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Confederate Monument
Unveiled on Memorial Day
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AN ABLE AND BRILLIANT ADDRESS BY JUDGE
ARTHUR GRAY POWELL
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•
The Memorial exercises held at the
Court Tlouse Monday afternoon under
the auspices of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy were unusually
inspiring and enthusing, the occasion
being rendered doubly interesting be
cause of the unveiling of the hand
some monument erected recently on
the court house park by the Daugh
ters of the Confederacy.
Col. B. R. Collins was master of
ceremonies and his eloquent tongue
was at its best during the ceremon
ies.
The largest audience that has gath
ered in Blakely on any occasion in
a long time was on hand to witness
the interesting and sacred exercises,
and more old soldiers than we have
seen at a similar occasion in year 3.
Every seat in the court house was
filled and the gallery was filled with
children.
The exercises opened with prayer
by Rev. C. M. Murchison, followed
by a chorus, “Maryland, My Mary
land,’’ by the students of the Blakely
Institute.
The Introductory remarks of Col.
Collins were especially inspiring and
appropriate and were followed by the
address of Judge A. G. Powell, which
we give in its entirety below. The
old soldiers were delighted with this
able address and it was liberally ap
plauded.
Then a quartette consisting of
Messrs. Felix Davis, Meri Underwood,
B. R. Collins and Edwin Underwood
sang that patriotic old song, “Tenting
To-night.” This was followed by a
recitation by Miss Rebie Standifer,
“The Southern Battle Flag,” -which
was charmingly rendered and drew
from the old soldiers present the old
rebel yell which always inspired dread
in the hearts of their foes in the six
tieß.
Mrs. A. D. Harriss then bestowed
crosses of honor upon four gallant
old soldiers who had not heretofore
received them.
Rev. T. G. Lang pronounced the
benediction and then while the col
lege students sang “Dixie’’ the audi
ence filed out to the monument
where the Chapter President, Mrs.
Walter Thomas, assisted by thir
teen young ladies, representing the
Thirteen Soul hern States in the order
of their secession, sang a beautiful
song, “Sleeping Heroes,” and then
with a few appropriate remarks Mrs.
Thomas pulled the cords which re
leased the veil from over the hand
some monument and exposed its beau
ty to the assembled multitude.
Many of the crowd then repaired to
the cemetery where flowers were lav
ishly laid upon the graves of the de
parted soldiers resting there. Nature
has been lavish with her favors this
season and there was an abundance
of beautiful flowers for this loving to
ken of remembrance and none were
slighted.
Trte monument is a handsome gran
ite obelisk and is quite creditable to
the energy and patriotism of the
Blakely Chapter of the Confederacy.
On the west side of it appears the
following inscription:
“A Tribute of Love to the Noble
Confederate Soldiers wh<? Cheerfully
Offered Their Lives In Defense of the
Right of Local Self-Government, and
to Those Who Fought and Survived.”
On the east side these words:
"Erected by the Blakely Chapter
U. D. C. 1909.”
“Le=t We Forget.”
On the north side is a flag and the
dates 1801-18G5. and lowe~ down on
the base the words in large letters:
“Confederate Dead.”
On the South side of the shaft is
two crossed swords.
Altogether the Memorial Day exer
cises of 1909 were unusually attract
ive and soul-inspiring and its sweet
incense will linger long with our peo*
pie.
Judge Powell’s Address.
Ladies of the United Daughters of
the Confederacy; Surviving Vet
erans; Ladies and Gentlemen:
In appearing here as the speaker of
this occasion, I come into the realiza
tion of an honor, which, despite my
unworthiness, I confess to have cov
eted. Any man might well have been
proud of the invitation and the oppor
tunity to fill the place which has been
given me in the exercises of today;
| to have it said of him in future years
that he spoke at the unveiling of this
monument; and with me it is especial
ly true; for (pardon the personal ref
erence) the office which I now hold
tends to bring to the front my relation
ship as a citizen of the State at large,
and while I am glad to be known as
a citizen and a servant of this State
of ours, yet I know a love which sur
passes even my love and my lovalty to
the commonwealth of Georgia, and
I accordingly prize the opportunity af
forded me today of emphazing the
fact that the county of my birth is
still the domicile of my heart as
well as of myself as a citizen. More
than this, I am glad of the opportun
ity to say in the presence of this peo
ple, whom I love, that if the goddess
ed fortune, who has already dealt with
me with greater liberality than I
have ever deserved, should still con
tinue to bestow .her favors, howsoever
lavishly, and even until my wildest
ambitions should be achieved, I could
accomplish no honor which I would
chifVish more fondly than I do the
fact that I am the son of one who
fought and bled for the cause in mem
ory which we have met today. It is
the misfortune of those who hold po
litical office that, howsoevevr disin
terested their endeavors, people will
naturally attribute to their public ap
pearances even on occasions like this
the motive that they are seeking the
good will of their hearers with a view of
further political preferment, and it is
therefore a peculiar pleasure for me
to speak here today, where the relation
ships are such as to leave me free
from many such imputations. I speak
as a son within the circle of his own
home.
