USA > West Virginia > Myers' history of West Virginia (1915) Volume II > Part 20
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"I do not despair of the republic, either. If we could have two weeks longer until the election. I verily believe, the dis- heartening anticipation of my friend from Harrison (Carlisle) to the contrary notwithstanding. to use a vulgar but express- ive phrase, which may be well applied to this ordinance of secession, we would 'knock it into a cocked hat'. ( Laughter. ) Why. sir, I am credibly informed that these soldiers, of whom we have heard so much, and from whom we anticipate so much danger, and who are said to be quartered and posted all over the State for the purpose of public intimidation, have pledged their lives that their own blood shall crimson the streets, but they will cast their votes on the 23rd of this month against the ordinance of secession. (Applause. ) I am informed of one company consisting of 90 men of whom 80 are pledged to vote against the ordinance. You heard a voice today from old Berkeley. God bless her! (Applause.) And He will bless her. and all who think like her. God has blessed this country. God has blessed all the men who have loved this Union. Ilis hand has been manifested in all our history. He stood by Washington, its great Founder and Defender. He stood by our forefathers in the establishment of this government, and by working out our glorious destiny thus far in the space of less than three-quarters of a century. God has made the American people the greatest on the earth ; and I firmly be- lieve in the hidden councils of His mysterious providence. there is a glorious destiny awaiting a united American per-
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ple still. (Applause.) I take confidence in the cause as I look at the stripes and stars, and I remember the circum- stances that gave rise to the beautiful motto that is as appli- cable to us today as when in the moment of inspiration it was penned :
"'Triumph we must, for our cause it is just, And this be our motto, in God is our trust.' (Great applause.)
"I was just trying to catch from my memory a couplet from a poem which I read the other day in regard to the ban- ner of our country, I think I can recall it in the sentiment if not in the language :
"'Forever float that standard sheet ; Where breathes the foe but falls before us. With freedom's soil beneath our feet And freedom's banner streaming o'er us.'
(Mr. W. pronounced these lines with great vehemence, and when he had ended there arose one universal, loud and thrill- ing cheer.)
"Fellow citizens, it almost cures one's back-ache to hear you applaud the sentiment. (Laughter and applause.) But then the time for speaking is done. Let me exhort you never to forget the counsels my much esteemed friend, General Jackson, of Wood, delivered to us tonight. Never forget to act upon them. I think I see yet sparkling in the old hero's eye something of the ardor which he thought if not prudent to express, yet that even he was ready at his country's call to lead his sons and the sons of his countrymen whenever it may be necessary-whenever our liberties cannot be secured to us otherwise-to lead us into the battle field :- not to be carried to the polls to whisper his vote against this Ordinance of Secession, but to fall upon the field of battle, to wrap himself in his country's flag and pledge his gratitude to God that he was deemed worthy at last to end an honored life by falling in defense of his country. (Applause.) We have worthy
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sires, my young friends. Let us be sons worthy of those sires. Those sires were law-abiding, constitution-making, constitu- tion-keeping men. They well knew that republican liberty, that free institutions, could only be established upon the law, and preserved by keeping the law; and that is the secret of the conservative position that we have taken in this convention. I believe God's blessing will rest upon our action, and if at last, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, 'we have remonstrated again and again, we have petitioned and adjured', and our prayers are all scoffed at and scouted-why, I think I see around me here tonight the men who know their duty-
".Who know their rights, And knowing dare maintain.'
"Fellow citizens, the first thing we have got to fight is the Ordinance of Secession. Let us kill it on the 23rd of this month. (Applause.) Let us bury it deep beneath the hills of Northwestern Virginia. Let us pile up our glorious hills on it : bury it deep so that it will never make its appearance among us again. Let us go back home and vote, even if we are beaten upon the final result, for the benefit of the moral influence of that vote. If we give something like a decided preponderating vote of a majority in the Northwest, that alone secures our rights. That alone, at least, secures an independent State if we desire it.
