Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 41.djvu/31

 Rh I have spoken with humble heart of these things because could yonder tombs give up their dead and could our buried heroes speak, they would rejoice in all that has come to the South through loyalty to their ideals. They would see a pledge of victory in the staunch courage of a Wilson; they would see the laurel in every growing field; they would note, with keener vision than our own, that every achievement of our days was made possible only because we have been steadfast and immovable. They would see, those awakened soldiers of the sixties, a more glorious Second Manassas in our hard-won trade and a reversed Appomattox in the smiling farms of Southern States.

Let us, then, grateful to the association whose fiftieth anniversary of love we here observe, not leave this sacred place in haste. Let us not think our duty done when flowers cover every grave and prayers are said in every avenue. Let us, rather, slowly wander through this grove and muse and meditate, and take our sermons from these stones, that when our call to arms may come, we of the South shall show the spirit of our sires and draw again the sword of Lee in all the might of his ideals.

We invoke you, spirits of heroes and martyrs! We bless you, shades of immortal valor! We pledge you, mighty company of invisible witnesses, that the cause for which you fought shall never perish and that the vision you caught in cannon's mouth and battle smoke shall yet in greater glory be fulfilled!