The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-04-28
SENATOR DRANE
MADE INSPIRING MEMORIAL
ADDRESS AT WAUCHULA
{ Continued from Page 81


81 looked again, wondering if
would, perhaps. find another link
which would bind the shadowy past |
closer to the living, breathing, sun.
shiny present, and, 10! found another !
picture, this time an old and faded
daguerreotype. 1t showed the Inca |
ments Of another soldier; young, |
bouyant, with smiling eyes and unruf. !,
fled brow, and mouth as tender as a |
woman's, all so characteristic Of q |
man l loved in childhood. This pic |
ture was that of a young soldier In a |
gray uniform bearing the epaulets of |
a Captain in nthe Confederate Army. |
1t was my father.
both Were Right"
!. II fell into retrospection as l look.
ed upon these pictures through q
midst of tears. i wondered why these
two men, father and son, both born
under and having reverence for the
same flag, should have borne arms in
Il Inherent way.
| II remember, too, that the first
had his appointment to West Point
under papers signed by John C. Cal
houn. Secretary of War, while the sec
ond bore arms in another army and
under another President whose con-
tention was only for those things
which John c. Calhoun had taught
before he laid aside the burdens of
statecraft and departed for that un-
discovered country" where the Prince
of Peace abides.
Considering these things, / asked
myself which of these men was right?
1.-THE answer yelling from my heart
was both
Eyes. my brothers, both were right.
Each loved his country. Each fought
and struggled for what he thought
was right; each acted as he had been
taught; each was influenced by his
environment; each did what he
thought was right according to his
limit, his conscience, and his sense
of duty as a man.
"And so it is, my frieds, both were
right
AT the foundation of this govern
'ment, in convention participated in
by the fathers. men of principle, lofty
patriotism and gigantic minds, men
whose only aim was to lay a founda-
ton which only the hand Of God
could shake these men left unsettled
one great question and after many
} years 1t was appealed to the God of
Battles. When force of argument
failed, the argument of force pre-
vailed
Honor Those Who Battled.
mo man need hide his face" declar.
ed Senator Drane that he was brave
enough to leave home and firside
wife, children. mother, sweetheart and
friends, to engage in battle to settle
this great question. It is abhorrent
to every sense of right and Justice
and to the chivalry which seems born
with every American, to blame, con-
denim, or cast opprobrium upon any
soldier, whether his uniform be blue
!or whether it be gray. Both were
fright
"These men of the Blue and the
Gray are fast passing away-answer
ing to the muster roll over yonder
1t is right, meet and proper that their
sons should revere their memories,
! be proud of their achievements. aye.
even proud of their valor in defeat.
ut is to the credit of American
manhood, all over the land. that sons
lof veterans should organize and teach
their children and their children's
children that their fathers fought for
what they believed to be right.
This can only result in instilling
into the minds of generations yet un.
born the beautiful lesson that the
United State of America is the land
where old heart wounds of warfare
ican be healed and that here old time
senemies assemble around the same
tfestive boards, and smile and be
friends. while they beat their swords
into pillow shares and their spears In.
to pruning hooks
1T speaks in beautiful language Of
1.-THE greatness of our people. of the
disability of our form of government,
and of the goodness of the God who
lreigns over us that this may be so;
and, as the grandson of Captain in
lthe United States Army and the son
Iof Captain in the Confederate Ar
fmy. | thank God that am privileged
TO stand before the veterans who wore
the Blue and Gray and in my humble
way give expression of the sentiments
which move me upon an occasion so
fraught with meaning"
Contrasts Two Great en-.
When the applause given the above
peroration subsidized. Senator Drane
gave two sympathetic "reminiscences,
saying. "A few years ago l was com.
ing down the Hudson river one morn
ing just as the golden sun was ris-
ing. apparently from the depths of the
/. IN. and spreading its beams over
the city with IT'S teeming millions of