USA > Virginia > Albemarle County > Albemarle County > Memorial history of the John Bowie Strange Camp, United Confederate Veterans, including some account of others who served in the Confederate Armies from Albemarle County > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
He who stands amidst the grand objects of nature, if he has an appreciative and responsive soul, is inspired to high thought and great resolves by surrounding magnitude and majesty. He is lifted and strengthened and stimulated and enabled be- yond the ordinary possibilities of his nature. He is stirred to nobler hope and greater endeavor and higher destiny.
We always catch a little of the glory that we gaze upon; and are changed from glory to glory by a vision of the glorious. To see the beautiful, to think and to know the great: these are creative in the soul, creative of the beautiful, the good, the great. An eminent English painter refused to look on inferior art. He feared its detractive power. Every life is a resultant
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of all the powers that touch it round about. Let us get near and keep near the good and great. Where are shed the rich- est blessings of personal influence, there it is well to be. There are persons whose presence is a benediction, and whose mem- ory is equally so. Amongst men a more illustrious example of this happy formative power I do not know than of him whose name is the bond of our presence here this evening. They were helped who lived with him. We are helped by thinking. of him and speaking of him here.
This service has a prompting from within us. There is that in us, divinely engrafted on our nature and ever cherished by us, which forbids that what is great and good, noble and worthy, shall ever be forgotten. A perpetual "In Memoriam" in the human heart celebrates the praises of true worth. By masterly touch of art. the features of our loved are faithfully preserved and kept vividly before us. By bronze or marble shaft their well-earned glories are kept forever fresh. As in the days of the "blind old bard of Scio's rocky isle," so ever human lives are set to the music of human songs, and are sung into immortality of fame. The rapid annalist gathers up and preserves for future use treasures of human words and hu- man deeds. The statelier historian, impartial, makes up the · destiny of human names, and assigns to each its niche in the Temple of Historic Fame.
So by all means at our command, we will not let the memory of our loved, honored and admired fade "while life and thought and being last, or immortality endures."
On many a hill of Israel's land, by God's command, stood and shone conspicuous memorial stones, silent witnesses, but eloquent in silence, of great events, when God revealed His mighty hand in Israel's defense. In Deuteronomy we read : "These words shall be in thine heart. Thou shalt teach them to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand. They shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
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So do we commemorate the great and good man, General Lee, honored and beloved by all the world, but by no others with that tenderness, pathos, and devotion which touch the hearts of all in this Southland. Memorials of stone and bronze there are, but we offer a tribute better than these, the pure love and sincere devotion of our hearts.
Unwilling to forget, if we could forget; unwilling that the lines which trace to human view his great character and bril- liant career shall ever grow dim and fade away, those lines we would retouch and retrace by the fresh recital of our love. So by our rude hands, untutored and unskilled, we would brush away from the picture all that has gathered to dim or hide its charms.
This is our heart prompting. These are the thoughts that breathe, and these the words that burn. This the prompting to which we yield, when we speak lovingly of him who stood for us and with us in the day of need, amid the raging of the storm, till the muttering of the thunder passed away.
There was a sturdy greatness about General Lee. This is so splendidly true, that the remark seems almost commonplace. There are lives that never die: lives over which death has no power. Men sometimes live so that they never die. They dis- appear, but they live. They cease to be seen, but they live. Their voices are hushed, but they live. Their records are made up; but they live. They cease to frequent the thorough- fares of men, but theirs is a sacred life : a light that dims not, a power that loses naught of its strange, true might. Their lives are memorials, which we build not, but only recognize : each built by the hero's extraordinary character and career. They are not rendered illustrious by aught we may do to com- memorate them. They are illustrious. They have made them- selves so. We cannot add to the brightness of their fame; but we may rejoice to draw near and stand in the light, the bright, pure light of their noble lives.
