with pride as
they record the deeds of men who for
a principal staked not only ease and
but life itself and who going
down in defeat went down with loyal
ty uchallenged, bravely unquestioned
and with honor untarnisbed.
If am not mistaken, the purpose of
the organization of the Daughters of
the Confederacy' is to perpetuate the
memory of these men and their deeds
so that they may not be misrepresent-
ed and stand in proper light before flu
ture generations. This being the pur-
pose, into what hands better than the
noble womannood of the south could
this sacred task be committed?
AN INSPIRATION IN WAR
A few of you and your mothers con.
the grand womanhood which
was our Inspiration in war and our
wheel the sword had decid-
ed against US. and we returned to desc
lated homes 10 find everything swept
away. The smiles of our womanhood
moved the men of the south to face
with determination a future as dark in
as a siarless night, and out
Of a common wreckage erect the build
ngs of prosperity.
The beautiful prosperous south of
.oday with her fertile fields, vast com
nerce and increasing wealth. is the
product made possible by the men who
wore the gray, who determined to
how to the world that they were not
dependent towards to quail before adj
,erse conditions. which ever confront
! defeated people. and ask nothing
when saw that this determination was
BORN of the patient fortitude exhibited
~ the women of the south whose con-
luct during and after the great strng-
rle proved them the peers of any wo-
manhood the world has ever seen, and
Who with the southern manhood, have
siven the world chapter IN history of
which we are not ashamed and no line .
If which would be changed.