Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-10-26
DIR. THOS. NELSON PAGE.
Virginia Novelist Concludes That
Our Defeat WAS best


Our Defeat Was Best.
Introducing DR.. Thomas Nelson Page,
the last speaker of the evening, Mr.. Ely
son said:
.'I now have the pleasure Of resenting
to you one who is not stranger in our
beautiful city, for he was for many years
one Of our most esteemed and honcred
citizens. He is still a Virgir!an, who has
won for himself great reputation and high
honor in the world OF letters and whose
faithful portraiture of life in the Old
Dominion and in our southland will al
ways be his best and most enduring
memorial.
Il am sure you anticipate me in saying
that I now have the pleasure of presenting
to you Or. Thomas Nelson Page
DR. PAGES ADDRESS,
DR.. Page spoke as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It would be but truth if I should say
to you that you might easily have found
better-a more fitting-speaker than
myself to address you on this occasion;
but that would not be truer than the
statement which I desire to make frank
ly, that have come not so much because
of apprecia ton Of the invitation I re-
ceived. though I appreciate it most high
~, as In obedience to a soul. compelling
demand within myself The unwilling Of
a monumental memorial to the known
and unknown Confederate dead who sleep
in northern Soils an occasion to call
forth the rehpect of all men VINO hold
in their hearts love of valor and pity for
defeat But for one like me. the son OF
a Confederate soldier and of a Virginia
woman. whose childhood was spent within
the shadow Of the war. and whose youth
was passed amid the throes of the
revolution which succeeded it. there are
no words to express the duty he owes.
Called by your gracious partiality to re-
view the most dread consequence of the
most terrible war of modern times, like
the ilial Aeneas can only bow my head
at the memory of our unspeakable griefs
FORTY-ONE YEARS AGO.
1t is more than forty-one years since
the war broke out-the war Of rebeinon,
as it is termed in some historical docu-
ments. and by certain portion of the
people of the country whose knowledge
is scarcely equaled by their rancor. It
is more than thirty-seven years, a gem
Grafton, as such time is reckoned, since
it closed. About the same length of
time that elapsed between the days of
Elizabeth. the daughter of Henry VIII,
and the appearance OF Oliver Cromwell
at Edge Hill; or that passed between the
DAYS of Charles T., with his Star Chamber
and William III, with the new Consti-
tuition. A whole civilization has passed
away In this time. new civilization has
grown up. We live in a new generation
and. as to the war, we stand amid pros
perty; and what I have to say on this
occasion / wish to say from the vantage
ground that such standing gives.
The great questions that caused that
great CONFUSION. those that finally over
Swallowed the others. nave now been
cession and slavery have been ended for
yer; have been dead and buried for that
length of time-as dead as those known
and unknown dead who have lain for
more than thirty-seven years In their dis
tatt graves. We may now consider ttem
historically. as we must consider all ques-
ton whatsoever that we now discuss re-
lating to that period. We may hold diff !.
ferent views about these questions: we
may regard them sentimentally: we may
regard them sectionally; we may regard
! them saryoneously: but, however. NO may