CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL DAY AT "' ~ ,... .. ,.. .. " ~ ~ ...... -.~ .. . " .. -~ ,... --... .. ,.. ,..~ . .. ............ . ..._ ..........; : "',.."' : -....._ ..-... CHARLESTON, S. C. Re·interinent of the Carolina Dead from, Gettysburg. t-:J,'er.. monw.'a I ac,.scc::-1/o-.... · -==-I I { rr ...) 01cY1er:,1r---..J ~. ~._, ·• ADDRESS OF REV. DR. GIRARDEAU, ODES, &c. i>, .. CHARLESTON, S. C.: 'WILLIAM G. MAZYCK, PRINTER, BBOAD S'l'BJ:ET, 1871 •. ··:: ,;'-: ..,; ; '"'"""': llo~· ~ • ~"' ~ e,;, _•-'-.. ,_. oo ,.. ,. ~ . ~ ~ ~EMOR·I=AL:DAY .. ... ,. .. .. .. ~~ • .. I"' ... ~ ... • ~ :....=:--~:: "~~a.T .. ~-... ~":r CHARLESTON, S. C. MAY 10th, 1871. THE Day sacred to the memory of the Confederate Dead wa.S celebrated_ at Charleston, under the auspices of the LADlE~' MEMORIAL AssociATION, in the presence of six thousand per_ sons. The ceremonies were introduced by Lieut. Gen. RICHARD .H. ANDERSON, who .stated that the venerable JonN BACHMAN, D. D., who was present upon the ground, but unable from year~ and infirmity to ascend the platform, had prepared a-Prayer for the occasion, which would be read by the Rev. ELLISON CAPERS. The Rev. Mr. CAPJmS then read the following Prayer, composed by Dr. BACHMAN : PRAYER. 0 ! Thou Great, Good and Merciful God, Thou Father of compassion, and God of all consolation and grace in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Thee we bring our humble tribute of praise and thanksgiving. We are unworthy and sinful: Thou. art ho!y an.d worthy to be exalted forevermore. 0 God, be With us· m this hour, when with sad hearts we exclaim, lover and friend hast Thou put far from us and our acquaintance into darkness. We 4 have gathered to-day around the remains of the beloved and honored dead, who were not alone bound to us by the strong ties of kindred_arid~aJ~:e~:~!pri_,Jmt:; to whom we owe a deep debt · of gratitude; for;' theso_-s!eeping: patriots shed their blood in our defence.· And whilst we place upon their graves memorial garlan4~ jected from our burning homes, to have witnessed the sacking of our cities, and the destruction of our harvests,-:-could all these. have borne any analogy to the loss of these lives ? The questions, therefore, force themselves upon us, Was this sacrifice a useless one? Was this precious blood spilt wholly in vain? There are two senses in which it m~st be admitted that they lost their caiise,-they failed to establish a Confederacy as an independent country, and they failed to preserve the relation of slavery. But there were fundamental principles of government, of social order, of civil and religious liberty, which underlay and pervaded that complex whole which we denominated our Cause. And the question'whether those who fell in its support died in vain, as to those principles, must depend for its answer upon the course which will be pursued by the people of the South. What then shall be the nature of our answer? What the course which we shall adopt ? There is but on·e reply which deserves to be returned to these inquiries -our ·brethren will not have died in vain, if we cherish in our hearts, and, as far as in us lies, practically maintain, the principles for wh:ch they gave their lives: Either these men were rebels against lawful authority, or they wer~> uot. If they were, then the principles upon which they aeterl ought to be abandoned. and the cause for which they contended ought to be consigned to oblivion. Dear as their memory is to us, we would have no warrant in being moved by personal relations to them to perpetuate a grievous wrong. If they were not, then every noble attribute .of our nature, every sacred sentiment of justice. gratitude antl consistency sbould impel us to justify their course, and to perpetuate their princi-· 9 pies. And this is our position. In the face of the world we protest, that so far from having been rebels against legitimate • authority and traitors to their country, they were lovers of liberty, combatants for constitutional rights, and as exemplars of heroic virtue benefactors of their race. This is not mere assertion dictated by sympathy or uttered in the spirit of bravado. It is susceptible of proof. There are three great elements in the social constitution of man, invol'l'i1•g corresponding necessities-the Domestic, the Political and the Religious. Answering to these fundamental features of our nature there are three Divinely ordained institutes, independent of, but related to, each other-the Family, the State, :wd the Church. Taken together they constitute the trinity of human relations. Each of them is indispensable to the well-being, if not the very preservation, of the race. They are the pillars on which rests the stability of society, as well as the prime motorli' in its catholic progress -its organic