Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/224

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214 Southern Historical Society Papers.

indeed, all the wide world, to forget not that the first stone of this monumental pile was placed in position by the unsullied hand of the golden-hearted Chief of the Confederacy peerless, immortal Davis, out upon the shoreless ocean his bark has drifted, and we shall see him no more with our mortal eyes, yet

" Millions unborn his mighty name shall sound, And worlds applaud which must not yet be found."

We wish that whosoever in all coming time shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished where young Liberty was cradled, where the Confederacy was born, where the at- mosphere all the year round is perfumed with the sad, proud mem- ories of 1 86 1. We wish that this monument may proclaim the magnitude and importance and grandeur and justice of that event to every class and every age; we wish that infancy may learn the pur- poses of this erection from maternal lips, and that weary and with- ered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish that Labor may look up here, and be proud in the midst of its toil.

Let the stilled cannon sleep on through the ages, faithful reminder of a generation of men the like of which we ne'er shall see again. Let this monument stand, not a record of civil strife, for this great country, let us hope, is sincerely re-united. Let it stand as a per- petual protest against whatever is low and sordid in all our public and private objects. Let it stand lor rebuke and censure, if our people should ever fall below the standard of their Confederate fathers. Let this still, solemn testimonial, dedicated to the memory of brave men, of genuine patriots, continue through all time to meet the sun in his coming; may the earliest rays of the morning glorify and gild it, and parting day linger and play upon its summit.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, permit me to discharge the most pleas- ing part of my duty upon this occasion, to present the accomplished daughter of a noble mother, whose name is revered in every Con- federate camp and venerated by every Confederate survivor, the incense from whose gentle and untiring attentions to the sick and wounded, during those long and eventful years, has risen with bene- dictions and blessings to the great white throne on high. The daugh- ter, inheriting the mother's magnificent traits of character, also embodies within herself all those charming and exalted qualities which are the pride and boast of every Southern gentleman the noblest thing on earth, a perfect woman, Miss Lena Hausman.