By universal acclaim, General Lee was a great soldier. When some one criticised General Joseph E. Johnston, General Lee remarked: "If General Johnston is not a soldier, we have no soldier." We may apply the remark to General Lee himself.
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If he was not a great soldier, there has not been a great sol- dier. His military fame is decreed beyond revision or repeal. It is a well established fact that it was more than hinted to him, before he resigned his commission in the United States army, at the muttering of a coming war, that the command of the United States army was within his reach. General Scott earnestly and long prayed him not to resign. It is saying but little, that General Lee's military career confirmed the judg- ment formed of his great genius as he stood facing the morn- ing with life's day still largely before him and life's great work still largely to be achieved.
But I am in haste to turn our thoughts to the grandeur of General Lee's character as a Christian man. I wish to feel and to help others to feel the marvellous power of his life for good. He was good. Note that. In him goodness was in union with greatness. Goodness is thus seen in its best light, and receives its noblest stamp. In such a life we see that good- ness is not a sickly feeble thing. It is not weakness. It is not effeminacy. It is never more in place than when it adorns the strong, the sturdy, the majestic, the great. Goodness is great- ness in the moral world. Than this lesson there is no richer legacy left us by the great war of which it is our honor to be veterans. Men have said that the worst effects of war are its moral disturbances and upheavels. This is probably true. But out of those dark shadows there gleams a wondrous light burning on quenchless and forevermore : the unsullied purity and unsurpassed goodness of great Christian heroes like Gen- eral Lee.
It is worth all the deep darkness of a night to see a star of unusual splendor glow in the shadowed sky. It is worth vast sacrifice to see how good a great man can be in the times that try men's souls. In the darkness we have seen the light.
Such a life is a new interpretation of goodness for mankind. A painter puts on his pallette a stone of standard color to look at from time to time in order to tone up his vision of the true color. From time to time God gives us a noble type of good- ness to tone up our judgment of what real goodness is. Good- ness is strong, manly, brave and true.
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In the presence and memory of such a character we are strengthened in our appeals to men to be clothed with Chris- tian grace. There is a man. Every inch a man. His crown- ing glory was the gospel grace that beautified his life. His fa- ther said of him: "Robert was always good." The boy who was good became a good man, and when a chieftain in war, bowed his head at the camp-fire prayer meeting the most de- vout of worshippers. When President of Washington and Lee University, he said: "I shall not be content till these boys come to be Christians."
It is manly to be good. Of all that is-human there is no bet- ter ideal for the youth of the land than this illustrious hero in whose life shone the twin stars of greatness and goodness.
He was loyal to duty. A marked feature of General Lee's character was his devotion to duty. To be right was supreme. No temptations to swerve from the right seemed to have power with him. No offers of rich reward or brilliant prospects of preferment availed to detach him from the course he believed to be right.
He judged not others who differed from him. He was no censor of his fellow men. But his own principles were set- tled as the adamant of the mountains, and he lived by them. His own convictions were deep as the foundation of the hills, and he abode by them. His charity, a great wide mantle, was thrown over all the world. What a splendid model for us in this! There were greatness and goodness in sweet and happy union.
One day General Lee stood at his gate talking to a humble man, who seemed greatly pleased at the courtesy of the great chieftain. The man went away. General Lee remarked to a familiar friend: "That is one of our soldiers in necessitous circumstances." Then he added: "He fought on the other side." The soldier went away enriched by a generous contri- bution · from the great chieftain's purse.
When the storm of war had passed over, and peace had come with its new trials and its perplexities and cares, no one more nobly adjusted himself to the new conditions than he who had led our armies in the days of war.
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The results of war left no rancor in his soul. The failure of the cause marked no failure in the grand character that es- poused the cause. It is a worthy lesson. A man needs never to fail. He may see all go down around him. His plans may be broken up. His riches may leave him. His hopes may be sadly disturbed. His conditions may be severely changed. His surroundings may be utterly confused. Yet the man can stand triumphant amid all the debris and ruin, himself a peerless victory. General Lee never failed, nor was he ever conquered. Personally he was as triumphant in defeat as in the blaze of victory.
