The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1904-02-24

No - w AAIAAcAAH "AVAA
the illustriOus dead.
It is the better Georgia which
stands to-day with clasped hands
beside the great Gordon in the
brotherhood of worth.
His martial comrades have
told us the gallant story of our
herO's life. On the living canvas
of their loving speech we have
seen his service limned in all his
great campaigns. We have seen
him win his spurs at Seven
Pines. We have thrilled with
his splendid dash at Malvern
Hill. We have watched him.
bullet-pierced, bleeding, ride
with five wounds to the Sharps-
burg trenches, where his own
heroic helpmeet followed him,
unflinching over the harvest of
the slain. We have heard his
saber ring through the death
revel of Charlottesville. We
have seen him on the Twelfth of
May" seize the bridle-rein of
Robert Lee. and with one gallant
pledge to his great commander.
rush to that glorious retrieve at
SpOttsylvania. We have followed
him through the tangled thickets
of 1.-The Wilderness" and over
the carnage blasted heights"
of Gettysburg, to that final
tragedy at Appomattox, where,
having led the last charge of the
lost COnfederacy, he sheathed
his dauntless and stainless
sword and took his place in
history as the ideal soldier, the
beau sabreur of Dixie-the last
and knightliest of the Paladins
of Lee.
His civil colleagues have told
us of the civic years in which he
was the statesman whose word
in counsel was his bond, whose
hands were clean of trickery,
and whose ends were all OF honor
and the State. In this strong
day of national service the
need was the tranquil
but unfinching assertion of
Southern right and Southern
character. The economic prob
lens had not then emerged into
the open of a material strife.
And in the Senate of his country
when John B. Gordon voiced the
SOuth's professions and the
South's desires his fellow -Sena,
tors, fellow-citizens listened al.
ways with respect to a dauntless
who had set his life
against his brave convictions,
and came to them crowded with
the bOpndless love and confidence
of all his State.
It is my privilege to tell you,
from personal association in
kindred lines, that Gen. GordOn's
closing years were set to the
service of a reunited country.
His last days were a benediction.
The soldier hero had no trace of
.ntagOnism to his former foes.
He shot out all his bitterness in
battle, and like his great com
mander gave his final energies
to the healing of the wounds his
shining sword had made. He
was the evangel of fraternity.
He Was the apostle Of good will.
There were other men who
as fervently, and some,
as eloquently. But
the messages that come to this
funeral chamber laden with the
love and tenderness of the North
ern campus assure us that the
voice potential and the uniting
words come from the recon
soldier, with the record
Of a dauntless integrity. in his
life, and an epic poem written by
Federal saber on his cheek.
And surely where Robert Lee
has spoken peace, and John B.
Gordon has preached fraternity,
the broken host of the Confeder-
ate veterans sons may rebuke
the spirit, captious and relent-
less that protests a reunited
land.
I speak for the Sons of Veter-
ans from Texas to the Virginia
line. We are the legatees of
We are the inherit0rs