Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/114

 106 Southern Historical Society Papers

it to future generations as the noblest legacy that heroism can leave to posterity. As they were true to their convictions in resorting to arms, true to their country in her sorest need, true to every pledge they have given, so they are true to-day, to themselves and to the future in perpetuating the memory of their heroes and in vindicating the principles for which they fought and their comrades fell.

LEE AND DAVIS.

The great pageant of the morrow, which shall thrill the heart of this historic city with the grandest pulsations that honor, love and reverence can ever inspire, will fitly illustrate the character and prin- ciples of the Confederate revolution. When, by the hand of the greatest living soldier of America, the veil is drawn and the martial figure and the majestic features of our imperial chieftain stand out under the bright Southern sky to greet his countrymen, the hearts of a whole people will swell with the proudest emotions that life can give, that his country and his cause were theirs, and bow in rev- erence to all that make man great, for

Or a purer sword led a braver band, Or a braver bled for a brighter land, Or a brighter land had a cause so grand. Or a cause a chief like Lee.'*
 * Never hand waved sword from stain so free,

Nor will the duty to perpetuate the memories of our heroic dead be ended to morrow. Another memorial must yet rise beside that of Lee to the great statesman who was his life-long friend, and who directed the destinies of the Confederate republic during its brief and stormy life. Great alike, as statesman and soldier, he stood for a quarter of a century after the fall of his country a mark for all the shafts of enmity and malice aimed at her. But for this his people only gathered more closely around him, as, venerable alike in years and honor, he towered among them like some tall mountain peak whose snow-crowned head reflecting the light of a glorious past, caught also the first rays of that sun of righteousness and justice, in whose light future generations will read his among " the immortal names that were not born to die.*' After a great and noble life, with the honors of two countries thick upon him, Jefferson Davis died more a hero than if he had fallen upon the glorious field of Buena Vista, in the service of the Union, or upon some equally glorious battle-field of the Confederacy.