"Fellow citizens. I am trespassing upon your patience." (Go on ! go on !) "I am going up to Marion County to assist my friend Hall in canvassing that county. Monongalia is a fixed fact-like the handle of a jug, all on one side. ( Laugh- ter.) Not all on one side either : but on all sides, all over, and under, and in, and out, and through and everywhere. (Ap)- plause and laughter. ) But I want to help Hall a little. Want to take Frank Pierpont along over there, too. They have threatened to hang him out there, and I am sure if he gets strung up first he will break the rope and I will escape. ( Laughter.)
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"We have to go to work now. We must appeal to the people ; appeal to their patriotism ; and let us defeat the Ordi- nance of Secession in Northwestern Virginia at least. My advices from the valley are, that where, some weeks since, a Union man dare not hold up his head, he has come out now, and is shaking his fist at his adversary. They are getting bold and numerous ; and I should not be surprised if the upper and lower valley, even Jefferson County, right under the shadow of-or rather casting its shadow upon-Harper's Ferry, and under the influence and intimidation of the soldiery there, and old Loudon, with Janney at its head, should all give majori- ties against this ordinance. They say even in Alexandria the old Union spirit is reviving. Let us hope then-'hope on, hope ever.' Let us work in season and out of season.
"And now, fellow citizens, good-bye till we meet again, with all our hopes realized, as I trust, under fairer auspices. May we meet each other with gratulation and congratulation, that our old and beloved Commonwealth, the mother of States and statesmen whose fame is wide as the carth-every inch of whose soil I love, her mountains and valleys, from the sea- board to the Ohio River -- shall be restored to peace and pros- perity ; until all this land in all her waters shall reflect back peacefully the stars on the floating banner of our country, re-established as the ensign of universal liberty."
Speech of Hon. John F. Lacy on the Occasion of the Reunion of the G. A. R. at Des Moines, Iowa, May 31, 1897.
(Mr. Lacy was born and reared on the Williams farm, about one mile above New Martinsville, Wetzel County.)
"Comrades and Fellow Citizens :-
"I have come a long distance in compliance with the courteous invitation of my comrades of Kinsman and Crocker Posts to address you on this memorable day. Today is a flower festival for the dead designed by General Logan, when he was the Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.
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"Kinsman's and Crocker's names suggest memories of the past which bring pride and pleasure to every citizen of Des Moines, and of our whole State as well. Kinsman fell in bat tle, leading the 23rd Iowa, but Crocker, though he died young. still lived to see victory crown our national cause.
"We meet on this day with no political purpose, but lay aside all partisanship and forget for the time all matters of difference upon which we may be divided.
"We assemble each year on this sad but pleasing memo- rial to pass the old story down the line to another generation, and to keep alive the spirit of fraternity, charity and loyalty.
"The new corn comes out of the old fields, and new les- sons may always be learned by turning our eyes again upon the past. Let us again revive
"'The memory of what has been But never more will be.'
"Every institution is the lengthened shadow of some great man who has passed away. Our people have been led to greatness by the hand of liberty.
"The war was the penalty of a great wrong. Individuals sometimes escape punishment in this world, because death claims them before the day of retribution comes. But not so with nations-they cannot escape. The wrong of slavery re- quired atonement, and severe, indeed, was the punishment that was meted out.
"The men who fought against us recognized their first allegiance as due to their States, and the soldier of the Union with a broader view felt that his country was the whole Union. The war destroyed slavery and again restored the old sentiment of Patrick Henry : 'I am no longer a mere Vir- ginian, I am an American.'
"We could not partition this Union. We could not divide the Mississippi. Bunker Hill and Yorktown were the heritage of the whole people.
"We could not divide Yankee Doodle, nor could we dis- tribute among the dismembered .States the flag of our fore- fathers.
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"When the war began in 1801 we were twenty-six millions of freemen and four millions of slaves. In 1897 we are seventy millions, all freemen.
"When the body of Jefferson Davis was disinterred and removed to Richmond, the funeral train was witnessed by thousands as it passed through many States upon its long and final journey, but no slave looked upon that procession.