My only regret is my inability to
do justice to the occasion. Os a speak
er who would fulfill the opportunities
here presented would require a
great and even lengthy oration. 1
shall be able to give you neither. As
you well know a great oration is be
yond my small capabilities at their
best. In addition to this a recent at
tack of illness has caused me to be
oven less prepared than I otherwise
might have hoped to be. I have
therefore outlined to say to you today
only a few brief words of counsel and
of love. I bring no new therne but
shall content myself with (he old, old
story, which memorial day and spirit
which prompts it isolate as their own.
It is true, that in addition to this be
ing. memorial day, there is a monu
ment to be unveiled, but that shaft
is merely a witness in stone of those
same things which this annual cele
bration is maintained to keep in re
membrance.
Some erect monuments to the dead";
others to the living. Wherever we
go in this broad land of ours, and
likewise in the continents beyond the
seas, we shall find in the lonely grave
yards of the smaller communities as
well as in the more pretentious ceme
teries of the cities, stones and shafts
and even sculptured statuary erect
ed to the memory of those who are
dead —dead not only in the physical
sense that breath has deserted them
a::d their bodies have perishd, but
deader yet, in that when their bodies
b; d decayed there was nothing else
bf them to survive save only a mean
ingless name graven upon the stone
together with two dates —the one oi
which record.d the unimportant time
upon which they came into this world
and the other, the equally unimport
any time upon which they left it. Such
monuments are of little value and.
find their usefulness only as an out
let for the temporal, though perhaps
praiseworthy sentimentality, which
prompted their erection by friends
and relatives. ,
On the other hand, there are those
who though dead, still live —and to
these, as well as to the others, it is
the custom of mankind to erect mon
uments, and such stones are worth the
while. They betoken to those who
view them more than names and dates.
I once had the pleasure of strolling
through the magnificent burial ground
near Boston, known as Auburn cem
etery. I saw many massive tombs,
none of which excited in me an inter
est or emotion, relative to those who
reposed within them. But on my way
out I came across a grave stone of
humbler size than many of those
around it, but as I looked and caught
the inscription therey a mighty Inter
est seized me, my heart swelled with
.
emotion, through my brain throngei
memories of things that had stirred it
in the days gone by. It was tlie
grave of Henry W. Longfellow. That
stone was to»*ne the token of the
Psalm of Life, Evangeline, Hiawatha,
and the many other beautiful produc
tions of! our great American poet.
Tell me you who tread yon shades
of Vernon, is George Washington in
deed enclosed within the walls of that
charnel vault, where repose his ashes
and his bones? Is that tremendous
pile of stone which in the capital city
rears its mighty apex more than five
hundred feet above the Potomac, erect
ed only to the name of Washington?
Does it typify no more than this to
the American people, or even those
travelers who journey here from for
eign shores? Nay! Nay! Not so!
That stately pyramid was placed there
by the people of this nation to keep
ever fresh in the memory of those
who visit it from generation to gener
ation— not that part of George Wash
ington which died, but that part of
him which lives till yet and which
shall survive so long, as the fires of
patriotism light the souls of men. It
stands there not to remind us of his
name, of his physical body, of his per
sonal appearance, not of the pecaddil
loes to which even a great man may
be subject; nor yet of the many indif
ferent things of his life; but of those
great and noble traits of character,
those high and mighy actions which
made him first in war, first in peace
and first in the hearts of his country
men.
I stand here today to tell you that
we are about to unveil a monument not
to the dead, but to the living, not to a
lost cause which, though it has pass
ed through the fiery trials of unsuc
cessful battle, of bitter defeat, and
of disasters ineffable, survives as a
sublimed potentially and a progress
ive influence which ydt shall have the
power to return its chosen people
here in the Southern States of Amer
ica to that condition of national, social
and political pre-eminence which they
anciently enjoyed and from which
they were wrested by the catclysm
of the sixties.
It is true that to those upon whose
graves we shall lay garlands today
and to whose memory we are erecting
this shaft, the arbiter of war handed
the cypress wreath, while upon others
he placed the victors laurel crown, yet
as Divinity bowed its head on Gol
gotha’s brow, only to rise again from
the rock-bound tomb, so there is that
which no defeat can crush and no
conquest destroy; and in that which
we call the Lost Cause was a spirit
so akin to divinity itself that though
“The stars shall fade away, the sun
himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink
in years,
It shall flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wreck of matter and the crush
of worlds.”
