The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-06-13
A SON TO THE FATHERS.
Able Address by Attorney Charles J.
Wright at Springfield, Mo.

Able Address by Attorney Charles j
Wright at Springfield, Mo.
The following S portion of al
address del1yeEed by Chas. J
Wright, now a prominent attorney
at Springfield, Mo, upon the occa-
sion of the Confederate memorial
day at that place, set apart by the
survivors at the Dallas reunion.
Mr.. Wright formerly resided in
Troy where he spent his school
days in his fathers school room and
where the foundation was laid for a
useful and honorable life. There
he began the practice of law. Some
few years afterwards he moved to
Springfield, and since then reports
have come at intervals of his steady
growth into prominence as a citizen
and lawyer. Charley was d friend
of the writer and we are heartily
glad to know of his success in that
growing young Western city:
Mr.. President and Ladies and
Gentlemen: The recent convocation
at Dallas, Tex, of the survivors of
the Lost Cause dedicated this dav
to be annually observed in COM
memoration of the natal day OF the
only president of the Southern Con-
federacy. With feelings commin-
gled with pleasure and sorrow, this
assemblage to-day gathers to do
honor to him whom you love to hon
or, a noble preventative of the
cause for which the thousands Of
the best manhood of the South sur
] rendered their lives, and made sac
rifices that the principles to which
they were devoted might survive;
! and also to do honor to the dead
whose dust lie beneath the sod by
| spreading sweet flOWers@ upon the
graves in this beautiful and sacred
spot set apart by loving hearts 20
years ago; by those upon whom the
| hand of time is pow weighing with
heavier pressure as each year joins
the last. Their heads grow whittier
and their steps grow more tremb-
ling, but their hearts are still young
in that loving devotion.
Pleasure because we can pay this
.tribute-sorrow because we are in
the presence of the noble dead.
1t would be more fitting that one
who passed through the ordeal OF
that bloody strife of the sixties
should stand on this place and give
utterance to the sentiments of his
soul this day, yet | esteem it an
honor truly as the son OF one who
followed the Southern flag and who
was a prisoner of war at Rock Is
land, Ill, suffered the privations
imposed in that awful prison.; to
have been invited to give word to
the thought of tile generation that
comes after the soldier of that
strife. This ger eration must take
upon itself the d Aty it inherits from
it's ancestor-a noble heritage. To
discharge that duty well and keep
sacred the heEitage devised, a
knowledge of the principles for
which our fathers made their sac
rifces, should be carefully instilled
in the minds of this generation,
that it may not be polluted by evil
designers if any there be, Honor
to them whose efforts are bent to
the collection of the real facts to
the endthat a true and impartial
history'ma be written and spread
abroad that all may read and know.
That grand and imposing monu-
ment in this midst represents some
thing-will you-will we be con-
tent that the children of future
years shall see it and not know
that it represents something loved .
and honored by those who builded |
it? Teach them that whereby 1t
may be known that our fathers
were heroes and not traitors.
Teach them that our fathers re-
vered the principles of the constitu-
ton of the United States. Teach
that they believed those principles
to be the safe guard of their liber-
ties sprlnging from Yorktown.
Teach that the doctrine OF self
government inspired the heroes of
the civil war to deeds of valor to
offer their lives as a sacrifice for its
preservation that future genera
tons might rejoice in the legacy.
When that is done then you will
not have lived in vain, and we shall
learn What you shall teach and will
have no reason to bow our heads IN
shame, because our fathers followed
the fortunes of the Southern Con
federacy.
~ Z
The brave and gallant who wore
the blue recognized that the strife
was one tor principle, and they ac-
corded to their Southern brother
the right to honor their dead as we
this day are assembled to do. They
accord the right to erect monuments
as we did in this place last year.