The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1908-04-28
ADDRESS OF HON. r. e. HARRIS
At the dwelling of the Confederate
Monument Saturday, April IS

Monument Saturday, April IS
Dickson Chapter United Daughters of
the Confederacy, Confederate vete-
rams, Ladies, Gentlemen and Fellow
Citizens:
Holy writ proclaims that prophet
is not without honor save in his own
tountry and in his own household"
Stated in another form, it might be
rendered thus: "A citizen is seldom
honored in his own community and
among his own people,"
am extremely proud of the fact that
form an exception to this very gene
lal rule.
The men and women of this commu-
nifty and especially the women have
on many occasions been more than
kind to me. and insist on honori,ng me
more than my merits deserve.
l wish here and now to thank them
Tor the Partially they have so uni
fOInly SHOWN me: and / want it to be
distinctly known that l feel il no lit
tie honor IN being selected to preside
over a meeting OF this significance.
We are assembled here to dedicate
monument to those who shouldered
their inuskets and showed a readiness
to lay down their lives if need be at
their country's call
Greater love-" says the Good Book,
Hath no man. than to lay down his
life for friend" and to lay down ones
life on the altar of ones country, is
the worlds conception of patriotism in
its highest and most exalted form.
The act Of participation in these
ceremonies does not necessarily COM
NIT us TO the glorification nor deifica.
ton Of war, nor is it our purpose to
bequeath to the generations that are
TO follow after us the spirit or animus
O. war.
Life is full of paradoxes. We do
things every day of our lives that we
had rather not dove chastise those
we love best, not to stimulate in us
the chastising spirit, but for the sole
purpose that good may follow.
When we STAY bird or beast, we rob
life that God created, but we do so
with his sanction that a higher life
may live. So in defensive war.
war for the protection of the home and
tireside, for the preservation of the
higher ideals of government. for the
survival Of the great principles of
freedom, we have the divine sanction,
and the larger the sacrifice the more
priceless the boon.
The spirit that animated these men
to lay down their lives, if necessary,
for a principle. which this monument
is intended to consecrate, in the prov
idence Of God, still survives.
That war was for the exercise of
the reserved rights guaranteed to the
S. ates under the constitution.
The exercise of these rights by the
governors of the southern states at
this very time, in larger sense and
a more wholesome manner than was
ever. before performed, and the very
erection of these monuments to our
sainted heroes all over our land are in
themselves proof that those of US now
living enjoy larger measure of free
dem and greater tolerance of opin-
ion than that possessed by any other
ration at any other time in the
worlds history. and these truths tell
Ius that the war drums of 1850 did not
teat in vain.
Largely by virtue of that struggle
this nation is stronger today in all
the cardinal virtues ordained in its
organic laws than it was when our
forefathers consecrated it to the world
IS a child of freedom.
And in it all the women played a
part, large, a most conspicuous part.
Their partt has been beautifully en-
shrined in verse:
Let me read you a story that is old,
very old,
A story that has often been told and
re- told,
And yet is as bright and as new as the
sun,
Or the dew in the spring when the day
is begun.
II is the story of women, fair women,
and true, Il
Whose home is the southland, where
skies are so blue,
Where the flowers bloom always, the
birds ever sing,
And rewards are enjoyed that virtue
can bring.
long war
came 10 ScOurSe HeT anu iedNe Hei
with wound and with scar
Was blessed with men gallant and
women most fair,
Whose home was their watchword and
loved ones their care.
When war came, and outrage, who bid
the men go
And stand for their country in veal
and in woe?
who waited and prayed for their loved