USA > Virginia > Post-bellum campaigns of the blue and gray, 1881-1882 > Part 8
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" I see in this broad land five hundred millions of people dwell- ing in unity, in peace and prosperity. I see their chief magis- tracy reposed in a man selected because of his wisdom as a states- man, and his integrity as a man. I see the national and state
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halls of legislation purged of the small politician-the corrupt ringster, the miserable bribe-taker, the trading trickster, and filled with men of sterling worth, anxious only so to shape legislation as to afford the greatest good to the greatest number.
" And over all this I see proudly floating the glorious Stars and Stripes-her constellation doubled, and every star undimmed.
" Mr. President and fellow citizens: let us deal wisely with this magnificent heritage the Lord of Creation has given us, let us be true to the trust he has committed to us, and the picture, with this blessing, shall become a glorious, living reality."
" The City of Richmond,"-Beautiful for situa- tion, the home of fair women and brave men, boundless in hospitality-we can only say "God bless her."
This toast was responed to by Thomas J. Evans, Esq., of Richmond. He spoke as follows :
" GENTLEMEN OF THE AARON WILKES POST :
" You invited us to come. We are with you; and right glad we are to be here. You invited us because you wanted to see us, and we came because we wanted to see you.
" We came to see your beautiful and growing city. To shake your hands, and enjoy your society and your hospitality. We did not come to make friends with you. We made friends long ago. We ceased to be enemies at Appomattox Court House. When brave men fight the quarrel ends with the fight.
" For the kind sentiments expressed in the toast to our city, we thank you. We love our city. We are attached to Richmond. It is our home. Every man should love his home or leave it for his own happiness and the good of his neighbors. A man with- out a home is like a frail bark bound to no harbor-mere drift- wood upon the surface of the sea.
"A man's location, his home, has much to do with the forma- tion of his opinions, social, political and religions, and with the, maintenance of them. A man imbibes the sentiments and adopts the manners of his neiglibors. If our homes had been at the
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north the probability is that we should have been with the Federal troops. If your homes had been in the south you would have been in the Confederate Army. Of course this is the general rule to which there are exceptions; just as it would not be correct to say that every man of Cork sticks to the mouth of the bottle, or that every man in Turin is a supe. .
" When we get back home we will tell our wives and sweet- hearts what nice things you have said of them, and they will unanimously thank you, and give you credit for being men of good taste and good judgment.
" You have courteously alluded to the bravery of our men. We have only to say that our boys try to do their duty and obey orders. And this reminds me of a story on one of our boys which I must tell you. His father was a democrat of the democrats 'after the most straitest sect.' He lived a democrat. Indeed, in a contest between Jefferson and Jesus, he would have voted for Jefferson. Being a man of influence he was patronized by the member of congress from his district in Tidewater, Virginia. The congressman secured for the old gentleman's son a place at West Point. On leaving home the father said to him, 'My son, you are going to a military school : let me impress you with the importance of obeying orders.' The young man promised to obey orders. The morning after his arrival at West Point he was put in charge of a corporal to be drilled in the position of the soldier, the facings, &c. In giving the commands the corporal invariably addressed the young soldier as 'squad.' Thus, 'squad, right face!' 'squad, left face!' &c., &c. The young soldier obeyed every order given as well as he could. When the drill was over he promptly stepped up to the corporal in a threatening manner and said, 'See here, mister, you have insulted me, and I mean to report you to my father and to Mr. Hunter, my member of congress. But, I can take care of myself, too. I obeyed your orders. I did what you told me to do, and in return you called me by a nick- nane. You called me ' squad.' My name is Harrison Randolph Smith, and by the Eternal you shan't call me 'squad.' And Smith don't like nicknames to this day-he don't even like to be called Rebel, though he consoles himself with the fact that Wash- ington was called a 'Rebel.'