nisus towards the great end for which it was originally ordained. To injure either of them is to strike a blow at the root of human happiness ; and so intimate is the bond between them, so nice and delicate their action and re-action upon each other, that to impair one of them is to imperil the integrity of them all. Adverse to each and all of these beneficent ordinations, nnd consequ!'ntly antagonistic to the vital interests which they suppose, there is a Spirit abroad in the earth, almost universal in its operation, the measures of which are characterized by a subtlety and unity betokening the shaping influence of one master intelligence-that of the Arch-foe of God and man. Need it be said that this is Radicalism? Conceived in revolt from the sublime and harmonious order i~ which the different elements of our nature were designed to operate, it purposes to upturn the very ground-forms of society. Nothing that is sustained by the experience of the past, nothing that is venerable with age and consecrated bv immemorial associations, nothing that dllscending through the ages has retained, in the midst of change and revol•ttion, the fragrance of our primeval estate, or even of patriarchal dignity and simplicity, nothing just, true and pure, will be allowed to escape the sweep of this deluge. Montalemhert has said, in effect, that there is a force in Europe, set in motion by radical agitators, and penetrating and impelling the sea-like masses, which, if unchecked, is destined erelong to obliterate every existin"' secular and ecclesiastical organization. This ruthless, lm·elli~g Spirit wages war against the Family, 2 10 the State and the Church. Hearth-stones, graves, altars, temples, -all are borne down under its tempestuous irruptions. Nothing is safe from it. There is no sanctuary which it will not invade, no just, holy, time-honoured sanction which it will not violate. Contemning the ordinances of man, it swaggers, in its Titanic audacity, against the empire of the Eternal. A leader of Parisian Socialism is reported recently to have exclaimed, that if he could reach the Almighty he would poniard Him upon his throne ! Breach after breach has it already opened through the barriers which limit and restrain it, and in its onward rush, should laws, constitutions and public .,entiment fail to impede its course, can unly be arrested, aside from immediate Divine intervention, by the iron power of Imperial Ab· solutism. Plunged into the vortex of anarchy by this Genius of Lawlessness, swimming for life in the vast gulf of the miseries induced by it, men will in very despair turn for refuge to Autocratic Despotism. It has been said by a great writer on Government, that there are two cardinal wants of ·societyprotection and liberty ; and that of these the first in order is protection. Existence must he pre-supposed by happine:>s. lh accordance with this principle it is but natural to judge th~ot,. when men have tried the desolating misrule of radical anarchy, they will recoil for protection under the sceptre of Despoti11m. But a selfish desire for safety will not have eradicated the prescriptive habits of democratic license, and the probable resultant of these conflicting forces will be a mechanical union between the Jmperial and the popular element-between Consolidated Despotism and Democratic Absolutism. To this the indications ih Europe and on this Continent seem to point. Extremes will meet on a r,rinciple shared by both-micompromising hostility to regulated goverment and constitutional liberty. Apparently as far apart as the poles they will be united by a common axis, on which the insane attempt will be made to drive the revolutions of the political world. And if an opinion might be ventured, suggested by a probable view of Inspired Prophecy, the. day may not be far distant when this consummation will be reached. The body of non will be attached to feet of claysignificant symbol of a great Imperial Despotism resting on the uncertain masses of a fierce Democracy. When this climax of crime and folly shall have been attained, there will be one of two alternatives before a sickened and despairing world,-on the one hand the experience of a condition of things in which a social, political and religiou~:~ Chaos will reign, in which star 11 after star of hope will be quenched, the constellations of the great lights be blotted from the firmament, and the earth saturated with bloorl shall go down into a seething abyss of destruction ; or, on the other hand, a supernatural interposition of God to rectify the otherwise remediless disorders of the world, and the re·establishment of a theocratic government no longer confining its sway to one favoured people, but assuming the diadem of uni versa! dominion, healing the schisms of the race, collecting the struggling