Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/75

 The Address of Hon. John Lamb. 67

heroic spirit and undying" devotion of the noble women of the South. The old stories of the Roman matrons and self-sacrifices oi the Spartan women, were reproduced in every State, and nearly every home of this Southland.

It would be easy to furnish from memory of the stirring events during the war between the States, incidents that would show the most exalted patriotism and the highest conception of duty on the part of the noble women of the South that the history of any people in any age can furnish.

We are proud of the fact that tjieir mantle has fallen upon the shoulders of the Daughters of the Confederacy, whose hearts burn to day with a love and devotion as pure and sacred as that of their mothers, when they sent forth their sons to battle with the Roman matron's injunction; or gave their parting kiss to loved ones, whom they cheerfully resigned to their country's call.

The unselfish devotion of the noble women of the South upheld and prolonged the unequal struggle while their patience and sacri- fices at home, rearing their children, and praying for the absent husband and father, often with no protector save the faithful slaves who stood guard at their doors, furnishes the most striking example of love and devotion that this world has ever known. When under the providence of God our vexed problems are settled, and the South comes again to her own, as under the unvarying law of com- pensation she surely will, another monument will crown one of the seven hills of our monumental city, erected by the sons and daughters of the Confederacy, and dedicated to the noble women of the South.

A LAND WITHOUT RUINS.

A land without ruins is a land without memories. A land with- out memories is a land without a history. "Crowns of roses fade ; crowns of thorns endure. Calvaries and Crucifixions take deepest hold of humanity. The triumphs of might are transient ; they pass and are forgotten. The sufferings of right are deepest on the chronicles of Nations."

A PARTING WORD FOR HIS OLD COMRADES.

"The shadows of the evening are lengthening on our pathway, The twilight approaches; for the most part you have lived brave lives,