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" You have kindly spoken of the hospitality of Richmond. It would not be becoming in us to say much on this subject. We are fond of taking in strangers, and we do not ask to be saved from our friends. We hope we have no enemies to take care of. In seriousness and truthfulness, I want you to know that if a man comes from the north to make Richmond his home, and shows a purpose to share our fortunes, we take him by the hand and give him not only a welcome, but our confidence, no matter what his politics may be. But if he comes with political aspirations, only in search of office, and with the purpose of forcing his peculiar views upon us, we very soon let him know that we prefer his room to his company. You know southern people are monstrous fond of office; we have but few offices, and we want them all our- selves. We will always be glad to see the Aaron Wilkes Post in Richmond. We can tie to it.
"In my boyhood in the country I was familiar with the gate- post, the sign post and several other posts. When a young man, having moved to the city, I became acquainted with the lamp-post, but of all the posts I have ever known, the Aaron Wilkes Post is the best.
" In almost every fight somebody gets whipped. It was so at .
Appomattox ; and you helped to do the whipping, therefore, you may be called the whipping-post. And though the Virginia Legislature has recently abolished the whipping-post, I don't think you are embraced in the provisions of the act.
"I had heard of the famous Jersey berries, but I was never thoroughly posted on the subject till to-day when one of your members, who weighs over two hundred pounds, told me that last summer he had to climb the huckleberry bush to gather the berries, and then
" The New Jersey berry Is peculiar, very; Its like nowhere else to be seen. The blackberry, 'tis said, Is sure to be red Whenever the berry is green.
"But you don't monopolize berries. Virginia has berries too.
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For the last few years she has been cultivating and sending forth her due-berries Don't ask me when they will be paid.
"And now I find myself straying away in the bushes. I must come back to the ranks.
" We are not here to-night to shake hands across the bloody chasm. Let politicians do that. Many of the hatreds and ill- feelings growing out of the late war have already been buried. Let us bury them all, and then fill up that bloody chasm with the bones of a score or more of the selfish politicians North and South.
" We are here as old soldiers and friends, and like all old soldiers we delight in fighting over the old battles. Let us fight over the battles of Cowpens and Bull Run, Bunker Hill and Malvern Hill. These tables show that we have not forgotten Monmouth and Five Forks. With much spirit the boys have re- membered Brandywine. Let me warn them to be prudent, or to-morrow morning they will be thinking of Waterloo or Saratoga. I am sure that when we part we will be mindful of Concord.
" We feel that we are standing on holy ground. New Jersey was the battle ground of the American Revolution. Her soil is enriched with the blood of shoeless men of Virginia, who stood shoulder to shoulder and marched side by side with the Jersey- . man in that momorable struggle for independence, Monmouth and Princeton and Trenton stand out so prominently upon the pages of American history that they will be remembered as long as Freedom has a friend. Let these memories be cherished by us, so that we may hand down to our children and our children's children the blessings and privileges which our fathers won for us. Let us cultivate a larger faith in our fellow-men, so that we may rise above the angry strife of political campaigns and the bitter contests of parties struggling for place and pilf and power. Let us be kind to our opponents and candid with our supporters, and carry out those measures which will best promote the best interests of our country. Let us love the pure. Let us enlighten the peo- ple and lead them up to higher aspirations for the promotion of peace, for the extinguishment of sectionalism, the strengthening of friendship among States and peoples, for a pure administration of justice, and the preservation forever of the liberties of the people.
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"In this grand mission let New Jersey and Virginia move on as twin sisters. As they were among the first stars to shed light and glory upon our national banner, let them be among the last to be blotted from our flag.
"Our people are brothers. We speak the same language. We have one country. We worship one God at the same altar.
"By the recollections of the past, the responsibilities of the present, and the hopes of the future, let us dwell together in unity."
"Our Republic"-The world's grand experi- ment in all the ages of purely " a government of the people, by the people and for the people," already has she liberalized the King craft of Europe, and ere long will all civilized nations follow her example.
