The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-06-11
UNWILLING Of STATUE
0F CEN, STEPHEN D. LEE.

nal blood and people reunited tor-
ever in hand and heart. The mystic
chords of memory, stretching from
every battlefield and patriotic grave
to every living heart and hearthstone,'
touched long ago by ''the angels OF
our better nature" swell at last the
universal chorus Of the union; the
memory of deeds Of kindness and OF
valor done: of a common blood and
race: for. impossible as the line of fire
seemed, we wern one people then ard
we are one people now, the war OF
sections a mutul and a blessed heri-
tage.
This is why W. are assembled in a
national cemetery to rear a memorial
to a Confederate general. He was OF
the hest the South has to offer upon
the affairs of American manhood, all
that the North could wish an Ameri-
can to be. I have ridden to battle
with him. and llnealt by his side In
prayer, and can truly say Nat what
his great kinsman was to Virginia
he was to Mississippi:
$50 prompt and capable and yet so
calm. He nothing lackd in soldier
ship, except good fortune
1t will be for another to swell upon
his many and surprising virtues; his
skill and prowess in the field, his
service to the arts of peace; his sim
pie, kindly, sturdysmanfulness in the
presence of life's duties, his Christian
RESIGNATION in the presence of Ife's
duties, his Christian resignation in
the presence of death; Lee in every
drop of his blood, in every inch of
his stature, in every thought and fiber
of his splendid intellect and delight
full personality.
Let me end, where l began; for we
still stand by the side of the Father
of Waters. | regret that the battle
ship which but a few weeks ago
came and went, did not penetrote yet
little farther up the mighty stream
so that the bullies from her decks
might have looked upon the fields
where Grant and Pemberton contendcd
for the right of way; so that the he
roes sleeping here, might have heard
the thunder of her guns, shotted with
the words of the noble Fremont, the
navy is without sectional prejudice
and it's patriotism knows no bounda-
ries save those of our own great
country" but | am rejoiced TO fee!
that wherever she sails, she will carry
with her the effigy of that gallant Mis-
sissippan, who in life signalized all
that is chivalric in American manhood
and all that was typical of the civil
ization of the south, to the end that,
when her officers entertain the va
liants of other lands, from the North
Sea. immortalized by Paul Jones, to
the Sea of China, immortalized bJ
| George Dewey-the Stars and Stripes
above them-they will need only to
point to the likeness of jefferson Da-
Wis, the chief of the Confederacy, for
+ proof of the rehabilitation of the
sections and the perpetuity of the
union.
After the unveiling of the statue
accompanied by a salute from the
Warren Light Artillery and the sing
ing of the Vicksburg school children,
Mr.. Watterson, as a prelude to the
introduction of Lieutenant General
Clement A. Evans, who presented It
in the name of the Confederate veter
ans, and Major General Frederick
Dent Grant, who accepted it on behalf
of the government and the army, and
the Hon George R. Peck, who de
livered the grafton, said: Il have
declared that we are one people. Nc
air lines, nor water lines, nor isother
NAL lines, separate us into geographic
fragments, all the good on this side
all the bad on that. The war ended
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