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The Commoner
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8
u JUNE, 1914
Ul
istence of the former we should be disposed to
doubt the sincerity or steadfastness of the latter.
In the perspective of the receding years, the
war looms in increasing proportions along the
national horizon. Its great and beneficent re
sults now everywhere recognized are gradually
settling into the abiding convictions of all in
telligent men. For full eighty years the system
of government founded by our fathers was re
garded by many as an experiment. Doubting
patriots at home and unfriendly critics abroad
foretold the coming certain dissolution of the
union. With much show of reason they de
clared our government rested upon an insecure
foundation. The recognized fundamental weak
ness was a constant menace to the permanency
of the superstructure. Prior to the war, the ex
istence of this weakness had with portentous
threatenings repeatedly manifested itself both
in the north and the south. In the light of the
past the war for the preservation of the union
and for the settlement by the arbitrament of
arms of the great constitutional question in
volved seemed inevitable. In that stupendous
conflict neither side will ever have to apologize
for the sincerity or the devotion ol its ad
herents. When the battle clouds lifted and the light of
peace shone in; when the people had again be
come settled in their wonted avocations and
dispassionately surveyed the results, it was
found that the menace which had so long dis
turbed the tranquility of the people and threat
ened the existence of the union had been for
ever removed. It was found that the funda
mental issues involved had been irrevocably
settled and that the foundation stones upon
which the republic rested had been cemented
anew by the shed blood of our countrymen from
the north and from the south. Now, we are
indeed "an indissoluble union of indestructible
states." We are in very truth, "a government
o the people, by the people, and for the peo
ple," resting on an enduring foundation. As
the fast vanishing lines of the surviving federal
and confederate soldiers marching side by side
in peace and amity enter the twilight in the
fading afterglow of life's long day, soon to be
forever -lost to mortal sight, of one thing we
may rest assured, and that is, that whenever
and wherever in future the battle line is drawn,
there will be found the sons of these heroic
fathers and of their scarcely less heroic mothers,
standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder, in
defense of the union and for the perpetuity of
the government founded by our fathers.
The contemplation of a glorious past stirs the
blood in an hour like this, while the thought of
a limitless future with all its possibilities, its
hopes and fears, beckons our countrymen to the
discharge of every duty and fidelity to every
trust in peace even as the fathers were vigilant
and faithful in war.
MRS. STEVENS ADDRESS
Following is the address of Mrs. Daisy Mc
Laurin Stevens, delivered at unveiling of "con
federate monument at Arlington the afternoon
of Juno 4th.
Behold its glorious beauty, one moment. mov
ing us to ecstasies of delight, and again touched
by its soulful pathos wringing from our eyes
tears for the anguish that has been! As president-general
United Daughters of the Con
federacy I would that I could find words to ex
press for our organization the deep gratitude we
feel to the Arlington Confederate Monument as
sociation of the United Daughters of the Con
federacy for the untiring efforts in harmonious
love to give for ud to the nation this exquisitely
magnificent monument, wrought by our own,
the south's greatest sculptor, Sir Moses Ezekiel.
Colonel Herbert, in receiving this monument
from your hands I am not unmindful of the
labor of love that has been yours, and must
needs breathe a prayer to the great God that
the sunset rays of the evening of life have
lengthened out your blessed days that you may
praise with us.
Hail! Hail! Hail, auspicious day!- -
Yon lofty column, reared in air,
To him who made our country great,
Can almost cast its shadow where
' Tho victims of a grand despair,
In long, long ranks of death await
The last loud trump, tho Judgment-Sun,
"Which comes for all, andoon or late,
Will come for those at Arlington.
Today marks the completion of our .seven
years of patriotic toil. Ours is the rapture born
of duty done, of hope deferred but at last ful
filled. Wo present today this monument in
memory of our confederate dead, though they
need no pyramid to lift them to tho ages.
Though nearly half a' hundred years have passed
since they gave their souls back to tho God of
Battles, they are as alive in our hearts and
memories as when first with glad faces they
marchod forth to tho wild sweet music of war
beneath tho stars and bars.
They sleep within the shadow of tho homo of
Leo and in sight of the dome of the capitol of
their fathers and thoir sons. Above floats tho
flag they fought, but it does not wave above thoir
dust in jeering triumph, but in loving protec
tion. It seems to send from each stripe and star
benediction upon their graves.
We have erected to their memory a monu
ment unsurpassed in beauty in all tho world.
But fair and noble as its'beauty, that beauty is
less fair and noble than the lives and deeds of
those whose memory it proclaims and commem
orates. Staunch and strong as its enduring
bronze were their undaunted hearts. Lasting
as its material, matched with their memory, it
is as fading mists of morn jon mountain top.
In this universe of chanco and change, in
this world of birth and death, nothing material
is immortal. Mountains sink to level lands, and
stars grow cold and die. Great ideas and
righteous ideals are alone immortal. The eternal
years of God are theirs. The ideas our heroes
cherished were and are beneficial as they are
everlasting. .-.These were living then, they are
living todays anil. shall live tomorrow and work
the betterment of mankind. Thus our heroes
are of those who, though dead, still toil for man,
through the arms and brains of thoso their ex
amples hve inspired and quickened to nobler
things.
. Across- the river stands the congressional
library, domed with gold. Leading American
artists were commissioned to decorate its marble
walls. Their pictures were not only to charm
the eye with the lure of color and the grace of
form, but were also to purify the soul and touch
the heart by the ideals they symbolized and por
trayed. None of these frescos attract more than
Alexander's curtain series illustrating the evo
lution of the book. In the first picture of the
series we see half-clad semi-savage men build
ing with rough unhewn stones a monument to
some dead sea-king's life and deeds. From tho
dawn of time, until the present, men and women
have built memorials to those they esteemed
great, to those whose memories they hoped to
perpetuate.
