Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 30.djvu/369

 The. Southern Cause. 361

General Eppa Hunton also spoke impressively.

The following is a full text of Governor Cameron's address:

For nearly half a century the moons in Heaven have waxed and waned, and the tides of ocean, obedient to their sway, have flowed and ebbed, since you, my comrades, were giving the devotion, and service of warm young hearts to a country which has no place among the nations now which has no name, except in history and which has been blotted out from the atlas of the world.

So far remote from us, in time, that country is; but further still from the carking cares and selfish ambitions of our present lives.

But so embalmed in the inmost caskets of our souls, with the most precious spices from memory's storehouse, is all that we hoped for, joyed in, wept over and suffered there that often still, an idle word, the odor of some simple woodland flower drifted to us on the fitful wind a passing strain of martial music or, as to-night, the pathetic suggestion from eloquent canvass of eyes which were once our guiding stars in battle will strike from our minds the shackles of the present and real; and lo! we stand again in Dixie's land and the war is young and touching elbow with us in the full ranks are those dear comrades we long had mourned as dead, and the flag is flying high on land and sea and faith is steadfast and hope is radiant; for in the mercy of God, the smoke of initial victories yet hangs as a veil between our vision and the wrath that is to come!

That was a country of stately homes, well-guarded firesides of smiling fields, of generous harvests. It was a country where manly and womanly virtue walked hand in hand with cultured minds and social graces. Where hospitality was the instinct and the law in mansion and in cottage; where wealth shed bounty as the skies drop dew; where unobtrusive piety was the guide of gentle lives; where justice dealt with even scales; where the standards of public life were lofty and office was reserved for the wise and the honest; where fac- tion and fanatacism found no congenial soil or atmosphere; where a happy people obeyed the laws, meddled not with the concerns of other folks, cultivated gentle manners and kindly feelings, did their duty in that state to which God had pleased to call them, and lived in peace and love with one another.

It was a country to be proud of. It was a blessed country to live in. It was a country worth dying for !

The ancestry of the men and women of that country were the pio- neers of Christianity and civilization in the new world. At a later era 'twas they who inspired, formulated and achieved American