A lady, who had lost her husband in the war, brought her son to college to General Lee: She was very bitter in her ex- pressions toward the North. General Lee said to her : "Madam, do not train up your children in hostility to the Gov- ernment of the United States. Remember that we are one country now. Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans."
Here is a life that was a great success. It is not to be meas- ured by the success or failure of the special cause in which its energies were freely spent. It stands above all temporary sur- roundings : victorious amid ruins, unimpaired by disasters, un- touched by the failures of little human plans. Within itself and of itself it is ever a grand success.
It makes not so much difference where a man may be if the man is there; what sphere he may fill if he fills the sphere ; what external conditions may be his within the limits of what is honorable, if the spirit of the man be there. Then glory crowns his life. Only be the man. Let God direct the rest. Victory will crown the fight.
When all the jealousies and rivalries of war are buried in the deep, dark past, here is a name, the brightness of which, shall never dim. Here are glories that shall be claimed by the world as a rich heritage. Perhaps not merely because he was great ; others as great have not had the glory ; nor merely be- cause he was good; others as good have not had the sound of praise. But because these two bright lights blended their mar- vellous rays in one : great as good and good as great, to shed
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their combined and helpful light on the shadowed pathways of the world.
The light of this great hero's life was a kindled and re- flected light. Kindled from the Great Light, reflected from the real. The true light was superior, supreme. Let us be guided by all that is admirable in him to all that is most ad- mirable in the perfect character of the Supreme Chieftain.
In literature there is a beautiful allegory of "The Great Stone Face." A village rested in the shadow of a great moun- tain. There was a great stone face carved by the ages in the rocky mountain side. A prophecy there was that there would come a man who would be a blessing to the village and that his features would be like the great stone face. Many heard the prophecy and saw the great stone face and thought of it no more. A youth of earnest soul treasured the prophecy, and thought there should be some preparation made for the good work of the coming man. So he humbly began to speak help- ful words and do helpful deeds. When he became old, and his whitened hair about his head was like the mist of the moun- tain, the villagers said: "The man has come. He is with us. He has long been with us and has been a great blessing to us all. He caught the spirit of the prophecy as he gazed on the stone face of the rocky mountain side."
Let us gaze on the splendid example of human greatness and goodness. Let us catch its spirit and grow into its likeness. Let us fulfil its prophecy, so by its guidance and its help we shall ever draw nearer to that Supreme One whom to know is eternal life, and who in us becomes the hope of glory.
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DR. RICHARD HEATH DABNEY'S ADDRESS.
Lee's Anniversary.
CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS NOT REBELS AND TRAITORS.
At the close of Dr. Richard Heath Dabney's address on Lee's Birthday to the Albemarle Chapter of the Daughters of the Con- federacy, the veterans of the John Bowie Strange Camp, and the Monticello Guard, it was voted that he be requested to write out the address for publication in the Progress. As he spoke from only a few scrappy notes, it is, of course, impossi- ble for him to repeat the exact language of the address. He has consented, however, to attempt an approximate reproduc- tion of his remarks, which were substantially as follows:
Daughters of the Confederacy, Veterans, Guardsmen: I was told a few days ago that the late Rev. J. William Jones was suddenly requested, upon an occasion similar to this, to take the place of a speaker who had failed to turn up. Without a mo- ment's hesitation he agreed to do so, with the remark that he was ready at any time, even if awakened in the middle of the night, to talk about General Lee. But Dr. Jones, whose ardent soul always burned for the Confederate Cause, had actually been a follower of Lee. His mind and heart were full to over- flowing with memories of his great commander, and he was, moreover, gifted with fluent speech. As for myself, however, I attempt with trepidation the task assigned me. You expected to hear that distinguished Confederate soldier, Colonel Bumgard- ner, but, because of his unfortunate illness, are reduced to the necessity of listening to one who is merely a Confedrate sol- dier's son. I commiserate you. Yet what can I do? The Daughters of the Confederacy have requested me to speak ; and to a veteran's son a request from the Daughters is equiva- lent to a command.