Dull and hectic reds proclaim upon the pyra
mids the triumph of' long fbrgotten kings, but
bleeding prisoners walk between the chariot
wheels. At Rome the Trojan column strives to
lift unto the stars that buried Caesar's name,
but around its haggard shaft great trains of
captives wind in sculptured grief, and wring
from gazing eyes' the sympathetic tear. In Paris
in their marble mausoleum at last tho ashes of
the great Napoleon are at rest, in a sarcophagus
"fit for a dead deity" but the torn and blood
stained banners waving there show that his
towering throne- was built upon the bleeding
hearts of .men.
Such monuments mock and sadden each
thoughtful heart. They hold aloft ideals of
force and fraud. They show how in a pitiless
mistaken past success could gild a crime. They
teach that great talent even selfishly usea could
evoke men's applause, and shut the "gates of
mercy on mankind."
But not all monuments are like these. Some
are like tho monument the Daughters of the
Confederacy dedicate today. They show the
future how noble the past has been, and place it
under bond to prove of equal worth.
More than two thousand years ago Aeschines
standing In the Agora of Athens warned the
citizens that they would be judged by the men
they honored. Seven decades since Wendell
Phillips, standing in Boston, said, "The honors
we grant mark how we stand."
We of the south accept the test. We are
willing to be judged by the honors we accord
today. All government before America's birth
rested on the principle that the masses of men
were unfit to govern themselves. All past gov
ernment had gone upon the idea that certain
men were by divine rights another's lord. Our
fathers believed that the aim of government
was not the upholding of the throne of certain
kinds, not the carrying of banners to uncon
quered lands, but that the sole, legitimate aim
was tho promotion of tho welfare of its citizens.
They boliovod thoro was no treason except dls
obedlonce to duty, no disloyalty except dis
loyalty to noble Ideals and institutions nobly
won.
They had soen these American ideals of self
government and freedom of thought not only
at home, but they had soen them leap tho sea
and topple down tho throne of bourbon kings, in
Franco, and whore tho bastile loomed they be
hold a shaft with freedom's statue crowned.
They saw theso ideas shake tho stolid English
man from his lethargy, and kings and parlia
ment grant an over widening right of suffrage
with evor rosultailt good. They saw these ideals
light again In Groclan hearts tho fires that
burned so brightly at Thormopalao and Salamis,
and beheld the opening of tho conflict that yot
shall cast tho Turk across the Syrian sea and
place tho cross of Constantino on Stamboul's
towers.
They saw theso Ideas working In tho indus
trial world a change yet more marvelous. They
saw the human mind unchained at last from re
straining fetters, display Itself In a thousand ma
terial conquests. They saw all things that min
istered to the comforts and luxuries of tho com
mon, greater advances made during the sovonty
years following tho proclamation of tho declara
tion of Independence than had been achieved In
all tho thousand years of the past. Freedom
of thought, freedom of expression provod, as
Jefferson predicted, a magic key that opened a
thousand doors, where for centuries hidden
treasures had lain untouched and unknown.
Rights so valuable they would not lose. Such
rights they felt should bo prlzod by all and made
everlasting. Strange as It may seem, tho groat
mass of soldiers in both armies of the war be
tween tho states fought for the same Ideals.
Thus our war presents tho unique spectacle of
men fighting In opposite ranks for Ideals with
like courage and persistence.
As they fought for the same Ideals, as they
each displayed courage, as they won immortality
of fame, is it not well that their dust Is laid side
by sldo under tho same flag? Is it not also well,
that today their sons and their grandsons aro
wearing tho same uniform, and not only in
America but in' the distant islands of tho sea aro
fighting for their fathers' form of government
and their Ideals? Is It not also well that tho
representatives of tho survivors of both armies
aro with us here today? Is it not also well that
there comes from the White House a president,
southern by birth and breeding and northern by
choice of residence and training?
It would be both useless and Impertinent for
mo to try to pralso or Vippralso our southern
dead. Useless, because the world has done and
will do that. Soldiers have laid laurels on their
biers. Divines have quickened listening multi
tudes to nobler things by tho recital of their
deeds. Poets have embalmed their memory in
tho honey of immortal verse. It would bo im
pertinent, because only lips inspired of God
could tell how southern hearts feel unto their
southern dead.
And now, Mr. President, I surrender thic
monument Into your keeping, and through you
to that of the nation. When Jefferson was con
templating the Louisiana purchase did he think
of the material greatness It would add to tho re
public? Did he think of its mountains breasted
with marble and veined with gold? Did he
think of the living gold of wheat and corn that
would flash on its bosom, capable of supporting
an army that could dwarf to nothingness a
dream of Caesar's or Napoleon's? Not so! Ho
said he desired this territory In order that it
might become tho homo of happy men and wom
en living under American institutions. Yours,
Mr. President, was Jefferson's spirit when at
Mobile you said tho United Statei had no inter
est in Mexico or any other foreign Jands except
to see that the citizens enjoyed the right to the
pursuit of happiness under a constitutional and
just government. As long as the government
shall rest in your hands and hands like yours,
we feel sure American Institutions will not pasB
from the earth, and that this monument will be
not only a memorial of the past, but a symbol of
tho present and tho future.
In after years when American boys and girls
shall look with reverence upon this bronze they
shall thank God that they are Americans and
shall resolve, that whether our flag shall float
from polo to pole, whether our drum beat circles
the sea at least American ideals shall shape the
future and the empire of civic world be ours.
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