The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-05-08

and
All, if in song and speech,
In ma jOr or minor key,
| could to the end of ages reach,
would whisper the name of Lee.
OLD GRUDGEs ARE DEAD.
Ladies and gentlemen, there must
be no word Of politics spoken in the
city Of the dead. But the plea of
patriotism rises appropriate above
these gallant graves. In all the world
there is no nobler place than this to
pledge anew our loyalty and devotion
to our country and its laws. II this
is not our country. we have no coun-
try; and if it is our country, it is
treason not to love it, and to love it
all.
The men who sleep here were tho
best and bravest Americans that ever
lived. They did not fight in bitter
ness. They did not die in hate. War
is the conflict OF ideas and not Of in
The things that frown at
each other across the embattled lines
are issues, not men, and the death
grapple of the battlefield is never in
these modern times an expression Of
personal malice but the fierce asser-
tions OF opposite and antagonistic
Foolish, therefore, unciviliZed and
lnhuman. to perpetuate for day in
peace the bitterness that sped the
bullets in battle. 1t is the mark of
small soul and Of narrow mind to
carry into the calm Of industry the
tiercenes' Of faction that was once ex-
pressed in strife.
And the gallant Americans who
fought for the flag of the Union or
followed the fortunes of Lee, shot out
all their bitterness under the smoke
OF their lifted guns. The bases Of
peace pulsed in their hearts after
every battlefield that they baptized
with their patriotic blood; and the
platform of reunion was written in
these patriot bcsoms long before
the boom Of the cannon had died upon
the last expression of strife"
The cause for which these gray i'm
mortals fought was not lost and is
not dead.
1t was not slavery. Slavery was
but the irritant that set these an
tagOnistic forces at each others
thrOats.
The cause for the war-born with
the Constitution and tlourishing amid
factions which interpreted 1.-THE
ranking idea that fretted for cen
turv was the nature of the govern
ment framed by the fathers-consoli
dation against the Federal idea; cen
tralized government against the idea
of local independence; the central and
indissoluble Union against the sover-
eign and indestructihle States.
With the argument on this issue
exhausted by Webster and Calhoun
the appeal was to arms. The issue
insoluble in reason had to be- tested
in blood. One million of Americans
died upon the altar Of division and
$l2.O 900, 900, 900 of money was sacri-
feed to the experiment of the
sword.
Numbers, and mum bers only, could
decide battle royal of American
valor.
In the providence of God and by
the weight of numbers the decision
fell in favor of the Federal idea. But
the foreman of the. martial Jury that
rendered the verdict was an heroic
soldier, and the verdict that Ulysses
Grant returned at the point Of his
sword actually preserved the rights
of the States!
Strange and beautiful paradox OF
revolution-that a verdict rendered
by the victor should conserve the
contention of the vanquished; and
that an issue unsolved by reason and
unsettled by war should be healed by
hero who, in the express terms OF
surrender, wrote with his sword .
final verdict for an indisoluble Union
| of indestructihle States,
| We have today a reunited country
not because of the forgiven sins Of
section, but because both sections
have long since recognized the right
and tho Justice of the others conten
ton, and that both contentious were
necessary for the preservation Of oul
protected in their rights, and the Fed
eral government respected in it's Con
stitutional sphere.
SO that this great connict-th'
tragedy OF nations, with it's blood, it
travail and its tears. has, in the provi
dence of God, worked out the tina
evolution of a political and Constitu
ol hnc OF tof
certain and definite sphere 70
the States and the Federal govern
ment.
The question of destroying tn
States or of dissolving the govern
ment can never arise again. BuI
Run and Gettysburg, Manassas an
AppomattoN have builded in bloc
a monument TO this perpetual con
pact.
, The doctrine of the indestructibi
, ity of the States is as sacred now i
the tresides of Massachusetts as t
the sons Of South Carolina. An
; Georgia. henceforward, will honor an
, adore. as Loyalty as New England, tn
starry flag that stands for fixed an
:, indissoluble Union
REUNITED COUNTRY.
5 As we were divided by one war S
' we were united by another. 1t hs
! been worth the war with Spain ft
e YOU and |, veterans sons ofvste
q ans, to have witnessed the complst
t and practical unitication of our coul
!. try. Not in sixty years, not in sevel
tv scarcely since the Constit'
t tion was born-have we been
Y united and as harmonious as we a.
j. today.
) Beautiful the scenes OF unity whit
have just been painted upon the ca
J, vas of our country's history. Sons
s Confederate veterans and sons
Union soldiers marching with lock,
Y step against common enemy viii
g brass bands Of Union regiments bic
c their brsaths in joyous currsn