Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/46

 38 Southern Historical Society Papers.

ADDRESS OF GEN. R. E. COLSTON.

Before the Ladies' Memorial Association, at Wilmington, N. C., May 10, 1870.

PRELIMINARY NOTE.

This address was delivered nearly twenty four years ago when military rule and tarpet-bag governments were still prevailing over the South, caus- ing more bitter feeling than even the war itself. Since then, almost a quarter of a century has elapsed and has taught salutary lessons.

We had already appreciated the value of the Northern soldiers, and we now understand the motives which impelled therri to war from their point of view, motives just as honest, patriotic, and noble as ours.

Prejudices on both sides have melted away, and there are now no better friends than those who fought each other in the blue and gray. Mr. Beecher's prophecy proved conspicuously false, and all the Southern land is now dot- ted with monuments, growing more numerous each year, erected to the memory of her fallen heroes.

Peace has made us, in many respects, the most powerful nation in the world, and the most prosperous. We got rid of the incubus of slavery, which we would not otherwise have shaken off in more than a century.

We shall always cherish the memories of our struggle, which was inevita- ble, and in which we acted our part honorably and gloriously; and now, looking to the future and realizing the magnificent destiny placed before us and our children as one people, with one country and one flag, we accept

the verdict of Fate and say: It is well !

R. E. COLSTON. * Washington, Dec. 2$th, 1893.

Ladies of the Memorial Association and Fellow- Citizens :

A beneficent Providence has mercifully decreed that Time shall be the great healer and consoler of almost every form of human woe. Five years ago our land was still reeling with the calamities

is to-day stretched upon a bed of pain, where he faces the inroads of disease, and the approach of the last enemy, with a gentle chivalry and he- roic firmness, which might put to the blush many a famous victory. In the service of Longstreet and Jackson, of Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee, he shared all that the New World can teach of battle and danger. In the service of the Khedive and in the deserts of Africa, he shared the suf- fering of the Old World, and now bears it as his cross. The injuries of earth have only taught forgiveness to his lips. From a crucified body comes only the message of good will to man ; and the sermon of peace on earth is the legacy of his life of war. On no day more appropriately than Christmas day could this latest missive receive his seal and superscription.
 * The accomplished gentleman and soldier, the author of this address,

L. R.