Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/133

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brighter, and his devotion to duty and patriotic promptings received the world's recognition. No soldiers braver ever trod the field of fame; nor firmer, marched to duty, in "one red burial blent."

That great conflict between the States illustrated the grand hero- ism of both sections. It should be known as the Heroic Age of America. The world never witnessed greater valor. The entire continent trembled beneath the intrepid tread of the noble followers of Lee and of (irant, who seemed to spurn the dull earth under their feet and go up to do Homeric battle with the greater gods. The richest heritage of the nineteenth century is the self-renewing splendor of the heroes of America as they were marshalled to the marriage feast of death beneath the eye of Lee and of Grant.

Grant and Lee! Lee and Grant! Had I the power, those two names would be garlanded together on one monument, reared at the capital of our beloved country, as representatives of American soldiery. It would be Fame's most jeweled crown and Glory's grandest temple.

Once more the gates of Janus have been thrown open in America. Possibly in the fulfillment of a destiny running back through the centuries, this great liberty-loving republic had to confront upon the battlefield that spirit of inquisition and superstition which has charac- terized Spain through her entire history. The cruelty of Alva lives in Weyler. The spirit of the bloody Philip has been the ruling spirit at Madrid. We are witnessing a great crusade in the cause of humanity that no man can stay. We are fortified in the conflict with the knowledge that " The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. "

In this conflict of humanity against the oldest despotism of Europe, thank God we stand as one people, with one hope, one flag, and one destiny. The Lethean waters of oblivion have washed away all bitter memories of the past. No sectional lines now mar our patriotic ardor. Our soldiers to-day step to the same music, whether it be Yankee Doodle or Dixie, and march shoulder to shoulder as in the days gone by when they carried our eagles in triumph at Buena Vista and Chapultepec and into the glittering halls of the once noble Montezuma.

This glorious consummation shall also be commemorated by a befitting monument; it will be a monument which will always recall the Maine and her human sacrifices. The world will recognize it as reared to the cause of humanity and human freedom. That monu- ment will be free Cuba.