In
Portsmouth the military companies joined the
Stonewall Camp and the Independent Fire Company and paraded, after which the column marched to Oxford Hall, and
the Rev. Dr. William E. Edwards delivered a scholarly and eloquent oration.
He spoke of the importance attached to the great events in history, the sites upon which the great events had been enacted, and most especially the interest which attached to the great men of history, and among these the conspicuous figure of
Robert E. Lee. ‘He was born,’ the speaker said, “at the close of a remarkable century, and in the midst of stirring and memorable events.”
The past one hundred years had been a scene of revolution in almost every department of thought.
The path was being blazed for the more rapid advance of the car of civilization.
Science, dissatisfied with the meagreness of her attainments, pushed out her investigations into new fields of inquiry.