Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 25.djvu/312

 ;;ns Sniiflnrii Ulxlui-iriil Soctctt/ Papers.

"In every peril, in every tumultuous assembly They have demanded the regular order, And striven to repair the ravages

Inflicted by the cruel surgery of war."

The Band of Patriots who made the first resistance to that con- struction of the Constitution of the United States, and the laws thereunder, which would exalt the powers of the general government and restrain the powers of the State, understood well what was in- volved in the issue. Upon this issue and upon the unseen foundation beneath it, the war was fought.

We lost. Philosophers do not repine over the inevitable. They are content after acting well their parts, to submit to the will of God.

When the Governor of Mississippi was arrested in the executive office, on a warrant issued by a United States Commissioner, who held his appointment at the hands of a Federal Judge the Revolution was complete.

Charles Dickens in one of those pathetic creations in the domain of romance, the delight of his contemporaries and the admiration of this age, represents the early Christians as escaping from their per- secutors into the Catacombs of Rome. Their hiding place having been discovered, the cruel soldiery murder the fathers and mothers in the presence of their children, who in the transports of feeling, rush towards the murderers, crying aloud:

" We are Christians."

Those of us who in our very hearts believed in the justice of the cause for which our comrades less fortunate but more happy than ourselves perished, though abandoned by hope, are Confederates still.

The memory of those days grows more tender year upon year.

My countrymen preserve the scraps. Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost.