Possibilities of the future.
A friend of his, remarked the speaker, had told him a few days ago that he would so like to live fifty years more, not for the mere pleasure of living, but to see the wonderful progress that
Virginia is bound to make in that time.
The possibilities cannot be imagined.
No man can tell what
Virginia will be fifty years from now.
Norfolk, Newport's News,
Richmond,
Roanoke,
Glasgow,
Buena Vista,
Salem,
Buchanan,
Big-Stone Gap, must become inconceivably great.
Before fifty years have elapsed
Virginia, now the fourteenth State in the
Union in point of wealth and population, will walk a queen among her sisters.
But, concluded the
Governor, no matter what the future has in store, no greater man would ever spring from her loins than the one whom they were then gathered to honor.
Mayor J. Taylor Ellyson responded to the third toast of the evening.
The
City—Through dark and trying years her barriers, guarded by her sons, kept at bay mighty armies.
Now pushing her lines of hospitable homes and her hives of busy industry beyond the circle of dismantled forts, she beckons to skill and culture, to capital and enterprise, from North and South, from East and West, by open highways, to join in the march ‘On to
Richmond.’
In his
role as toast-master, remarked the
Mayor, he always preferred to make others talk rather than to do so himself.
He was a little surprised when asked to reply to a sentiment; but he did so, cheerfully, for he felt it was an honor to represent the city.
[
145]
When the
Confederate soldiers left
Appomattox twenty-five years ago many felt like they would like to leave the
State forever.
They would have done so but for the example of
R. E. Lee, who showed his readiness to identify himself with her future.
The progress of twenty-five years was due to the energy and industry of the
Confederate soldiers, and what had been accomplished by these men was by inspiration gathered from the lips of
Lee.
When he was in New Orleans in December, 1889, he was glad to hear
Mrs. Davis say, when he spoke to her in regard to
Mr. Davis being buried here, that several times during his life the
President had remarked that when he died they would find ‘
Richmond’ engraved on his heart.
And so
Richmond came to pay her tribute of love, respect, and affection to
R. E. Lee, the man who taught that ‘the fittest place to die is where man dies for man.’
The fourth and last regular toast of the evening was replied to by
Commander A. W. Archer, of Lee Camp.
It was:
R. E. Lee Camp. The burden of years and the ravages of time may thin the ranks of the war-worn veterans, yet the fond memories of a glorious past will keep their hearts ever young, and the cheerful glow of their camp-fires shall never cease to illumine the imperishable name inscribed upon their banner.
Colonel Archer devoted himself chiefly to the objects of the Camp and the history of its organization and growth.
The name of
Lee, he declared, is dear to all, and its repetition does not weary.
The principles of Lee Camp, assisting the fallen brother, were exercised at
Appomattox.
He told of how the Camp was organized in a little room by four men, who met to devise ways and means for helping the widows and orphans of dead comrades, and that now in the Soldiers' Home it has the most enduring of monuments.
It is the private soldier, the man who did the fighting, that commands the respect of the country to-day.
If in the future the ex-Confederate discharges his duty as faithfully as in the past, when he crosses over the river and meets the great generals who have gone before he will be greeted as a true and faithful soldier.