The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-04-28
GRAVES OF HEROES
SHOULD BE THE CARE OF THE
STATE OF GEORGIA.
GOV. TERRELL so BELIEVES.
CoMMENDs THE PLAN IN MEMO
RIAL ADDRESS.

The Governor Was the Speaker AT
the Memorial Exercises Held at
Madison-Made a Plea for the
Care and Preservation of the
Graves-Thinks the State Should
Undertake This Through a Memo
rial Body, which Would BE As
sisted by Local Associations.
Madison, Ca, April 27.-The subject
of Gov. Terrells memorial adj
dress, delivered here to-day. before
large and enthusiastic audience was
the Model Soldier which he said
that the impartial historian of the fu-
ture would present as the Confederate
soldier. His address was concluded
with the following patriotic plea for
the care of the Confederate graves
by the state:
Georgia has not only been true to
the Confederate sentiment, but she
leads the other states in the practical
side of that sentiment. She annually
contributes in pensions to the
heroes of the Lost Cause and
10 their widows almost as much
as all the other states COM
bined, and we should remember
that these pensions are granted under
laws which were approved with prac-
teal unanimity, by the people at the
ballot box in the adoption of Consti-
tutional amendments. In paying these
pensions. we are carrying out the i'm
Piled promise which the people made
the Confederate soldiers, to see to it
that they and their families did not
suffer by reason of their service and
privations.
There remains to be performed by
the people of Georgia one duty, which
should not longer be delayed, and in
calling their attention to this duty
and in urging upon them prompt ac-
ton. 1 ask that the ladies of the
memorial associations throughout the
state, as well as all sturdy and loyal
Confederate veterans, lend me their
cooperation.
State Should Assume 1t.
The state of Georgia should assume
the care and marking of the graves
of our noble band in gray. In order
for this to be done, the General AS
sembly should provide for a State
Memorial Board, and authorize it to
accept all deeds conveying title to the
state in Confederate cemeteries. With
such a board, and the title to the
cemeteries vested in the state, suit
able appropriations could be annually
made for the care and keeping of
these graves. The state board could
do its work largely through the local
memorial aSsociat tons. and the an
nual appropriations necessary for the
proper care and marking of the graves
would be but small matter.
THE work done by the noble women
of Georgia in the past through the la
dies memorial associa TONS in, the pur-
chase of land for Confederate graves
and in the care of these graves is d
monument to their tender self-sacrifice
more lasting than bronze, and more
fragrant than the flowers and dews that
caress these speeches., yet eloquent
mounds. Their contribution has indeed
been the widows mite. They have
woven into never-fading garlands the
tear of the heroine and the soft touch
of the ministering angel. An honor
that can never perish, wreathes the ala
baster brow of the womanhood of Geor-
gia and the South In placing immor-
telles upon the graves of our heroes,
they have crowned themselves with the
brightest jewels in the coronet of patri-
otism In a few fleeing years the Spar
tan motherhood that inaugurated these
ceremonies will have gone to the great
beyond The state owes it to her own
good name to assume the care of the
graves of those who went to their eter-
nal home fighting for the right of the
state, and the honor of the South
Really Honor Themselves.
THE citizens of Georgia, with loving
gratitude, have honored themselves by
setting apart this. day as a holiday
memorial to her sons who never falter-
ed when the storm was raging They
will gladly tax themselves to make
green the mounds, and mark with fit
ting headstones the last resting places
of the gallant men whose valor has
thrown a halo around the bivouac of
the dead. We are already being taxed
for the care of the graves of the Fed
eral dead. These are scattered through
out the South, and though representing
vastly greater numbers, national ap-
preparations have insured for them
more elaborate care. This failure upon
our part is not just to our own beloved
dead, who appeal to our undying devo-
ton u b
Let us combine our beautiful tender
ness with this practical idea, and see
to it that Georgia leads the South in
state care of these graves, just as she
did in concentrating the only Memoir
ial Day that adorns American history.
Other states have their Decoration
Day, but the states of the South. by the
peculiar sadness of their history, alone
weep and glory in an historic Memorial
Day.
1T was not the fortune of our IA
theirs to command success, but they