His not to reason why, His not to make reply, His but to do-or die!
It was suggested by the ladies that, as I was asked to speak on such short notice, I should repeat what I said on Memorial
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- Day two or three years ago. On that day I attempted to defend the Confederate soldiers against the charge that they had died in defense of the institution of slavery and the pecuniary value of their slaves. But, as a number of those here to-day were present then, I cannot bring myself to risk boring them by a twice told tale. It may be remembered, however, that the sud- den approach of rain on that occasion forced me to curtail my speech. I had intended to defend the Confederate soldiers against another charge also, the charge, namely, that they were rebels and traitors. With your permission I shall endeavor to do now, in more detail, what the threatening storm prevented me from doing then.
What is a "rebel?" In my dictionary I find a rebel to be "one who revolts from the government to which he owes alle- giance." Note particularly the words: "to which he owes al- legiance."
What is a "traitor?" "One guilty of treason." And what is "treason?" According to the United States Constitution, "trea- son against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." But, as a matter of course, such treason can only be committed by a citizen of the United States. A for- eigner cannot commit treason. A German cannot commit trea- son against France, nor a Frenchman against Germany.
Was Lee a citizen of the United States when he drew his sword against them? Did he then owe allegiance to the United States government? Let us examine the origin of that govern- ment before answering these questions.
It was asserted by Joseph Story and Abraham Lincoln, among others, that the Union was older than the States, and had ac- tually created them. This assertion is absolutely untrue ; and, unless we are willing to accuse these illustrious men of wilful falsehood, we are driven to the alternative of declaring that the- assertion was due to historical ignorance on their part. Let us look at the facts.
One of these bed-rock facts is that Virginia not only sent delegates to the Continental Congress to propose that all the col- onies should declare themselves independent. but adopted her
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own constitution (including her famous Bill of Rights), and ac- tually declared herself an independent state on June 29th, 1776, just five days before the Continental Congress issued the Dec- laration of Independence for all the states. Shall we say, then, that the "Union" created the state of Virginia? Or shall we not rather say that the state of Virginia took the lead in helping to create the "Union ?"
Let us not be deceived by this abstract noun, the "Union." It is a pure abstraction. Thirteen colonies took joint and con- current action in proclaiming themselves independent. They took united action in defending themselves against Great Britain (just as thirteen individuals, if attacked by highwaymen, might unitedly defend themselves), but they were "United" States, in no other sense at that time. Not for five years after the Dec- laration of Independence did they establish any federal govern- ment whatever. During all that time, as before that time, the Continental Congress was nothing but a very large advisory committee with no legal power whatever. It could and did is- sue, in the shape of paper currency, its promises to pay-as, for that matter, any individual or group of individuals could have done-but it could not make that currency legal tender. It could merely advise the sovereign states to do so, and they did. It could levy no taxes whatever, but could only, on almost bended knee, entreat the sovereign states to contribute money for the prosecution of the war and for the redemption of its promises to pay. Where, then, was the "Union" which, in Lin- coln's imagination, antedated the states and brought them into being? So far from being the mighty creator of the states, the latter contemptuously ignored, to a great extent, the congres- sional entreaties for money, and forced the impotent advisory committee at Philadelphia to repudiate practically the whole of the Continental currency.
Had Lincoln's "Union" been more than a fiction, it could and would have imposed its will upon its "creatures," the states. But, as a matter of fact, there was no legal union whatever un- til the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, a few months before the battle of Yorktown. And even that union was but the shadow of a shade. For the states still refused to
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grant the general government any power to raise taxes or to deal directly with individual citizens in any way.
