Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/154

 154 Southern Historical Society Papers.

whose bosom lie sleeping so many of your best and bravest those dauntless heroes who, when she stood ringed with fire, hedged her round with stubborn steel, and with their brave young blood wrote the name of " Georgia ' ' in crimson letters afresh in the very rubric of freedom ; to you, too, our mother stretches forth her hand, which no longer wears its mailed glove, and bids you God's speed in that grand career of prosperity which has made the name of this mighty Commonwealth no less renowned in days of peace than in days of war, when she gave her all without grudge and without stint in defence of those principles which since the days of Runnymede have been the common heritage of all English-speaking folk.

HER ETERNAL DEFIANCE.

Aye ! Virginia, not without self-reproach that she but follows where she should have led, yields her southern sister homage, in that when "cheap patriots," insolent by reason of success won by others, were seeking even in the halls of national legislation to dim with the breath of obloquy the stainless memory of our matchless leader, and to brand with infamy the cause for which he drew his sword, this grand old Commonwealth rang out her eternal defiance to their calumnies by placing the birthday of Lee in her civic calendar alongside that of Washington, and published to the world this glorious legislative enactment signed with the name of her battle-scarred Chief Execu- tive that brilliant soldier who for four years followed the tattered battle-flags of Lee and of Jackson rising from simple captain, grade bv grade, through sheer force of skill and daring until as commander of Jackson's old corps he became Lee's right arm in that wondrous final campaign which has claimed the admiration of the brave of every nation.

VIRGINIA REBELS.

In conclusion Captain McCabe said : Virginians, in yonder battle- crowned capital of our ancient Commonwealth looks down upon us in imperishable bronze the " counterfeit presentment " of our mother's greatest son of the first Revolution, seated in easy majesty on his mettled steed, such as he may have seemed to his ragged, expectant soldiery as he scanned with serene constancy the varying chances of the fray that day at Germantown or at Princeton, while grouped beneath him stand the heroic figures of those great Virginians who shared with him the peril and the glory of guiding the new nation