Responded to by Hon. William L. Dayton, of Trenton, United States Minister to the Nether- lands. He said :
"The subject of the toast allotted to me is so comprehensive that I am embarassed with the rich treasure it presents. In view of the wide field opened before me, and the limited time to explore it, I feel most deeply at a loss to know in what direction to take the first step forward.
"The present occasion, however, suggests a thought concerning the influence of republican government upon the world at large, which I hasten to seize at once lest it be lost. It is, that of all know political organizations, that of a government by the people is the one most calculated to encourage sociability and inspire general good feeling. The tyrant and despot when conspiring against the people, as is fitting, retires to his closet and conceals from his left what his right hand is doing, but when the people rise and consult for their safety they do not, like Lord Dundreary's famous ' birds of a feather,' go off in a corner, and flock all alone by them- selves, but they summon to their assistance that strength and sup-
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port which the sympathy and communion of good fellowship and common interest affords.
"The magnitude of the subject offered by the toast is only the more overpowering in this presence, where I see around me reprc- sentatives of that grand old commonwealth of Virginia, whose people were the first at Charlottetown openly, by proclamation, to enunciate the great principles of human freedom on which the Republic is built, and who were the first to call for a more perfect union to remedy the defects apparent in the first confederation.
" To record the effect upon foreign nations of the Government then formed, would require an epitome of the world's history for the past century. Peace has its victories far greater than those of war. By the moral effect of its continued existence and prosper- ity, and the happiness of its people, the American Republic, with- out striking a single blow, without the sacrifice of a single life, has revolutionized the greater part of the civilized world. The cause of political freedom, the cause of the government of the people by the people, which had been for years, like a homeless outcast, wandering over the face of the earth without a place whereon to lay its head, unless it were among the snow capped mountains of Switzerland, has, since the establishment of our Republic, under the missionary influence of our evergrowing wealth, advancement and content, found an asylum, more or less complete, in the organized governments of nearly all the nations of Christendom.
"The spark of liberty, kindled by three millions of Americans in 1776, has burst into a blaze whose warmth has brought life and cheer to the hearts of at least two hundred millions of our fellow beings. Europe has felt its influence in every part. Though 'freedom shrieked when Kosiuscko fell,' Russia, since that time, with one blow has struck the shackels from fourteen millions of her serfs. Germany has become liberalized. The tread of the oppressed upon the sacred soil of Italy and of Greece has been lightened. The struggle for victory in France has been long and arduous, but she now triumphantly extends to us the hand of pure Republicanism. The enlargement of the right of suffrage in England, the constitutional liberty of Spain, the new born Repub-
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lics of Mexico and South America all testify to the mighty power exerted by our example and our happy life. To us has been committed the future of practical self-government throughout the world. If the experiment here fails, and our success be marred, and prosperity sapped, by internal dissensions or unnecessary foreign wars, the angels in heaven will have cause for weeping and the demons of hell will rejoice.
"In the light of this responsibility of our government for the future political happiness of man throughout all the earth, our thoughts naturally recur to the lines of our great American poet, the loss of whom we have just been called upon to mourn :
"'Sail on, oh Ship of State !
Sail on, oh Union strong and great !
Humanity, with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years Is hanging breathless on thy fate.'
" But we have little to fear in the future and everything to hope. The prospect is bright and rose-colored. Our isolated position has enabled us to keep free from the contentions and broils which have disturbed all Europe, and we stand in kindly relations with all the world. Fifty years ago we, as a nation, were looked upon abroad much as the community regard a promising and rising young man, but in the past half century we have matured into riper manhood, our muscles have hardened, our brain enlarged, and we are everywhere recognized as peer to any nation of the earth. Never before have we been stronger or more united at home. Never before has the spirit of mutual forbearance more fully pervaded the hearts of the whole people. Never before has the Jerseyman been more thoroughly a Virginian, and never before have both Jerseyman and Virginian so completely merged those proud titles in the still prouder one of 'Citizen of the great American Union.' The people of this country are more attached to our republican institutions than ever they have been in the past. Alexander Hamilton said, 'It is a general principle of human nature that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it,' and for that reason, among others, I believe that not
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only will we continue, for many years in the distant future, to be the home of the oppressed and unfortunate of other nations, taking refuge with us at the rate of half a million souls per year, but that the cause of which our government is the embodiment, the politi- cal principle of protection to the rights of the people, and of each one of the people, will extend itself until it covers the entire world, and that when Macauley's typical New Zealander shall sit on London Bridge and sketch the ruins of St. Paul, he will rest un- der the ægis of a republican government, and prouder than the Roman citizen of old will be able to exclaim, I am a citizen of the Universal Republic and a member of the recognized free brother- hood of man."
