Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/354

 848 Southern Historical Society Papers.

the performance of deeds worthy to be remembered, and those which will surely advance the welfare and promote the progress of our com- mon country. Let us not endeavor to win laurels by war. Brighter than any which we can hope to secure in this field have already been gathered by our fathers. Let us make this period an unexampled time of peace, an era of improvement, an age of reason. Let bene- ficent acts and philanthrophic works abound everywhere. Let us excel in public virtue and private integrity, in the development of our vast resources, in the spread of education, in the promotion of reli- gion, in the advancement of the arts and in the cultivation of a fraternal spirit. Let this be the era of good feeling, of higher national standards, of broader public purposes and larger conception of political duties.

By these noble aims and lofty purposes we shall best promote the cause of good government everywhere and evidence our apprecia- tion of the services and sacrifices of our revolutionary sires and of all the glorious memories which cluster around our early independ- ence days.

SENATOR GRAY'S SPEECH.

When Senator Gray was introduced by Mayor Brevard to read the Declaration of Independence he said that coming to Charlotte as a stranger he felt that he could go away as a friend. [Applause.] He was glad to come into this beautiful State under the auspices of the senator it had so long delighted to honor; who had so gallantly represented the Old North State in the United States Senate. [Ap- plause.] He had heard something, he said, of this great anniversary. As a student he was interested in reading something ahout it and in reading something of the historic doubts which those envious of the honor claimed by a single State had cast upon it; but he would go from Mecklenburg to-day a willing witness of the verity of this historic event. [Prolonged applause.]

The sham-battle had been so delayed that it was 2.30 o'clock when Mayor Brevard called the assemblage in the auditorium to order, and it was 3.30 when Senator Hill finished speaking. His remarks were received with the greatest enthusiasm.

THANKS FOR TWO.

Congressman Alexander, taking the platform at the close, offered the following resolution :