Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/128

 120 Southern Historical Society Papers.

controversy and -were advocated on the one side by the South and the other by the North ? I do not propose to do so.

It is enough for me to say now that the questions were submitted by the contending parties to the sword for arbitration, and the award was against the South. Yes, my hearers, after four years of battle and blood, the men of the South were vanquished, but not dis- honored.

And here and now, in behalf of our "dear departed " comrades, and in behalf of Finley and Miller and Dickison and Bullock and Hemming and Lang and Baya, and others " tried and true " who,, thank God, yet survive, I say, hushed be the voice and still be the tongue that would stigmatize them and us as traitors.

They and we, in the great contest, followed where honor and manhood and patriotism led. They and we rallied around the " Stars and Bars," the flag of the Confederate States, and over a hundred battlefields and more that flag waved in glorious triumph, and baptized and rebaptized it was in the best blood of our land before it became the "Conquered Banner." We loved it, and as evidence of our devotion we risked our lives for it, and thousands of our comrades gave theirs.

But, my countrymen, our flag now is the starry banner of the Union. With pride and joy and thanksgiving we can sing the thrill- ing lines of Francis Scott Key:

'Tis the star spangled banner, O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Yet we can also, with the purest emotions and with the sincerest love for our country, chant the sad and beautiful words:

Furl that banner; true 'tis gory, Yet 'tis wreathed around with glory, And 'twill live in song and story,

Though its folds are in the dust. For its fame on brightest pages, Sung by poets, penned by sages, Shall go sounding down through ages,

Furl its folds though now we must.

Fellow-citizens, I wish, I long, for the coming of that time when a complete and impartial history of the war between the South and the North shall be produced a history that will be a truthful record of the causes, the events both civil and military, and the results of that war. And I rejoice to say that the indications are, to my mind,