The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-07-26

nODler heritage TO my children
My friends, Gettysburg was the be-
ginning of the end; you engaged the
enemy many more times with the
same courage as shown at Gettys-
burg, greater than that displayed by
Philip as he led his Macedonian
phalanx into Greece, greater than
Caesar displayed when he led his
Roman legions into Gall. The world
is familiar with the death Of Leoni-
das and his 800 Spartans and 700
Thespians at Thermopalae. 1t has
been the inspiration of the world for
more than 5000 years. There is
placed on the spot where they fell
a marble lion slab and on the slab is
engraven the beautiful words:
!" Go, stranger, and to Lacedemon
tell,
That, obeying her behest, here We
fell
MY friends, the voice of the he
roes who fell at Gettysburg, crying
from the ground, demand that you
go to Dixie and tell that, obeying her
behest, they fell. Gettysburg blazed
the road to Appomattox. Battling
with half a million camp followers.
counted as soldiers, against two and
a half millions, you were compelled
to yield to immense means and out
numbering millions. You reach APP
pomattox, you stack your guns, you
pack your artillery, you are drawn
up in battle array for the last time
The struggle is over; the arbitra-
tion of the sword is against you;
you are homeward-bound. The land
that you left in prosperity you find
in poverty and mourning. your homes
burned, your stock driven off, your
negroes set free, desolation every I
where. The hearts of weaker men
would have sunk within them; not
so with the grand old Confederate /
veteran; you looked not TO the past. /
but to the future. Here your patriot /
ism rose to a truly heavenly glory; /
you accepted the arbitration of the |
sword in good faith. What nation /
ever did so before The fields that /
were crimson with blood in April /
were green with harvest in May; the +
dove had builded her nest in the can |
mons mouth, and you transformed a 1
desoIate waste into a blooming gar
den. The horrors of the reconstruc-
ton are too awful to mention, and +
| pass them by; the blood of the /.
race had flown in your
veins for a thousand years, and you
we're equal to any emergency, and
you hurled the carpet-baggers and
negroes from power and re estab-
ished the government of our ia
-hers. I thank God for this govern
ment; / thank God that the arbitra-
ion of the sword was against you,
hat the nation was saved, that the
starry flag that waved over the heads
Of our forefathers as they crossed
he icy waters of the Delaware to
he capture of Trenton, that waived
over old Fort Moultry as Key wrote
hat immortal song, The Star Spang-
ed Banner o, say, can you see
1y the rockets red glare and the
,ombs bursting in air. our flag still
here-that flag that waived over the
reads of Lee, Pickett and Davis on
he crimson fields of Mexico? I
hank God that flag was maintained
4 the heavens. An emblem Of lib
.rty and inspiration to the oppressed.
he poor and the down-trodden the
world over, the flag that your own
Toe Wheeler followed on the crimson
ields Of Cuba, no one can stand .un-
Ter its sacred and immortal folds
Without being and remaining forever
rec. A government in which every
itizen is a sovereign, a government
n which the humblest citizen, the
poorest widow woman who may take
Ter son on her knee and teach him
hat every avenue Of fame IS open
o him, the humblest boy in the land
nay become the most exalted, as ]
andrew Jackson and Abraham Lin
oln have taught them the way. ]
THE wisdom OF our Southern
ages formed and founded this gov
rnment, and the blood of our South
IN heroes was freely given to main
ain it.