The states alone could levy taxes, and they alone could act directly upon individuals. In the very first of the Articles it was declared: "Each state retains its Freedom, Sovereignty and Independence." Can a state, any more than a man, "re- tain" what it does not already possess? If sovereignty had in- hered in the "Union" and if the states had been merely its crea- tures and underlings, the article would have enumerated the rights graciously conferred upon these underlings by this pow- erful sovereign. But there was no such enumeration, because there was no such sovereign. On the contrary it was the states that, each and all, "retained" the sovereignty which they al- ready possessed, and that doled out to their creature, the Union, such feeble and meagre powers as they chose to confer.
So powerless, indeed, was the alleged "government" of the "United" States at that time that the individual states went their several ways, almost forgetful of the existence of Con- gress. In that body, each state, large or small, had but a sin- gle vote. No important measure could be passed save by a vote of nine of the thirteen states. Yet frequently less than half of the states had delegates present; even the ratification of the treaty of peace with Great Britain being delayed for lack. of a quorum. Connecticut put higher tariff duties on goods from Massachusetts than upon goods from England; there were in- terstate boundary disputes almost leading to war; and in some respects the states treated each other as if they had been foreign nations.
In short the "Union" was a farce, and, when this fact had at last become sufficiently manifest, all the states except Rhode Island (which seemed satisfied with independence without union with her sisters), sent delegates to the celebrated convention of 1787, at Philadelphia, to see whether the Articles of Confedera- tion could not be so amended as to make the Union something more than a name. As the articles themselves forbade any amendment save by unanimous consent of the states, the out- look was blue. But the members of the Convention were able and resolute, and the result of their labors was the new Consti-
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tution of the United States. The old articles had declared not only that no amendment could be made except by unanimous consent, but also that the Union, under the articles, should be "perpetual." Yet the framers of the new Constitution, appar- ently, considering this word to be as meaningless as it is when used in treaties of peace between foreign nations, calmly de- cided to break up the "perpetual" Union, and put into the new Constitution the provision that whenever as many as nine or more of the states chose to ratify this Constitution, it should go into effect for those states so ratifying it. In other words, the framers of this new instrument of government invited any nine or more states to secede from the "perpetual" Union and form an entirely new Union. They knew, of course, that neither they nor anyone else could legally coerce a sovereign state into the acceptance of this or any other Constitution. Even after its completion, the Constitution was still a mere proposal ; still had to be laid before a specially chosen Convention in each state; still had to be ratified by such conventions in at least nine states before acquiring legal validity in a single one of them.
It turned out that eleven of the states decided to ratify the Constitution. These eleven sovereign states, therefore, seceded from the old "perpetual" Union and, in accordance with the provisions of their new Constitution, chose a House of Repre- sentatives, a Senate and a President of the United States. What- ever the word "perpetual" in the old Articles of Confederation may have been intended to mean, the new Constitution contains no such word. Why not? Was it not because the framers of the Constitution, about to recommend secession from one "per- petual" Union, saw the futility of the word in describing the new Union they were attempting to promote? They hoped, of course, that this new union would be more enduring than the old; but they well knew that states which had already seceded from the British Empire, which, in their Articles of Confedera- tion, had each retained its "Freedom, Sovereignty and Inde- pendence," and which were now about to secede from the Union created under those articles, would regard their right to secede from the new Union as a matter of course. Why, then, label this new Union "perpetual?" If there were some individuals
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who regarded secession from this new Union as illegal, there can be no doubt in the mind of any judicial historian that the vast majority thought otherwise. New York, indeed, accom- panied her ratification of the Constitution with the plain asser- tion that "the powers of government may be reassumed by the people whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness." Virginia, similarly, declared that "the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them, whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression." If all the states failed to make similar declarations, the reason is probably that they, in the act of seceding from one Union, considered a declaration that they could secede from another to be self-evident and there- fore superfluous.
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