The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1907-06-08
THE NEGRO QUESTION.
Race Relations from a Southern stand
pofnt-Address Delivered BY L. e.
BENTLEY at Chalmette National
Cemetery ON Deco

Bentley at Cha1meIIo NaGl0Mat
Cemetery ON Deco
ration Day.
Memorial Day, May 30, was eele-
brated at the ChaImette National Gem
etery, 10 the suburbs of New Orleans.
under the auspices of the various
posts of the Grand Army of the Re-
public located in that city, and it is
estimated that nearly 10000 people
participated in the exercises of the oc-
casion, which included decoration of
the soldiers graves, ritualistic serv-
ices and military honors for the dead,
singing of hymns and patriotic songs,
reading of the roster of comrades who
have died during the past year, and
addresses by Major P. q. Boyle, de-
partment commander for Louisiana
and Mississippi, and by L. E. Bent
ley, orator of the day. In compliance
with numerous requests we reproduce
herewith the full text of Mr.. Bentley S
remarks, and feel confident his treat
ment of one Of the most important
questions that confronts the people of
the country at large, and those of the
southern states in particular. will
command general interest and APP
prevail among our thoughtful readers:
The immortal Byron has sung in thoughts that
breathe and words that burn:
They never fail who die in great cause.
The block may soak their gore;
Their limbs may sodden in the sun;
Their heads be strung to city gates and castle
walls.
But still their spirit walks abroad.
Though years elapse and Others share as dark
a doom,
They but augment the great and sweeping
thoughts
That overspread all others, and conduct
The world at last to freedom"
Standing amid these shafts and stones that
mark the resting places of the mortal remains of
nearly 10, 900 men who laid down their lives more
than forty years ago for the preservation of the
American Union and contemplating with the
minds eye the results of that gigantic struggle
the constantly increasing greatness and widen
ing influence and power of the nation and the
government these gallant men fought to main
tain-we cannot but echo the sentiment of the
poet that They never fail who die in great
cause;'' and it may indeed be fifty said of these
heroes that their spirits still walk abroad and
help to swell the irresistible current of human
thought and action that carries mankind on to
higher and better things-that will eventually
lead the world to freedom"
If we pause to review the events of the momen-
tous civil war that ragged from 1861 to 1855, it is
not with thought of reviving the animosities,
prejudices, passions and heartburnings that
prevailed during that trying period of the
countrys history and followed in the train of the
conflict after the arbitrament of the sword had
awarded victory to the Union hosts, but only
that we may derive inspiration for the future
from the lessons of the past; that the rocks and
shoals which then beset the ship of state may be
henceforth avoided. and that we may move for
ward in peace and concord to the fruition of our
magnificent manifest destiny as a rehabilitated
nation and q reunited people. And if we gather
together to recount the heroic deeds and glorify
the sacred memories of the dauntless boys in
blue who bore the stars and stripes aloft through
out four long years of deadly strife and carnage
to ultimate triumph, we do so without tinge of
bitterness against the equally valiant boys in
gray who, with heroism and devotion unsur-
passed, upheld the banner of tie Lost Cause I'M
til it went down in honorable defeat at Apo
matox. The beneicent hand of time has healed
the wounds and tempered the acerbities of the
mighty combat that filled these quiet graves
detting the lovely landscape around rs, and
while we give thanks that the OUTCOME was in
accord with what we believe to haze been just
and right and best we can at the same time feel
sense of pride in the valar of victors and
vanquished alike, for they were Americans all.
and the honor and glory Of their achievements
is the common heritage of all Americans
The preservation of the Union of States and
the failure of the attempt to divide these COM
monwealths into two distinct and separate
governments was result of this Titanic strug-
gle which is now regarded not only with equa-
nimity and resignation. but with willing assent
and approval by virtually all of those who fought
to bring about the separation; and nowhere in
The land can there be found today greater loyalty
to the republic, more sincere admiration of
the star spangled banner or a deeper spirit of
patriotism than prevail in the southern states of
the Union. No reader response was anywhere
made to President McKinley's call for troops at
the outbreak of the war with Spain than that
which came from the south, and it should be
matter of pleasurable pride with Louisianians of
every degree to recall the fact that none of the
states led our own in the promptness of this re-
Spouse, or in the number and quality of the
troops, both white and black, that eagerly en-
listed for the fray, animated with desire to
vindicate the honor of the American flag, to
avenge the murderous destruction of the Maine
in the harbor of Havana. and to carry the bless
ings of liberty and free government to the long
oppressed people of Cuba.
It is well that this spirit of patriotism-this
love of country and willingness to perish if need
be in her defense should dwell in the hearts of
our people, for it is the most vital and valuable
asset Of the republic It is our duty to cultivate
it within ourselves and to instil it in the minds
and characters of our children, to the end that
they may be imbued with the same self-abnega-
ton indomitable courage and answering loyalty
that has inspired Americans in all emergencies
calling for the exercise of these virtues since the
formation of their government. Our attendance
on this occasion and the commemorative ex-
ercises in which we engaged are essentially
in line with the performance of this duty, and
are calculated to impress the rising generation
with an appreciative sense of the noble motives
and unflinching bravery that led the heroes of
the civil war-those from the north and those
from the south alike-to leave the comforts of |
home and all that were near and dear to them,
to endure the privations OF the camp the suffer-
ings OF the march, the perils Of assault and siege
the agonies of sickness, wounds and death, in !
yindication and defense of principles that seemed
to them founded upon reason and right. in re-
Spouse to what they regarded as their country's |
call and in emulation of the example OF the fore
fathers of the revolution, who pledged their
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor'' to 1
he cause that freed the American colonies from
'oreign rule and founded the greatest republic