Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 18.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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The cause will live.

It did not perish utterly at Appomattox. It did not die with Lee. It will survive the passions of the hour and live when sneering hypocrites and brazen demagogues with their force bills and their unholy schemes of public plunder and private gain shall only be remembered to arouse the scorn and execration of all patriotic men. It cannot die, for it is the cause of liberty itself, and

Freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft is ever won.

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The land we celebrate to-night—the land of brave and honest men, of maids and mothers virtuous and true, of statesmen, sages, and heroes—the land whose whole history is marked by great deeds and redolent of glorious memories—the land of Washington and his great compatriots—the land in whose battle—scarred bosom sleep Lee and his great Lieutenants, Stuart, Hill, and Jackson, with the unnumbered thousands of those gallant men who followed them with hearts as brave—that is the land we celebrate to—night.

The day, the man, the cause, the land, we meet to honor are all forever linked with the history, the wonderful rise and the untimely fall of that Confederacy of States which in four short years—for years are as nothing in the lifetime of nations—earned for itself an immortality of glory, and then gave place to a Union which from our hearts we pray may endure forever—‘an indestructible Union of indestructible States’ founded on mutual confidence, mutual respect, and the eternal principles of truth, justice, and right.

Ah! realm of tombs—but let her bear
     This blazon to the last of time:
No nation rose so white and fair
     Or fell so free of crime.

An angel's tongue, an angel's mouth,
     Not Homer's, could alone for me
Hymn well the great Confederate South—
     Virginia first and Lee.