The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1909-05-28

ali must who taste the qualities oil
their life. o,i,,os
We of the South are sometimes
laughed at gently for our sensitlveness
to local things, and our pride Oh o'"'e'
Let us not be laughed out OF IT,
am an American, and feel utterly
AT home in the republic OF my Ia'n-
ers. TO which | owe and give as SUI
nreme affection and allegiance a. II
these bullets had never sped across
the fields of civil strife.
| speak in no parochial spirit, there
fore when say that Virginia seems
10 me the most distinguished, Ine
most engaging, the most irultlul III
spiritual sense, and the most uhsel-
fish of American Commemorative.
Perhaps the supreme DISTINCTION Vi
all life is motherhood.
No one can deny to Virginia inc
authority that springs from the mo'h-
erhood of this republic.
our civilization surely began Oh neI
wafer courses. and our democracy was
cradled i'm her mountain valleys.
II is very silly to think of Virginia
as springing from the IONS oil the ou'-
terhies of British arlstOcracy.
These men, too, knew what IL meant
TO die for cause, and their conception
Of political liberty was just As clear,
and their genius for political expires
sion perhaps little clearer than tha'
OF the voyagers in the Mayiiower.
ont of their ranks came our SUI
preme national hero, and group OIL
resourceful men without whose IN
fluence it is difficult TO see how the
nation could ever have been born.
They were able to achieve, besides q
manly personal charm, a grand man
ner. catholic loveableness, the sim
nlicity that belongs 10 a shepherd
with the pride that belongs to KING
that established them forever IN the
affections of men.
Long generations afterwards, hooeI'
+. Lee lowered into the rose OF ms
stately and tolerant manhood, very
like the old stock, only gentler anc
more able, through virtue ana sulleI
ing TO evoke the love OF millions
But it is as land Of the spirit ina
Virginia seems most majestic 10 if'
and most moving to any generous
soul. Mere lists of measures traceaOi'
to her soil. or mere lists Of great mei
who adorn her annals, do not convey
adequately her message to American
life. That message IS best conveyed
by her spirit and that spirit Is pes
Skinned up in three wOrds-unselllsh
ness. devotion to duty, and love O
home. Can any message he NOR
z needed by our Over-nOurlshed, over
/ ,pecialized, nervous democracy, sui
fering il seems TO me, from the yer.
9 excuses of energy and achievement
Ii is no coincidence that lorktowl
D and AppOmattOX, our mlghlles
S American happenings, fell in Virgin
ia. They fell there because Virgins
was the root of the matter in both G
u the GREAT crises. 70 the material vi'
d ion Virginia seemed ruined indee
when the storm had passed, but nov
O we know that it was not so. she ma
suffered more than any country say
Poland, and Poland ceased to eXls
= There was poverty in Virginia, but
Q begot strength; there was wOunde
# pride. but it begOt i'm big hearts a ne
BILE humility: there was lack Of energ
i'm law and order IN society, but 1t b'
y cot self-reliance and cOnstructivenes
d and somehow the love of million
IS lightened the gloom of the war-smi
+. ten land,
Two such men as Washington an
Ie Lee in one century give TO Ildewa''
y Virginia the same sort oil dlsuncUo
% which Pericles and Leonidas gave
the Grecian Archipelago, for after q
. if is the output Of great men IN
re makes fame and friends for nations.
Svmpathetic and curious frienC
in from other lands and states som
:. tunes wonder why Virginia and Il
J." south give to General Lee sort OF J.
us tensitv of love that they do not q
v even 10 Washington. The reason
Ie simple TO those who know virgin
80 and Lee Washington stands ing
Nv clean and spotless like the shaft In
UT commentaries his fame i'm the n
i'm tional Capitol. at the gateway of o
IN republican history symbOlHlng I
80 majesty of the era of origins and 81
''' cess. Lee is "A type of all the b'
nm the is i'm the history of the WHIT
state. Its triumphs, its defeats,
lows. its suflerings, its rebirths. cen
i'm him. In that figure OF ga
m strength and invincible rectitude a
49, utter self-surrender may be discern
the whole drama of great stock.
yer he stood at Arlington on that fate
at dav i'm 1861, shifting his hands
bic agony over decision he needs mi
,+o make, his agony was his peopl
'' agony: as ne rode in triumph, by
tue of genius and valor, through
he storm of victorious battle, his gl'
the was their glory: as he stood TO
I'D amid ali yicissitudes ever unshaker
VI" disaster or unspoiled by success,
'cl- fortitude was their fortitude. As
result of the Great Appeal was :,
TO to rest at last upon his broad should
cri- and his stout heart, his consial
of was their cOnStancy; as he stood
ass the end amid the shadows OF def
ler- an appealing and unconquerable
ure Of virtue, of service, and of ser
call dignity: his dignity was their dign
his and somehow in the majesty OF
md manner and bearing, he reached hi
lief into the very roots OF the proud /
not of the Old Dominion and connected
its golden age and its ancient authont