flag of the Union. He taught us also that we should never forget the
flag under which our fathers fought during the Civil War. With it are
embalmed the tears, the holy memories that cluster thick around our
hearts, and I should be unworthy to stand and talk to you to-night as an
honorable man if I did not hold in deepest reverence that flag that
represented the spirit that actuated our fathers. It stood for the
principles of liberty, and, strange as it may seem, both sides, though
fighting under different banners, fought for the same principles seen
from different sides. It has not interfered with our loyalty to the
Union since that flag was furled.

I do not, however, mean to drift into that line of thought. I do not
think that it is really in place here to-night, but I want you to know
how we feel at the South. Mason and Dixon's Line is laid down on no map
and no longer laid down in the memory of either side. The Mason and
Dixon's Line of to-day is that which circumscribes this great Union,
with all its advantages, all its hopes, and all its aspirations. This is
the Mason and Dixon's Line for us to-day, and as a representative of the
South, I am here to speak to you on that account. We do owe--these two
sections do owe--each other a great deal. But I will tell you what we
owe each other more, perhaps, than anything else. When this country was
settled for us it was with sparsely scattered settlements, ranging along
the Atlantic coast. When the first outside danger threatened it, the two
sections immediately drew together. New England had formed her own
confederation, and at the South the Carolinas and Virginia had a
confederation of their own, though not so compact; but the first thing
formed when danger threatened this country was a committee of safety,
which immediately began correspondence among the several colonies, and
it was the fact that these very colonies stood together in the face of
danger, shoulder to shoulder, and back to back, that enabled us to