The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1903-05-30
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

Never before did SO thoroughly appreciate the full quail
;tv Of the inspiration of the old minstrel wnen ne Seu
M Ths is ne my own SS nI my native land"
"Tbonob am native here and to the manner Dorm since
.h riet DAYS of nv life have been but visitor 10 Csl
borne County, still yield to none IN my Tcai S t he
H. 49, stituon of the United States was written win
her sturdy neghbors they subdued the savage
nrst aa " @ If cvilzation-a voice indeed crying out In
the Wilderness Beneath her soil three generations OF my an
oestoTs gep @ When this life was dream recall as
youth when the skies were bright Is oHe d +i hos
80 IN nv memory when the tints were bright ana lne nas
t ghhd Of its freshness 1t land that my Fancy has
pictured as away from the material tnie VI ' bJ ito
dayworas from tne new me had sborn it
Of H Intersections 1t the story of the old plantation ana
it lost nothing the recital Here my picture Oh @ @ bos
has its setting aIpcure of brave men and 1alr WHOSE
[ rtne and heroic valor will live IN song ana STORY as
o as mankind read of gallant deeds and herolsm virtue
The history of the ola oouth Vi WHICH O '
holds portion, will be tolu
In states unborn and accents YET unknown"
1 i the noet Will catch the inspiration for his epic;
from it the novelist will fch the scheme for ms romaoe
do not say this idly, nor because II aoen tbi will he
mouth but as we Judge Vno iu' ~ ~ f'
rue boon invited here today to speak behalf of the
Sons of Confederate Veterans In all ages OF ne wola ne
have INDUCED an honest and commendabe pride IN the deeds
of their fathers and held themselves mucn Desseu sy
d bnJ down nnarnished to their children name made
honorable by some Certainly generation OF men
ever had user be- proud OF the deeds OF ne
have
Wbbr secession was the exercise Of right reserved to
the States and to the people when the Constitutional Compact
ros entered into as we believe whether our tatner
insured he the example Of Washington and Jefferson, and
Henry had caught the spirit Lexington and Concord and
ablad AGAINST constituted authority be ooted ques
P e. @ read their lives argh if from their heroic
vaor and frghtfu sacrifices we catch that 70 pa
riosm which rises like an incense 1ao 1n oiot h dd
the altar upon their lives offered up tnen neea
will we have learned the true lessons OF their lives linen IN
deed will Antietam Gettysburg Appomattoz all pe
to glorious victories and through our tears we sna peno e
dawn of better and brighter day 1or the hepupio
It is not my intention today to dwell at length upon sne
record our fathers made upon the battehe glorious as a
record is That story written in letters OF light across the
heavens and it cannot be bloed out Inc sons OF Oapone
County who went out in 6l IN answer 10 he ca " ~ lave
carved her name upon the rock OF ages , 81,
When they marched death the sangu1nary hed
Of Malvern Hill Gen Lee the mgnst d man IN ane ae Of
When stonewa Jackson stole through the wilderness TO
fall on Hooker Chancellorsve Barksdae rlgade was SET
Tho tack Of holding Sedgwck in check at Fredericksburg to
his crossing the river and attacking In the rear Think
Of it one brigade hold army corps OF thirty thousand
men Yet they stood and waged that unequal contest
d isnued the passage of the river with that tremendous
army with such unyedng and such heoT1c tenacly
that Hookewas taken surprise and hurled into the ana
.h host amv on the planet as he called it. we'll nigh
taken off the planet 1t the Twenty first Mississippi
Regiment that bore the Stars ana bars 70 the po'
reachend on Gettysburg's bloody field
The Seventeenth United States Regulars lost slxytWo per
cent killed and wounded in the Peach oIonaFu ana up on
magnificent monument mark the spot where BgeoWs Bat
terry was annhated There is no stone there to ten the story
but the fact that the regiment that swept through
that Peach Orchard and the heights beyond moving down
the Seventeenth Infantry and destroying that battery was led
by son of Claiborne County -.
;one AGAINST Vicksburg and his overwhelming force
slowly surely pressing all before another Tbo o0n %, G
MfHr Sa little band Of patriots down from the hills like
avalanche upon Grants cut his captured
his trains and destroyed than Two dollars
Of his stores at Holly Springs Grant forced to abandon
his invasion and chagnned beyond the connhes OF Mis-
ssspp and his high sounding declaration VIII hght OUT
on this line if it takes all summer reserved for more
Convenient season Thus by consummate strategy was &C.
bad What for sheer lack of men, could not else be