Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/31

 It inis Obedtenct />,/, Unto Death.

had proposed logo North for the purpose of fighting against his people and his State.

It gives me pleasure to say that, so far as I know, the family of Mr. Beers did their duty by his wife and children. Mrs. Beers was a delicate little woman, with a pale, suffering, resolved face, and my recollection is that she did not long survive her husband. I tried hard to have the little girls adopted in the South, and came very near succeeding; yet perhaps it was, after all, well that their friends sent for them, and that they finally returned to the North.

It is well, too, that there are not more men like Beers in the world. The bands of organized society are not strong enough to endure many such. They are too trenchant, too independent, too excep- tional, to be normal. It is well that most of us believe and think and feel and act, with the mass of our fellow-beings about us. If it were not so, quiet and harmonious society would be impossible; it would dissolve and perish in fierce internecine strife. And yet, when every now and then, God turns out a man of different mould, a man strong enough and independent enough not to be dominated in opinion, or in conscience, or in action, by his associates; and, most of all, when such a man breasts and breaks away from such a cur- rent, and, in spite of it, comes out on our side, giving up everything, even life itself, for us surely, we should be glad to know his story, and to do what honor we may to his memory.

The mound that covers James H. Beers is indeed low and humble, yet, where will you dig in earth's surface to find a handful of richer dust ? I rejoice that he lies where he does, hard by my dear ones, and where my own body will soon rest; so that, when the resurrec- tion trump shall call us all forth, after running over the roll of my beloved and finding them all present and accounted for, I can turn my eyes to the right and greet the hero whose sacred dust I have guarded all these years.

ROBT. STILES.

RICHMOND, VA., October 14,