Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/342

 I

334 Southern Historical Society Papers.

[From the Raleigh Morning Post, January, 1902.]

OUR LAST CAPITAL.

Danville's Part in the Closing Hours of the Confederacy, WHAT DAVIS DID WHILE THERE.

Text of the Proclamation Issued by the President on April 5th,

Hopeful and Confident of the Ultimate Triumph of the

Lost Cause. The Last Full Cabinet Meeting.

The Sutherlin Mansion.

(See ante, p. 80.)

Weep not that the world changes did it keep

A stable, changeless course, 'twere cause to weep. Bryant.

Since Homer first sang of the deeds of prowess performed by Hector, the godlike Achilles, and other Greek heroes before the walls of sacred Troy, and thus immortalized that place, in all nations the names of places at which notable events affecting the govern- ments and institutions of those countries have occurred, have been carefully memorized and zealously guarded for their historical and patriotic value by the people of those countries. Runnymede has come down to us through the dim history of the Middle Ages to have a marked significance, since there it was that John, King of England, in the year 1215 A. D., signed that great instrument of human liberty guaranteeing some of the inalienable rights of man, the Magna Charta. The act of abdication, signed by the Emperor Napoleon, on April 6, 1814, at Fontainbleau, has made the name of that palace famous in French and European 'history. The surrender by Napoleon III of an army of 90,000 men in September, 1870, which event marked the retirement of the aforesaid Emperor as a factor in European politics, and by which event the empire founded by him of which he had been the head, ended tragically, made Se- dan a name in history that will endure. Yorktown has justly be- come a memorable name in American history on account of its being the place, where, by the surrender of Lord Cornwallis' forces, Amer- ican national liberty and independence were first definitely assured.