"As I glance over this splendid audience here today I cannot help but feel that a country filled with such people is worth fighting for.
"Kinsman died thirty-four years ago, but his name lingers upon all our tongues. Crocker passed to the great beyond later, but his name is still upon our lips. The preservation of such a country is worth all that it cost in treasure, blood and tears.
"There must be an appearance of right in everything to keep wrong in countenance, and our brothers of the South fought for their opinions with a zeal and earnestness that no men could have shown had they not felt that their cause was just. It is today the most pleasing of all things to hear one of these men say, 'I now see that the result was for the best. I am glad that slavery has disappeared.'
"Even Jefferson Davis in his history attempts to prove that the cause of the war. was not slavery, but the tariff. The day of peace and reconciliation has come, and no heart today in all this throng beats with anything but love for all who live under our flag. It is not mere emotional and meaningless sentimentalism, but brotherly kindness between the sections that were. There are no sections now.
"Two ships may sail in opposite directions, moved by the same wind. But the course of all our people has now been directed to the same common goal. We meet in an era of reconciliation. The Grand Army has no vindictiveness. I will recall the war today, but will not seek to revive any of its bitterness. We should not forget it, but we should seek to keep alive none of its animosities.
"If I bring back any of its horrors it is to the end that we may better appreciate peace. We renew the past to shun its errors.
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"The body of our great commander, Grant, has recently been enshrined in a new tomb erected by the free will offering of the people in the greatest city of our land, upon the beauti ful Riverside Drive on the banks of the Hudson.
"Napoleon lies in state under the gilded dome of the Invalides and his mausoleum is full of the inscriptions of his victories from Lodi to Marengo, from Austerlitz to l'ena and Wagram, and even the abominable carnage of Essling is there commemorated.
"But the silent commander of the Union army has a more noble inscription than if the names of all his battles had been there recorded. Over the door are his simple and touching words.
'Let us have peace."
"Grant's victories made peace not only possible, but per- manent upon the only sure basis of union. The Potomac joins friendly States instead of separating hostile nations. It does not form a bloody boundary as the Tweed so long sepa- rated the land of our ancestors.
"Grant should have been buried near Sheridan at Arling- ton with no sentinel but the stars, surrounded by the soldiers who had died under his command. Amid the stir and living bustle of the great metropolis his solitary grave seems lonely.
"His example will live; obstinacy is the sister of con- stancy, and he never despaired of the republic.
"On a day like this we all recall such names as Lincoln, Grant. Sherman and Sheridan, but these names often all em- brace our collective idea of the men whom they led. Their names typify their private soldiers. Thomas was the Rock of Chickamauga', because he knew how to command men who were brave enough to be led.
"Buckner complained at Donaldson of the demand for 'unconditional surrender' as ungenerous terms. But he found that no terms were needed in surrendering to so generous a foc. Grant was dangerous in fight. but he was kindness itself in victory.
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"When Lincoln's dead face was covered by Stanton, the great war secretary said, 'He belongs to the ages.' So with all the dead whom we commemorate today. Time mitigates sorrow and adds to th glory of events.
"Michael Angelo buried his Cupid so that it might pass for an antique. Now a work of Michael Angelo is as precious as if made by Phidias himself.
"The time of war is now sufficiently remote to be reviewed without prejudice. Who cares now for the assaults of Junius upon Lord Mansfield? Dennis made a burden of the life of Alexander Pope. All we know of him now is that he fretted Pope, and that his name was Dennis.
"Who now heeds the abuse that was heaped upon the head of the mighty and patient Lincoln?
"Rancor is dead with the dead, and malice does not go beyond the four edges of the grave.
"We speak of these men because it is more interesting and profitable to study the example of an illustrious man than an abstract principle.
"When Lord Nelson was signaled to retreat at Copen- hagen he turned the blind eye, that he lost at Calvi, towards the signal and said he was unable to make it out, and justified his disobedience by a great victory.