The following poem, written by Charles Poin- dexter, Esq., was written for the banquet, but owing to a misunderstanding as to the day, be- lieving that it would take place on Thursday instead of Wednesday, it did not arrive in season, and the author inserts it here. It is worthy of the place.
To WILKES POST, G. A. R. "October's waning sun Had marked the century's run Of teeming years since that great day Whose splendid dawning chased away The shades of war and night As Freedom's sun rose bright O'er Yorktown's plains. As thither came with pious feet The thousands of our land to greet That spot to memory dear, Then first did we, a pilgrim band, As brothers of a common land Together meet, where once we met, On those same plains, in battle set. There laid we our foundation deep
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The monumental shaft to keep Its fair memorial of that time Of faith and victory sublime Whose glory makes us one.
There first we pledged our common weal, And there we set our faithful seal That, mindful of the days of old Whose blessings fair and manifold Now o'er our land in swelling tide Their riches pour on every side, Our faithful heart and sturdy hand Should keep those blessings for our land.
And here to-day on Jersey's shore, Rich with its memories of yore, Again together are we met Around this festal board. Fill, brothers, fill your glasses high, As heart to heart, and eye to eye, We pledge our toast in words of flame, 'One common land, one common fame.'
This April day we dare recite The memory of another fight That brought the end to years of blood On stricken fields ; where once we stood On Appomattox's fateful plains And heard the wild commingled strains Of triumph and defeat. Yet now can we, then deadly foes, Along whose battle lines arose That fearful sound, meet here as friends ; While Peace, with all her train, attends With smiles to bless our common land, Secure while we together stand With loyal hearts and true.
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And as we think of coming years With all their train of hopes and fears, That cast their lights and shadows black Along the vista of that track, O'er which our onward course must run, Like mighty planet round its sun, Let then our constant hearts but hear This truth that makes our annals dear, How, ever after darksome night,
There comes the day with joy and light." Richmond, Va., April 12, 1882.
"The Armies of the North and South," was the next toast. It was responded to by Major Charles S. Stringfellow, of the Richmond Howitzers, as follows :
" Mr. Chairman, gentlemen and soldiers, permit me to say, fellow-soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic.
" After the many eloquent speeches to which you listened last night, I am sure that you will not, this morning, either expect or desire any extended reply to the sentiment just offered.
" The armies of the North and the South need no eulogy. Their heroic deeds have been blazoned on the fore-front of his- tory, and will be remembered as long as time shall endure. Nevertheless, I hope you will pardon some disjointed reflections suggested by the witty remarks of the gentleman who has just addressed you.
" Why he asked, and the question was repeated, Why is Vir- ginia called the Old Dominion ? I will tell him and you.
" When the First Charles of England had perished on the block in front of Whitehall, and his son was a wanderer and an outcast from the home of his fathers, the Virginia colonists, with a loyalty somewhat romantic, perhaps, but none the less sincere, clung to his fallen fortunes and continued to recognize in him their only rightful sovereign. They sent a deputation to Holland and in- vited him to Virginia, where they offered him an asylum and a
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home, and pledged their honor and their lives in his defense. They refused to acknowledge the authority of the Lord Protector, and, if tradition is to be believed, they proclaimed Charles the Second as their king before the Declaration of Breda restored him to the throne of England. In recognition of their unflinching loyalty and chivalrous devotion, he caused the Arms of Virginia to be quartered on the coin of the realm with those of England, Scotland and Ireland, with this inscription, 'En dat Virginia quartam.' See, Virginia gives the fourth !
