The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-05-20
voked prolonged applause.
BUSINESS MEMS WELCOME

speaking for Tho chamber OF commerce
and for the good people OF this city. to
extend to you q most cordia! welcome
and to wish you happy and pleasant
reunion. Our doors are thrown wide
open aud bE their authority and repre-
sentative invite you to enter and be
our guest.
In extending you this invitation al
low me, friends and fellow veterans,
to say that any community should
esteem it a privilege to be your host
and we, l assure you, so esteem it.
AS the surviving heroes of the Lost
Cause you are rightfully entitled to
our esteem. admiration and gratitude,
for veterans indeed you are, veterans
in age. veterans in experience, vet
Grams in war and veterans in peace.
Few of you there be who have not
already passed the SiXtietn mile post
III the journey Of life and can now look
back with experiences pregnant with
great issues. 1t has fallen 70 the lot
Of few to have borne such viciSSltudeS
as you.
Eou are the remnant Of a war al
most without a parallel in history,
and yet the peace that followed i'm
posed trials even more severe than
the cruelties of war itself. These
trials you have borne with more than
Spartan fortitude. This time has
been seuanart to celebrate the triumph
Of your efforts and l speak no idle
words when ! say, we esteem the
honor Of the occasion.
HEROES OF \ GREAT CAUSE.
You are the heroes Of great cause.
You with your comrades, many Of
whom gave up their lives on the field
Of battle and many OF whom have since
met the last enemy and have come off
more than conQUerofs, made battle for
the cause Of right and principle.
The great war in which you were
the actors, unlike many Others which
are called great, was altogether de-
fenSire, fought in defense OF rights
more dear than life itself. History
records but few wagel upon the same
plane of exalted principles. In the
conQuests Of Alexander the underlr-
ing principles were the su5jugation Of
the world. In the campaigns OF the
Caesars the underlying principles
were new and additional territory for
the Roman empire and the enSlave-
ment of entire communities OF civil
lied peoples. In the wars OF the first
Napoleon the underlying principles
were nothing more elevated than a
selfish purpose to subordinate all to
the indomitable will Of a renlorseless
ambition.
Not 50 with the war waged BY your.
1t. like its great forerunner, the
American revolution. had higher aims
and nobler aspirations.
Constitutional rights and personal
liberties were the great questions at
issue and over which the great battle
was joined.
The line was drawn and the battle
waged between the two distinctive peo-
pies who had settled in this country
and by whose intelligence, industry
and courage it soon took its place
among the formoSt nations Of the civil
!ized world. Peoples, each diSt!n-
guished for their intellectual vigor,
their high standard Of moral and re-
ligious aims, and their unbending
loyalty to the cause of truth and JUS
tice. The puritanS Of New England
on the one hand and the cavaliers and
Scotch OF Virginia and the Caroiinas
on the other: each lighting for consti.
Jutional liberties, as they each for
themselves read and Interpreted the
law.
1t was indeed a battle Of principles.
waged by giants. 1t was desperate
and it was destructive. 1t also, from
the very nature Of the case, involved
the horrors Of fartricidal war. Frat
ricidal not only in the broad sense
that we, while one people: were divid-
ed and fighting the one against the
other. But true in the narrow sense.
Yes, it not unfrequently happened
that those so near and dear as brothers
enlisted upon different sides, each ris-
ing to distinction and high rank in
the army of his choice. 1t was indeed
the case Of a divided house.
It has but recently been my privi-
lege to see book Of the genealogy Of
one Of the distinguished families of
this country, who grew to greatness in
the great State or Kentucky.
FOR THE FIGHT.
The record shows that the family
furnished to both the federal army and
Confederate army soldiers Of distinc-
tion and of unQuestioned courage.
The name appears among the major
generals in each army. From one
house hold alone of the name three
sons were soldiers in the federal army
and two sons-in-law were soldiers in
the Confederate army, Nor can either
be charged with being traitor to his
country. Each fought ior the cause
as appeared unto him right: and as he
saw it, it was to him right.
For these as well as other reasons
it was desperate war. 1t was a con-
tiict between great people and upon
great principles.
1t has been apply called an IL
repressible conflict: And so it was.
In the evolution Of this great country
and in its rapid rise tc greatness 1t
could not be otherwise than that great
issues would emerge. Issues that
must 5e settled ard settled quick, 50
that progress should not be retarded.
Such issues did in truth arise and
could not be stopped short Of the great
issue which eliminated in that war in
which you took so prominent a part.
You, my friends, have i lively remem-
brance Of it and of the result. Nor
have we cause to regret because for
SOOth the result was against us.