"The people, young and old, are gracious to the soldiers of every war. Early in the present century a veteran who fought at Stony Point was indicted for some violation of law. Ilis attorney succeeded in getting the fact in evidence that the defendant had distinguished himslf in that battle and made good use of it in his address to the jury. The verdict an- nounced that. 'We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty be- cause he fought at Stony Point.' The court refused to receive the verdict in such a form, and the jury again retired and brought in another verdict of simple acquittal. But as they were about to retire the foreman said to the court. 'Your honor, I am directed to say that it was lucky for the defendant that he fought at Stony Point.' The same spirit has always actuated a free people. When Eschylus was being tried and his life hung in the balance. his brother stepped forward and drew aside the prisoner's cloak and showed the stump of the
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arm that he had lost in the defence of his country. The mun appeal was stronger than any spoken words, and the prisoner went free.
"At this time the period we commemorate seems as re- mote to the new generation as the battle of ancient Greece and Rome. We think of the men who fought in the Revolu- tion and the War of the Rebellion as old. It is hard to realize how young these men were.
"I occasionally go into the museum of the dead letter office at Washington and look over the album of war photo- graphs which were taken from the unclaimed letters of that day. The young features of those soldiers look out from the past as a revelation. The sight of the kind and boyish faces from the school and farm, the shop or the store, and the new ready-made, misfit uniforms in which they were clad carried me back to the days when as a boy I went to the front with comrades such as these. Two brothers sitting side by side in their army clothing sent their picture to their friends, but in vain.
"A young sergeant standing by the side of his little sister is among these lost photographs, and the fresh young face and curls of the girl of thirty-five years ago would make us think that one of our own daughters had sat for the picture, were it not for the fact that she is clad in the fashions of another generation.
"Another young private and a lady who is evidently his wite look out from the dead past in this album in the museum : and for hours you may gaze and find the youthful eyes of the boys of 1861 again looking at you. But we glance in the glass as we pass out and may well say :
" 'Time has stolen a march on me. And made me okl unawares.'
"We may take an invoice of our gains and losses, but our years never decrease.
"When invited by Kinsman and Crocker Posts to address you on this occasion I was about to take a few days' journey through the battle fields of Virginia. These once horrid
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scenes are now as placid as the prairies of our own loved and beautiful lowa, save where the earthworks remain as monu- ments of the past. Peace covers over the field with living green, and seeks to obliterate even the memories of blood.
"In all ages a lion and a mound have been thought to be proper memorial for one of these historical battle fields.
"The Greeks at Cheronea twenty-two hundred years ago marked that fatal scene with a mound over the graves of their dead and surmounted it with a lion, the broken remains of which are there at this day.
"Where Napoleon's old guard died at Waterloo is a gigantic mound two hundred feet high and surmounted by the great Belgian lion, cast from captured cannon.
"When I visited that spot a few years ago the straw of a dove's nest hung from the lips of the lion and peace had taken possession of the very symbol of war. At Cheronca a traveler says he found the honey of a wild bee in the mouth of the brokn statue, as Sampson found the honey in the carcass of a dead lion in days of old.
"We are strong enough to preach and practice the gospel of peace and arbitration. Speed the day when the prophecy of Isaiah may be fulfilled :
" 'The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them.
"'And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
"'And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp ; and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den.
" 'They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy moun- tain ; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.'
"So in the once hostile and bloody fields of Virginia all now is peace, but the scarred bosom of the earth still tells the story of 1861 to 1865.
"Perhaps it would interest the young people as well as the old soldiers to hear some brief description of these well known scenes.
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"The soldier of the west by such a visit will better realize the heroism of his comrades in arms in the castern armies. No one can look over the scene of the conflicts in Virginia without according to our comrades of that army the full mead of praise which brothers should always award to the achieve- ments of each other. As a crow flies it is only 120 miles from Bull Run to Appomattox. Measured in time it was a journey of nearly four years. Measured in blood and tears it was a thousand years.
"The journey was by various and devious routes ; through mud and mire, through sunshine and through storm, through summer heats and winter snows, through dangers by flood and fire, through dangers by stream and wood, through sick- ness and sorrow ; and by the wayside death always stalked grimly and claimed his own.
