Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/150

 138 Southern Historical Society Papers.

being those of his special people. All this in The Last Days of the Confederacy, when the light of its eye was dimmed and gone, its quick pulse stopped and the clammy dew of its dissolution had over- spread the brow of the fallen giant, the Confederate States of Amer- ica. And he Wade Hampton, who had so conspicuous a part in that grandest drama, that saddest tragedy in all the surging tide of time, he too, a stricken giant now sleeps his last sleep. He has fought his last battle; no bugle call can awake him to earth's glories again.

Great Hampton ! "with storied brave"

The " South " nurtured in her glory's time; Rest, thee ! there is no prouder grave,

Even in her own proud clime,

We tell thy death without a s?gh. For thou art Freedom's now, and Fame's One of the few immortal names,

That were not born to die.

From the depths of loyal, loving hearts we breathe for both, the soldier-statesman and his holy cause, the fervent prayer: Requiescat in pace !

My last word spoken (in feeble portrayal of General Hampton's great achievement in war) I had thought to trespass further on your generous indulgence by briefly recounting his supreme service in 1876, in relieving his State, chivalric South Carolina; South Caro- lina, much misunderstood, misrepresented and even maligned, but grand, magnificent in her integrity and her inflexible adherence to the spirit as well as letter of the Constitution, ordained and estab- lished at Philadelphia, anno domini one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.

As is well known, that Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia was made up of the duly accredited representatives of thirteen sov- ereign commonwealths of nations. Thirteen nations as separate, distinct and independent of each other as are England and Russia, France and Germany, or any others of the great powers of the world to-day. Thirteen commonwealths that then and there sol- emnly covenanted aiid agreed among themselves that their inherent rights that is to say, the rights each carried into the Convention (and they were well understood and fully admitted at the time) and that were not specifically surrendered, tolidem verbis, for their com- mon good, were rights reserved by and to each and every Common-