The Tupelo journal., 1903-07-24
TALKED TO OLD CONFEDS|
Chief Justice Whitfield's Address at the New
State Capitol Dedication Ceremonies.
"McDonald Led No Grander Charge at Wagram Than Did Pickett
at Gettysburg, and the Bodies of Dead Mlsssippians We're
Found Higher Up That Dread Slope Than
Those of Any Other State.r

BY request, we print below the ora
ton of Chief Justice Whitfield, de-
livered on the occasion of the recent
dedication exercises of the lei State
capitol. The address in full follows:
My Countrymen We are participants
in the ceremonies of a most solemn hour.
He, whose soul listens, catches, deep as the
cathedral bell heard far across the waters,
the message of the mighty past bursting
upon the air in majestic waves of sound,
the choral triumph OF the present filling
earth and sky with eager joy and exul.ing
hope, and, like an organ-peal from heaven,
the diapason of the future ocean-toned.
as the curtain of destiny rolls upward,
disclosing to his enraptured vision the
increscent splendors of ages upon ages to
come.
What an audience surrounds us! What
elements here blend to make the compost
ton of this mighty scene! Here, gathered
from the university, colleges and common
schools, and from the thousand walks of
busy life, stands a tip-toe with expectant
gaze. representative youth-the children of
today, the ancestors of tomorrow, in whose
keeping We are soon to leave the ark or
the covenant wherein are enshrined all
our faith and liberties and laws. And here.
gracing the hour, is venerable age witness
with what different emotions of the rearing
of two capitols, felicitously distinguished
by heaven in having been granted a length
of days, which, spanning like the brow of
promise all the desolating years between,
links together today the civilizations of
the past and present.
Here, too, are gathered from the whole
Commonwealth the representatives OF all
benevolent orders, all charitable institu-
lions. all civic societies and organizations
OF whatever name, all military bodies of
the present time, and the fast thinning
ranks of Mississippi's Confederate heroes,
who periled all in the great struggle for
Constitutional liberty. All, all, are here to-
day. attracted by no local ceremonies, be-
those whose influence is to reach out be-
yond the confines of our own State and ar
rest the interested attention of the entire
country. The dedication of a State cap
itol speaks State policy, State tone, civil
and religious, and, in a union OF co-equal
States, must be an event of deep concern
to the entire sisterhood of States. May
we not fancy our brethren of the whole
country saluting us at this suspicious hour.
and making the air vocal with their all
hail to this vast, representative multitude,
these constituent elements of our soci-
ETY., each in its place, toiling for the up
building of the COMMONWEALTH rejoic-
ing together today, with common patriot
ism. in the conscious possession OF a govern
ment denying special priv:.eges 20 any, but
extending over all classes and all races
the protecting aegis of equal law, wisely
framed, fearlessly enforced, a government
bodied forth and symbolized for them by
this magnificent structure, over which hoy
ers liberty, her eagle eye ever watchful
and her eagle wing ever wide outspread."
How sacred such an hour! From their
celestial seats our immortal ancestry look
down upon us, and our latest posterity in
woke us so to live, so achieve, as to leave
behind us in the fabric of our laws, liber-
ties and religion, something eternal-prin-
ciples and influences, which, blessing inter
vening generations, shall reach, enrich and
make happy even their distant age.
With the spell of the hour upon us, then
let all rise to the appreciation of this ma
jestic structure, built with ancient honesty
and modern skill, honoring the genius of it's
great architect. the unwearying faithful
ness of its wise commission, alike the ear
nest toll of the laborers, who have laid
Broad and deep its ample foundations, and
the skill of the artificers whose deft fingers
have wrought the magic beauties of it's
decorative splendor, and send up to heaven
the prayer: "Stet capitolium fulgens late
nomen in ultimas, eXtendat oras !"
But | am reminded that the part assigned
lie Al THESE EeIeulOulcS Is Cnleuy T. Ca
press to you, heroes of a deathless cause,
something of the estimation in which your
country holds you, and our sense of the
honor your presence adds to this occasion.
Cold in death our hearts must indeed be
when they do not warm to our tartan-the
Confederate gray. What a civilization
rushes upon our memory as we gaze upon
you. We are with our ancestors of the
Sunny South of old! We see again that
GLORIOUS loyalty to rank and sex, that
proud submission, that dignified obedience,
that subordination of the heart, which kept
alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of
an exalted freedom. The unbought grace
of life, the cheap defense of nations, the
nurse of manly sentiment and heroic en-
terprise is there And there that sensibility
of principle, that chastity of honor, which
felt a stain like a wound, which inspired
courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which
ennobled whatever 1t touched, and under
which vice lost half its evil, by losing all
its grossness !"
1t was a civilization which developed in
dividualism it magniied man, it enthroned
woman. 1t impaired to the individual the
sense of worth the honor that preferred
death to disgrace fidelity to every trust
the sacred observance, as a matter of in
dividuat conscience, of every obligation, ma
tional, State and social, and it exacted of
every official, from the highest to the low
est, military and civil, that stainless stand
ard of conduct, that lofty conception of pub
lie Office, as a public trust, which made
every public servant tremble under the sense
of responsibility, like the needle, into place.
Cultivated, fired with the noblest patriot
ism, self-centered, used to power, the people
of the South gave the United States ny
their matchless craftsmanship a government
strong in it's Justice at home, great in it's
dignity abroad, loved as the asylum of the
oppressed of all lands, attracting at once
the reverence and the affection of universal
humanity. Such was the South in 1860.
Illimitable wealth and boundless content
were present everywhere. Her civilization
was, in all that makes up the real blessings
of civilization, the purest and loftiest time
has yet ever known. Her people stood apart
among the nations of the world. Their
bosoms were the home of the most exalt-
ed honor. Whatever was mean, or low, or
sordid, fed scorned from her borders. Ma
jestic truth, imperial conscience, Olympian
power, toned by the very courtesy of the
gods, lifted its noble men and it's glorious
women far. far up above the level Of all
other civilizations. Content, happy, pros
porous, moved always to splendid action
by the highest ideals, If some god descend
ing from superior worlds in quest of the
race most akin to his own had swept with
his vision the land of the South in go he
would have claimed us as his offspring and
here made his home.
Soldiers of that elder and grander day,
time and the occasion do not permit refer
anca RI your achievements on the field of