The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-06-01

arrogance and hatred, Of greed and
fanaticism, can fnd men who will re-
slst and die, if need be, rather than
surrender their manhood and al that
they hold dear, just 80 long will
there always be war, and the agrees
sor will be the nation that makes war
necessary.
But one Of the cleverest lessons
taught in this slow vindication of the
South in the judgment Of mankind is
that truth is mighty and will prevail;
that wrong will soocer or later recoil
upon the doer; that might never yet
gained q complete victory over right.
Well did the poet say, Truth crushed
to earth will rise again. The eternal
years of God are hers!' All! how the
truth is rising in these slow. moving
years! How the right, once spurned, re
jected, trampled under foot, is lifting
It's head again and calmly asserting
its power! Three millions Of soldiers
trampled over its grave and lofty pyra-
mids of money commenorated its
death, but the grave cannot hold the
divine, and money has never yet con
secrated and crystallized q wrong. Be-
hind tie glare and glitter of our So
called national prosperity to day there
is dark shadow in the background;
in the track Of the grand march of ex-
pansion and commercialism there are
the signs Of gathering s.orm; amid
all the shouts of progress and conq uest
the prophetic ear can catch the soun
of the moaning tempest and the rumb.
ling earthquake.
81 know not whether the storm will
burst in its fury, or the earthquakes
leap into terrible fire, but I do believe
and the future years will vindicate
my belief, that if this huge national
structure Of Government shall stand
and furnish permanent home for
freedom On this continent, it will be
because its foundations are laid in thu
principles for which the Southern
Confederacy fought and fell. These
principles are the only safeguards in
this country to-day against tyrannical
oppression and despotism.
"My comrades, the years ia all
their teachings have dealt kindly with
you and me. Old age has come on us
softly and silently, as ever the shadows
of evening crept into the wake of the
sunbeams. The snowhakes of winter
have fallen on your heads as gently as
the caresses that a young mother gives
to her first born. But the imponder-
able snowflakes, by constant falling
on the mass beneath, acquire an ac-
cumulated weight that finally starts
the avalanche down the mountain side,
which prostraLes the trees and over
whelms the plains. So, however sof.
have been the touches of time, how
ever light the snowaabes of the win.
ter, the burrows have deepened, the
weight has accumulated, and We calm
~ await the crash Of the avalanche
that shall aurl us from the mountain
peaks Of time. Your bodies have
bent under the accumulated weight,
but the fires Of youth and manhood
still glow in your hearts-hearts that
never again shall be thrilled with the
fierce joy of battle. I shouldn't like
t. fool with You to-day if ycu had
guns in your hands, but If could run
like could forty years ago, when run
ming appeared to me to be the best
to do, l SHOULDN'T be much afrsid of
you on anopen field, with no obstruc-
tion in the rear. If you didn't bring
ME down in the first fire you'd never
get me. The long march and the run
ming fight, the nimble skirmish line,
the bivouac in sleet and snow and
the weary hours on the sentry's post,
are all among the things that have
been, but for you they will be no
more.
"ltis one Of the wonders among
the revolutions of the years to-day
that so many Confederate soldiers are
alive. According TO the closest esti.
mate that can be made from the sta
tistics of the camps and an approx.
nation Of the numbers outside of the
camps there are yet 100, 900 left, forty
years after the last gun was fired at
Appomattox, of the men who wore
the grey and upheld the Southern
Cross through four years Of the most
gigantic and destructive warfare Of
modern times.
1T is really wonderful and looks
like the approving seal of God. Yet
they said the South was effemsnate,