It is true that the momentous meas
ure of secession in its consequences
as they came out entailed upon the
people of these Southern States an
overwhelming burden of loss and sor
’ ow, not only civic, public and polit
ical, but also individual and personal.
To us. the descendants of the Old
South, that invisible, but puissant em
pire, builded as never another w r as,
proud mother of such sons as never
were seen before —nor soon shall we
see the like again—a Niobe, that saw
her youth and chivalry cut down
as flowers mown by some untimely
blight ard was left childless and
crownless in her voiceless woe—the
rtory of this gloom and loss and sor
row is a fireside memory. Yes, we
have wounds to stanch, losses to re
coup, ruins to contemplate and graves
to decorate. We have known the
frightful fatalities of war. Where
the turbid waters of the Rappahan
nock run down to the sea, where the
r: tomac’s yellow waves mark the
shores of Maryland, by Bull Run’s
wooded banks, in the valley of the
Mississippi, in the mountains of the
Carolinas, by the Etowah and the
Chattahoochee, indeed all over the
South’s wide bosom, there were raised
in those four years ten times ten
thousand mounds and more besides,
bearing silent witness to the fatality
of that struggle; and in the unfath
omed waves of the ocean, awaiting
the momentous call, when the sea
shall give up its dead, rest the petri
fying bones of still another host of
patriots who met the enemy embat
tled on that billowy field where “deep
calleth unto deep.”
Beautiful Mother South, land of sor
rows and memories, home of hopes
that breathe and burn; the sufferings
of thy sons have been to thee as cost
ly raiment and the tears of thy daugh
ters as precious jewels! But why
should I attempt this sentiment when
that sweet Singer, Father Ryan, has
long since clothed it in such inimit
able beauty. The words are familiar,
but in the frequency of repitition, they
lose none of their sempiternal sweet
ness:
“A land without 'ruins is a land
without memories—a land without
memories is a land without liberty!
A land that wears a laurel crown may
be fair to see, but twine a few sad
cypress leaves around the brow of
any land, and be that land beautiless
and bleak, it becomes lovely in its
consecrated crown of sorrow, and it
wins the sympathy of the heart and
history! Crown of roses fade, crowns
of thorns endure! Calvaries and cru
j cifixes take deepest hold of humanity
—the triumphs of Might are transient,
they Dass away and are forgotten—
the sufferings of right are graven deep
est on the chronicles of nations!
Yes! give me a land where the ruins
are spread,
And the living tread light on the
■.hearts of the dead; ,
Yes, give m a land that is blest by
the dust,
And bright with the deeds of the
down-trodden just!
Yes, give me a land that hath legend
and lays
Enshrining on the memories of long
vanished days:
Yes, give me a land that hath story
and song,
To tell of the strife of the right with
the wrong:
Yes, give me a land with the grave
in each spot,
And names in the graves that shall
not be forgot!
Yes, give me the land of the wreck
and the tomb,
There’s a grandeur in graves, there’s
a glory in gloom!
For out of the gloom future bright
ness is born,
And after the night looms the sunrise
of morn;
And the graves of the dead with the
grass overgrown,
May yet form the footstool of liberty’s
throne,
And each single wreck in the war
path of Might,
Shall yet be a rock in the temple ot
Right!”
What then is this thing, this spirit,
this cause which so vitalizes these
memories, which so impregnates this
gloom with hope, which so invests
these graves and ruins with promise
that it smacks of the spirit of immor
tality itself? What is this lost cause?
If it were a mere unsuccessful politi
cal movement, if secession were an
unholy and unrighteous breach of con
tract, if the southern soldiers were,
rebels in the ordinary sense of the;
word —then our hope is vain; we may]
as well let the dead past bury its
dead; and this monument is not worth
the trouble of the unveiling.
The expediency of secession is no
longer a question at issue; the arbi
trament of war has settled that for
ever. The unwisdom of our states
men who decided the question for us—-
if wisdom it was, seems to lie in the
fact that they caused the South, which
at that time had control of every de
partment of the national government,
save only the presidency, caused the
South, which was living within the
constitution, to secede and withdraw,
instead of holding on to the establish
ed government and compelling the of
fending states of the North and East
either to obey the Oonstifiution or
secede themselves. The right to se
cede need not be discussed further
than to say that as the question orig
inally stood no interpretation, save
that of war or fanaticism could have
doubted; and no intelligent student
of the Federal compact would deny
that'until Appomatox foreclosed the
question the right existed. Let us
concede that not only the expediency
but the right has also gone. That
slavery was a curse and that its aboli
tion has been to the benefit of either
the slaves or their masters, lam not
prepared unqualifiedly to admit, though
such seems to be almost universal im
pression, but that question may like
wise be eliminated.