"From that day to this, Virginia has been known as the Old Dominion, and allow me to say, that her sons are proud of the title which bears testimony to the loyalty, courage and constancy of their fathers, sterling virtues exhibited on almost every field in that greatest of all revolutions which gave us our liberties, virtues which none the less conspicuously marked the footsteps of her soldiers from Big Bethel to Appomattox, where the flag which they followed through four long years of hardship and suffering, such as men have rarely endured, was furled forever in the gloom of defeat and despair.
"The outspoken sincerity, the real manhood, the love of truth and right, for which the good people of that Old Dominion have been renowned, still live in the bosoms of their descendants, and still animate the hearts of the men who represent her here to- night-men who have come in response to your kind invitation, to tell you that they are ready and anxious to bury the bitter feel- ings of the past in a genuine reconciliation, based upon mutual respect and good will.
"To you, my friends of the Aaron Wilkes Post and fellow citi- zens of New Jersey, who have shown by your kindly greeting this day that you are willing to meet us in this spirit, we extend the hand of fellowship, and believe me, our hearts go with it. To him, if any such there still remains, who refuses to accord to us the honesty of conviction, the sincerity of purpose, and the perfect good faith which we most cheerfully concede to those who differed with us when we submitted our cause to the stern arbitrament of war, you must excuse me if I apply the words of the Scottish chieftain to the English lord, and say,
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"' My castles are my king's alone, From turret to foundation stone ; The hand of Douglass is his own, And never shall in friendly grasp The hand of such as Marmion clasp.'
" We differed with you in our construction of the constitution ; in our opinions as to the government to which our first allegiance was due; in our views of law and justice and right. This differ- ence was radical, and one which, unfortunately, passed beyond the bounds of reason into the domain of sentiment, if not of religion- but it was honest. There was not, and in the very nature of things there could not be, any arbiter between us. War was inevitable. We fought, and, I think you will agree, fought bravely to main- tain our opinions. We were defeated, and like brave men we accepted defeat with all its consequences. And I can truthfully say to you, now and here, that though their names be not inscribed on your muster rolls, in the ranks of the old Confederates will, this day, be found as loyal and true soldiers of the grand army of this grand Republic as any who may belong to the Aaron Wilkes Post.
"I do not propose-it would not be becoming in me on this occasion to speak of the points of contrast between the armies of the North and the South. The world has accorded to both, and bothi deserve the highest meed of praise, for all those virtues which
go to make the real soldier. I prefer to address myself to one point common to both alike, hinted at rather than distinctly an- nounced, in the closing sentence of the distinguished gentleman who so gracefully welcomed us to the enjoyment of the good cheer set before us on this auspicious occasion. I mean, their devotion to duty as each understood it.
"Duty ! It is a grand old word. As Robert Lee wrote to his son, 'the grandest in our mother tongue, the polar star of every honest, manly life, in peace and in war.' It is duty that should govern the child in its conduct towards its father, duty that should guide the father and man in all their relations to their fellow-men, their country and God.
"It is an old story, and one that you have doubtless often heard, how the greatest of England's Admirals, when he bore
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down on the combined fleets of France and Spain off Trafalgar, ran up at his masthead that simple sentence that has since be- come the watchword of the proudest empire on this earth, 'Eng- land expects every man to do his duty.' And you know how well officers and men responded to their country's call on that historic day. They conquered, but their heroic captain fell in the arms of victory and death. His comrades carried him below, and as the evening wore away the cannon ceased to roar, the shot to crash through spars and shroud and sail, when an officer, bend- ing over him, said, 'Our victory is complete.' For a moment the old, fierce light gleamed in his eyes, and the tide of life seemed to flow back to its fountain-head, as, with a dying effort, he raised his arm and cried, 'Thank God, I have done my duty.'
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