The Tupelo journal., 1903-07-24

and unique grandeur, thou, whilst building
anew the foundations of social, commercial,
industrial and educational greatness, hast
with consistent voice called back the I'm.
lon to Its better self. And unto thee, from
the great deep of the eternltles, comes the
voice of thy king, saying:
Whereas, thou hast been forsaken and
hated, SO that no man went through thee.
l will make thee an eternal excellency. q
Joy of many generations. For brass l will
bring gold, and for iron ! will bring sill
yer, and for wood brass, and for stones
Iron l will also make thine officers peace
and thine exactors righteousness. Violence
shall no more be heard In thy land, vast
ing nor destruction within thy borders; but
thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and
thy gates Praise.
Thy sun shall no more 60 down, neither
shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the
Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and
the days of thy mourning shall be ended
VIII our country heed the truth that there
Is no dispensation Of grace for nations !
That God saves not nations but the indi-
vidual; that He guides the upward ascent
OF the race to himself, raising or crushing
nations as their righteousness advances
or their wlckedness retards Its spiral line
or advance over all opposition? That man
answers at His bar hereafter. nations here ?
That He applies His administrative justice
In their reform, or their ruin, as they heed
or despise His discipline?
Who shall say that He has not meant the
North to learn that a proud and self-re-
people are not to be scourged, but
loved into the concord Of indissoluble I'M
lon to be reconstructed, not by enactments
born of the frenzied passions of war and
framed lin the eclipse of reason" but re-
constructed by the healing process Of divine
Justice which chastens not to humiliate.
and disciplines only to save-reconstructed,
my countrymen, by the legislation Of the
skies
Who shall say He has not subjected the
South to the awful experiences through
which she has struggled to this day of hope,
migrating into the fiber moral and intel.
lectual of her people the loyalty of justice,
the fealty to truth. the conservation to un.
changing right, which, under Him, are to
call back the republic to it's ancient faith
and honor, and ground 1t, anew, In that al.
legiance to God which may indeed make II
endure
TIL wrapt in flames the realms of ether
glow
And heavens last %hunders shake the
world below"
Soldiers, 1t may be-who shall say -
that the bloody discipline of four years Of
common suffering was meant to weld the
South into that solidarity which has out
worn the bitterness sprung from the mis-
conceptions and demonstrations of the
past four decades. and which constitutes
today the sheet anchor of the republic.
You were the boys and the young men Of
90. From % to Go years Of age, you have
the mature citizenship of the
South. Soon you pass over the river to
rest under the shade of the trees with
Lee and Jackson and Johnston and Davis,
and the glorious company of the immortals.
Before you go, we wish to melt all hearts
into one voice. and give that voice utter
ance that shall roll upward to the DER.
arching canopy of these Southern heavens,
pledging you that your sacrifices in war,
your heroic consistency in peace. shall never
be forgotten till the apocalyptic angel
stands one foot on sea and one foot on
shore to proclaim that time shall be no
more. Your fame shall light with splendor
the pages of the Macaulay and Gibson, the
Scott and Byron of the future, who shall
ascribe to you the double glory-the death
less distinction of having not only saved
the civilization of your native South. but
also OF having presented the last-and Odd
grant 1T may be a successful-barrier to
the extinction Of a republic regulated by
law. in a despotism directed by an all
grasping Imperialism. There can be no i'm
mortality of "A nation apart from the i'm
mortality of the virtues of its citizens.
The virtues and the sins Of a nation are
the virtues and the sins of each of its citi
Zens on a larger scale and written in gigan,
tic letters
Nothing has survived to us from the ma.
lions that have persisted save the deeds of
virtue and heroism wrought by it's good and
great. In silence and pathetic duty to
their towers and temples and palaces lie
crumbled and ~entombed. the Fictitious splen-
doris of a vicious materialism faded into
eternal night but over their entombed ruins
God arches a armament of beauty, in which
He sets to shine as stars forever all that
the spirit wrought, all that the soul of it's
great and good accomplished for the bet
terment of the race.
What constitutes a State?
Not high-raised battlement or labored
mound,
Thick wall or moated gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets
crowned
Not bays and broad-armed ports.
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies
ride
Not starred and spangled courts.
Where low-browed baseness watts perfume
to pride.
No: Aen, high-minded men,
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare
maintain;
Prevent the long aimed blow
And crush the tyrant while they rend the
chain
These constitute a State"
We all may we all do-most heartily
join the greatest of all our orators, the I'M
mortal Webster, In his depreciation
God forbid that that happy constella.
ton under which we have risen to SO much
Of greatness and renown should be shat
tered to fragments and be seen sinking star
after star into obscurity and night
But Ii that prayer is to receive certain
answer 1t must be accompanied by a life OF
national morality in keeping with the lofty
aspiration.
II the horrors of the French revolution
are not to be re-enacted here on a direl
scale, the law must know in its enforcement
no caste. no rank. no race. ii the mani
fest injustice and inequalities marring
Its present administration are to be cor
rected through peaceful agencies and not by
an American Cromwell, sword in hand il
the. time Is never to- come when Macau.
lays New Zeaiander' shall lin the midst
OF a vast solitude" stand on a broken arch
Of the Brooklyn bridge to sketch the ruins
of a city gone forever, the abuses threaten
ing the life of the republic must be re
formed altogether These reflections. nv
countrymen, are not meant to intimate
doubt, but to incite- to DUTY. Let no e,an
say we despair of the union. VIZ lore it
We love its glorious flag. We love best OF
all It's matchless constitution We take
from Webster the motto of the future Our
country-our whole country-and nothing
but our country
Let us leave for posterity some proof
that we hold the blessings transmitted from
our fathers in just estimation some proof
Of our attachment to the cause of good gov
eminent and of civil AID religious liberty
some proof of a sincere and ardent desire
to promote everything which may enlarge
the understandings and inspire the heart.