MR. CHAIRMAN, MRS. MCLAURIN STEVENS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

I assure you that I am profoundly aware of the solemn significance of
the thing that has now taken place. The Daughters of the Confederacy
have presented a memorial of their dead to the Government of the United
States. I hope that you have noted the history of the conception of this
idea. It was suggested by a President of the United States who had
himself been a distinguished officer in the Union Army. It was
authorized by an act of Congress of the United States. The corner-stone
of the monument was laid by a President of the United States elevated to
his position by the votes of the party which had chiefly prided itself
upon sustaining the war for the Union, and who, while Secretary of War,
had himself given authority to erect it. And, now, it has fallen to my
lot to accept in the name of the great Government, which I am privileged
for the time to represent, this emblem of a reunited people. I am not so
much happy as proud to participate in this capacity on such an
occasion,--proud that I should represent such a people. Am I mistaken,
ladies and gentlemen, in supposing that nothing of this sort could have
occurred in anything but a democracy? The people of a democracy are not
related to their rulers as subjects are related to a government. They
are themselves the sovereign authority, and as they are neighbors of
each other, quickened by the same influences and moved by the same
motives, they can understand each other. They are shot through with some
of the deepest and profoundest instincts of human sympathy. They choose
their governments; they select their rulers; they live their own life,
and they will not have that life disturbed and discolored by fraternal
misunderstandings. I know that a reuniting of spirits like this can take
place more quickly in our time than in any other because men are now