educate the generations to come in the true history of their marvelous
struggle for the inalienable rights of every free-born American. How
sublime that struggle! How undaunted their attitude! How unsurpassed
their fortitude amid the upheaval of their colossal ruin! The conquered
banner's tattered folds hang on the wall her standard-bearer lies in the
dust--the sod is green above the heads of her valiant leaders--her rank
and file sleep in many an unknown grave. _We_ are in the cooling
valleys of peace, where refreshing lies, and above us waves the flag of
the old, old Union our people once loved so well. So mote it be. We were
loyal to the powers that were; we are loyal to the powers that be. Good
citizenship is now, as ever, the watchword of the South. We do not
forget our martyrs. Upon our devoted heads rests this sacred duty of
consecration. Let us cling together in a cause so noble. Let us merge
all thought of self in the glorious work that lies before us.

And what of our beautiful, our historic southland about which the halo
of poesy so lovingly lingers? Nature and man have wrought a mighty
restoration. Through the grand old States of Virginia and South
Carolina, whose annals contain names which will ever adorn the pages
of history, down into the prosperous States of Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi, through Louisiana, unrivaled in fertility, on to the vast
expanse of Texas, whose coming wealth and power may not be measured,
there arise prophetic voices from field, forest, mine, and workshop,
fortelling the grand stirring into life of extended commerce,
enterprise, and capital. Her products have increased and multiplied in
kind and in variety, till we hear in the Senate chamber of Congress
an eloquent plea for the protection of her interests in the country's
political economy. We hear from the lips of the Kentucky Senator
a full recognition of our worth, our greatness and alas! the tardy
acknowledgement of our _rights_.