Year: 1878

'i"AH"lliy III 1Holf pOSCS, Waltlng
perchance for tho trumpet to sound
tho call for q new roveillo. Some
rest in their native county, somo
reposo in our sister States, in tho
prairies of tho West, or where the
fathor Of waters rolls his majestic
current into tho bosom of the
ocean The work is dono, the
company is scattered. No more
can it respond to tho earnest appeal
Of it's Mother State. The honor it
was prepared to maintain unsullied,
has boen entrusted to other hands.
But, leaving the dead past to
bury its doad, let us turn to the
present. And on this occasion it
becomes my pleasant task to ex-
tend hearty welcome to those
surviving members Of the organiza-
tion, who, aftor the lapse Of more
than generation of time, have
once moro responded to your roll
call, and are met on this occasion
to ronow in social intercourse the
memory OF bygono days. While
mourning the absence of once
familiar faces, you have ample cause
for rejoicing that Father limo has
dealt gently with you. It is true
that tho dark locks of youth are
silvering with age, the inpetuosity
OF freshly acquired manhood has
given place to the calm reflection of
maturer years, but the heart still
boats as warmly with love of country
as when her call sent tho warm
blood coursing through the veins.
You arc passing slowly over the
hill, and new generation is taking
your place, but your conduct is
pattern by which they will guide
their footsteps.


In reviewing the period of time
bounded between your departure
for Florida and the present, tho
mind is almost stupefed in con-
temptation of the changes that have
taken place. Then, Fairfield was in
the backwoods. The problem of
transportation by steam was not
yet fully solved. Localities where
now are seen dwellings, and settle"
ments, or even worn out hills and
uasightly gullies, were then covered
by primeval forests, through which
deer and wild cat and other game
roamed and fcd at will. Tho
electric telegraph was thing un-
known. The United States gov
ernmcnt was confined to tho
eastern portion of the continent,
and tho Mississippi valley; the
fertile prairies of tho West, now
teeming with crops wero q waste,
the miraculous treasures of Calitor-
nia and Nevada were reposing
quietly in the bowels of the earth.
The groat civil war, and the hideous
nightmare of roconsts ion were
things not prophesis1lkby my
foroboding Cassandra aile the
population, if primitive, &Sk thrifty,
happy and prosperous. The spec
tacle of tho earth and all things in
it, thus spinning along down the
''ringing grooves of change" is
cause for wonder and amazement.
But times must change, and we
change with them. Lot us then,
for the nonce cease to linger in
past. 1t is enough for lis to-day
that the present is ours; Let us
make the most OF it.


It is a mistaken idea that because
the Florida campaign was not
attended by any great civil convul"
sion OF political upheaval, it is mat.
tor of small Importance, or that
those who participated in it are
entitled to less honor than the
heroes of other campaigns. The
greatest effects aro not always due
to the most conspicuous causes.
The French Revolution which upset
all Europe was the elimination of
the effects of causes having their
origin centuries before. Our recent
struggle was not the result simply
of the triumph of the Black Re-
publican party. The eruption Of
the volcano, or the propulsion of
the earthquake wave is due to q
long and silent accumulation Of
apparently hidden causes. 1t is
not the reverberation of the thunder
that destroys, but the subtle electric
fluid accumulated in the atmos-
phere, atom by atom, perhaps TOR
days previous.


In conformity with this general
law, the uses, benefits and results Of
the Florida campaign may be briefly
but Enthusiastically set forth.


The history of South Carolina,