Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 14.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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[221] who were personally strangers to our people—who came only in the name of our former enemies—in the name of the Grand Army of the Republic. Governor Fairchild, of Wisconsin, the commander-in-chief, and Colonel E. B. Gray, the adjutant-general of that great body, came to inquire and report to their comrades if there existed a necessity for additional aid to us in our troubles.

Soon after the fall of Charleston and the surrender at Appomattox a party came down from Washington to raise the Stars and Stripes from Fort Sumter—to declare and announce the restoration of the Union. The proclamation of the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic from Charleston, on the 14th September, 1886, just twenty-one years after, calling on each post in every department at once to appoint a committee to collect such sums as their comrades and fellow citizens in cities, villages and on their farms might desire to contribute to help rebuild our city, ‘the cradle of secession’ though it was, is, I trust, an announcement that the restoration of the Union is at last and indeed complete.

Let us trust, my comrades, that this noble and patriotic action has a deeper significance than even sympathy for a people in distress. ‘In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me,’ said our divine Lord of those who took the stranger in and clothed the naked and went in and ministered unto the sick and needy. And so you, my comrades, will, I am sure, recognize this noble and generous action of our former opponents as rendered unto each and every one of you, and to our whole beloved South as well as to the people of Charleston. Let us indeed hope that we are attaining to that full reconciliation for which, as Colonel Chesney says, our great leader would have sacrificed a hundred lives. Let us trust that the day is approaching when, in his language, ‘the evil passions of the great strife will sleep in oblivion, and North and South do justice to each other's motives and forget each other's wrongs.’

Colonel McCrady was loudly applauded at the close of his address, and cordially congratulated by his old comrades, and a vote of thanks adopted and a copy of the address solicited for publication.

On motion of Dr. J. William Jones, the following was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That we have learned with deepest regret of the damage done to the Confederate Home at Charleston by the earthquake, and