The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1902-07-11
SENATOR DOUGLASS ADDRESS
DeIirercd in the Opera House at
Union on Memorial Day,
June .3rl, 1909.

Comrades, Ladies and Gentlcmen:
| am here today, the object of
your generous partiality, to perform
a duty which is indeed labor of
love. We are not at an open grave
to mourn new sorrow, or a recent
grief; nor to revive any bitter nom
orles or cherish any unpleasant recol-
lectlons Of Il cause, which though
lost, must ever be dear to the hearts
of those who donncd the gray and
marched to battle to the martial
strains of "Dixic," but we are here.
my comrades, to pay loving tribute
to the memories of the Confederate
dead who laid down their lives in
defense of their country.
Time, the great Healer, has soft.
ened and melIowcd the inexpressible
grief under which we staggered, and
kind nature has decorated the graves
of our dead heroes with the memor-
ials of her love.
Above every tomb her sunshine
has shed its radiance, her winds have
sighed, her tears have wcpt. Upon
the unmarked graves of our humblest
dead, she has summoned mantle of
green grasses to grow, vines to creep,
flowers to bud and blossom, and the
birds of the air to wal bic their sweet
est lulabies; SO it is fitting therefore,
that we, the survivors of that immor-
tai host, should meet at appropriate
seasons and contribute our testimon-
ials of love and esteem, and honor
those who yielded their lives a sacri-
flee upon the altar of their country.
Their memories have been enriched
and their associations sweetened, as
the winters and summers have come
and gone, until today we are cement
ed together by "hooks of steel"
stronger in our bonds of brotherhood
than at any time since the mcmor,
able struggle was ended.
For the benefit Of some misguided
sons of the South of a later genera
ton, | am constrained to say that in
the light Of the glorious past, we can
not consign the future to oblivion,
but from the altar of our memories,
we would kindlo the flame OF our
hopes, and on these occasions pour
annual libatlons to the eternal truth
that had its being incarnatc in the
Confederate cause, it is because of
the eternal justice of our cause, thas
we have received the plaudits of the
whole world, and won from foes that
tribute of admiring respect. True
it is that our flag was furled, and the
cause for which We fought was lost,
perhaps it is best that it was so, but
right or wrong, we believed then, as
we believe now in the Justice and
the righteousness of these principles
for which we fought and sublimely
struggled.
Whatever may be said of the ex-
pediency of secession or of slavery,
no Confederate soldier who chcrishes
truth and justice, can say that his
comrades, whose life.blooA hathed
the hills and reddcned the streams of
OLD Virginia, were licbels, and trans
NIT to the sU.. / ,.ose noble sres,
the infamous hr'itage of "treachery. "
1t is a vile SANDER that the motive
which welded the Southern people
into o solid mass Of revolt, was de
vdlon TO, or even defense of slavery.
Not one Southern man in thirty.
owned, or ever expected to own a
slave. 10 preserve the right of the
system of slavery, or to. maintain the
Constitutional right TO secede from