"Twice did Bull Run witness the defeat of the cause of the National Union. It was indeed a fatal field to the Federal army. When we approached that historic spot from Manassas Junction we met a large number of negro children on the road in holiday attire going to the 'breaking up of school'.
"Had Appomattox not closed what Bull Run so disas- trously began there would have been no school for these col- ored boys and girls. They were the living evidences of the changes that were brought about by the fearful journey which the Union troops traveled before the humiliation of Bull Run was atoned for by 'peace with honor' at Appomattox. The two hundred years of enforced ignorance must now be com- pensated by the privileges of education.
"President Lincoln came into the nation's capital in the night to take the oath of his high office.
"Sumter was the scene of the first encounter, but it was at Bull Run that the greatness of the contest upon which we had entered first was realized.
"The Confederates gave this battle the more cuphonious name of Manassas. It was their victory, and they had a right to name it, but yet in history it will no doubt remain as Bull Run until the end of time.
"In the open field at Henry's farm we were reminded of the struggle that here terminated in defeat to the national
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cause. Here General Bee was killed, and before he fell he pointed to General Jackson's brigade and said: "There stands Jackson like a stone wall," and ever since the brigade was called by the name suggested, and its gallant commander was known as 'Stonewall Jackson.'
"It is not far to Chancellorsville, where two years later this Confederate fell upon the battle field, and as his life ebbed away, murmured, 'Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.' The spot at Chancellorsville is marked with a granite monument, and the Confederate soldier, Cap- tain Taliaferro, who pointed it to me with tears in his eyes. said: 'I loved that man. I was wounded four times while I was under his command. I mourned his death then, but I see it all now. It is all for the best. If he had lived the Union could not have been restored. It is better as it is.' Whilst I do not believe that one man, however great, could have made the success of the rebellion sure, yet it is true, not excepting Lee himself, there was no man whose life was so vital to the rebel cause as that of Stonewall Jackson.
"But to return to Bull Run battle field. Standing where Jackson was wounded, the Henry house is near by. An old lady, Mrs. Henry, was in that house when the first battle be- gan. She was bed-ridden, and eighty-five years of age. No one thought there would be a battle there, but supposed it would be fought near the town of Manassas. But the battle centered at that point, and the peaceful old woman was torn to pieces in her bed by an exploding shell.
"A scene like this brings back again the horrors of war. Men are too apt to remember its glories and heroism and forget its brutality and its misery.
"But a few days before I saw the 'Stonewall Brigade Band' in the procession at the dedication of Grant's Tomb at Riverside, and they proved that the war was really over by marching under the stars and stripes and playing 'Hail. Co- lumbia' and 'Dixie'. Music brings minds into harmony in war or peace.
"It was on the road from Bull Run to Appomattox in 1863, away down at Vicksburg, one of the great way stations on that journey, that on one occasion we had a striking illus-
History of West Virginia
tration of the harmony produced by the concourse of sweet sounds. Jules and Frank Lumbard, of Chicago, visited some friends in the trenches. Slow firing was going on here and there along the lines, and the scream of shell and whistle of minnie ball kept everyone in a state of cager attention. Some of the Lumbards' friends asked them to sing, and their clear voices rang out amid the roar of the guns. As they sang, the firing slackened and nearly ceased, when a Confederate called out from the rifle pits, 'Hello, Yanks, isn't that Jules and Frank Lumbard singing there?' The response was, 'llello, Johnny! It is the Lumbard boys; keep still and you can hear them better." And so the firing ceased and the Lumbards sang songs of love and war, songs that pleased the hearts be- neath both blue and grey, and then they sang 'Home, home, sweet, sweet home,' and many a rough sleeve in either trench wiped away a tear, as the distant homes in the city and farms of the North and the plantations of the South were brought back in loving memory by the cadences of the song we love so well.
"But the music ceased and a shout rang out. 'Hello. Johnny, look out" and an answer, 'Hello. Yank, take care" went back, and the concert was over, and grim war resumed its sway.
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