The lost cause, that cause for which
so much blood was spilled and treas
ure lost, was a noble cause; so unique
as a reason for war that it has suffer
ed much misunderstanding. The mind
that knows no higher purpose than the
gaining of wealth, or that subordi
nates all things to the spirit of com
mercialism will never be able to com
prehend it. Even Mr. Lincoln, great
of heart as he was, failed to catch its
depth and meaning, for he is said to
have offered the proposition that the
South might retain its slaves in peace
if it would return to the Union, and
threatened emancipation as the alter
native. How did the South reply to
this? Let the immortal Benjamin
Harvey Hill, he who In the convention
of ’6l had counseled against secession,
reply as he did in March ’65, to
those at LaGrange who favored accep
tance of the terms of peace proposed
at Hampton Roads: “I do not speak
to you,’’ he said, ‘‘with threats, but
I do speak to you in frankness, and
I tell you that if you at home are will
ing to submit to terms degrading, the
army will not. The army can give
up property, they have given it up.
They can leave home and wife and
children, they have left them. They
can endure cold and heat and hunger
and nakedness. They have endured
all these for four long years. You
cannot startle them with the enemy’s
numbers: they have met that enemy
on a hundred fields without a count,
save of the slain and captured. And
what is it so richer than wealth, so
dearer than home and wife and chil
dren; so more valued than ease and
wealth and life, that for it these sol
diers are willing to lose all, and en
dure and suffer and toil and fight and
die, and never falter? It is that with
out which there can be no enjoyment
in wealth, no home for family; no
safety in ease, and no pleasure in life.
It is the honor and independence of
our country.’’
To understand these expressions it
is profitable to inquire the cause of
the South’s secession and the conse
quent war. Secession, be it remem
bered, was not an original southern
doctrine that she should have so vig
ororously supported it for iself
alone. In 1813 the State of Massa
chusetts had. declared herself no long
er bound by the Union (her cause was
a matter of trade relations) and in
the following year in Hartford, Con
necticut, the first convention of nulli
fication was held. The doctrine of
nullification was openly asserted and
acted upon by the people of Pennsyl
vania long before South Carolina ever
claimed it. Then why the South’s de
sire to break the bond that held the
American states together; how were
her honor and independence so in
volved? To state sufficiently, for
years the abolitionists of the North
had waged a bitter war i,gainst the
South, not a war of arms but of char
acter, far more galling to a proud peo
ple. “It was a was of religious and
political fanaticism mingled, one the
part of the leaders, with ambition
and love of notoriety; waged not
against our lives but against our char
acters. The object was to humble and
debase us in our own estimation, and
that of the world in general; to blast
our reputation while they overthrew
our domestic institutions.” As early
as 1836 so great became this over
whelming stream of contumely that
. John C. Calhoun uttered in the
. ence of the Senate those memorable
! words: “It is only on terms that the
Union can be saved. We can not re
main here in an endless struggle in
defense of our characters, our prop
erty and our institutions.”
To comprehend more fully the South’s
position in this matter one needs to
be acquainted with that which char
acterized its people and made them
distinct from all the world beside.
Almcst every nation has possessed
some dominant and distinguishing
trait by which all its higher activities
have been controlled; the Romans by
their valor in arms; the Greeks by
devotion to the sciiences and arts;
the Spartans by individual bravery;
the Franks by scorn of falsehood:
the Swiss by love of liberty; the Brit
ish by desire of dominion; and the
Yankee by astute commercialism.
The typical southerner with a valor
surpassing that of the Romans, with
a devotion to science and art, no less
than that of the Greeks, with an in
dividual bravery that any Spartan
might have envied, with a fidelity of
speech as true as the Franks, with a
love of liberty excelling that of the
Swiss, coveting not dominion as the
British do and spurning the commer
cialism of the Yankee, moulded all
these virtues and more into one high
er virtue and called it Southern man
hood. In this he ever lived and for
this he stood ever ready to die. The
South gloried in the pride and chival
ry of its gentlemen. That pride and
that chivalry were so intense that
with but slight exaggeration the one
i appeared ridiculous and the other
quixotic. If in the presence of insult
and wrong, men of such keen and
. exalted spirit seized their swords has
tily and let all prudence save only
. that which touched their honor go to
the winds, little is the wonder.
; With private fanaticism the South
i ern States, were not concerned, hut
> when the States of the North and
> East in their governmental capacity,,
s caught the frenzy* and persistently
[ refused to discharge those obligations
- due to the South and imposed by the
» Constitution; when the decisions of
i the Supreme Court of United States,
i itself were refused obedience by au
, thorities, State and Federal; and
> when these breaches of good faith as