nations into one peaceful flock, and distributing with impartial hand the blessings of equal rule, regulated liberty and wide-spread domestic peace. This somewhat extended portraiture of the spirit of Radicalism will not be deemed out of place. when it is remembered that it powerfully contributed to produce the evils under which we are now suffering. It was against its aggressions, in the particular ftlrms in which they were directed upon the South, that these men whose .memories we honour to-day and their compatriots contended unto death. It was this fell spirit which aiming at the dc;;truction of an institution peculiar to the South, overrode every moral and constitutional obstacle which opposed its progress, drenched a once peaceful land in fraternal blood, and has occasioned that d1sturoed condition of affairs which is now likely to be confined to no section, but threatens to agitate the whole couatry. It began by assuming the existence of a ''higher law," g10wing out of what were denominate•! the instincts ot human nature, which it held to be superior, in the sphere of morals, to Divine Revelation, and, in that of politics, to the provisions of the Federal Constitution. With such a theory irom which to derive its inspirations, it is not to be wondered at that it regarded neither the laws t"f God nor of man which were conceived to lfe in the path to the attainment of its ends. Pushing out this baleful dogma to its legitimate results, it boldly invaded the political ord~or, and the fundamental principles ~of that federative government, which we had inherited from our fathers. Resting not until it had destroyed the attitude of strict neutrality imparted to the Constitution by the wisdom of its framers, it perverted that instru· mont into an organ, and the government into an agent: of a section, trampled under foot the rights of sovereign States, and utterly refused to the people of the South all claim to think and act for themselves. It was a-cas£> demanding resistance from freemen. It was in view of such subversions of their constitutional rights and liberties that the Southern States in their 12 organic capacity, and by the solemn acts of conventions, determined to withdraw from a confederation in which it was plain as day that their hopes of justice and equal consideration were destroyed. This act of sovereignty they were refused the liberty of performing; and no choice was left but unconditionally to submit or to meet force with force. They adopted the alternative of freemen. In the struggle which ensued the Sons of the South feeble in numbers and in the apparatus of war, excluded from the fellowship of 'nations, cut off by a cordon of fire from access to the ports of the world, and overwhelmed by vast hordes representing almost every European nationality, failed to secure the Independence they sought. They lost the power to exercise certain rights and principles. But did they lose these rights and principles themselves? How could they? except in the case of any which, acting in their organic capacity since the close of the war, they may have deliberately relinquished. Lost them? Yes, as a weak man, overpowered by the superior physical strength of another, may be said to lose the right for which he has contended. He loses the exercise of it, until he has the power to recover it. Are the religious principles of the martyr desroyed because he is burnt for them? Does the freeman lose his natural or political rights because tyranny represses their exercise? The very struggle to maintain them, the blood that was shed for them, the lives that were sacrificed in.their defence render their rights and principles all the dearer to men out of whom all love of liberty is not completely crushed. Our principles were defeated, not necessarily lost. It behoflves us to cling to them as drowning men to the fragments of a wreck. They furnish the only hope for our political futurethe only means of escape from anarchy on the one hand, or from despotism on the otlter, which are left to a once free and happy country. · If the death of our brethren shall have the effect of enhancing these principles in our regard it will not have been in vain. These men also contended for the existence and the purity of their social relations, particularly in the domestic form. They fought for their fire-side~:~ as well as for their political rights. The same Radical spirit which disregarded the limitations of the Constitution, contemns the Divinely-instituted barriers which fence in the sanctities of the Family relation. Its triumph bodes for us no good. The danger is imminent of the introduction amongst us of novel social theorits, born on another soil, and coming in as filthy camp-followers of a con 13 I quering host. Their first appearance may excite no alarm. 1'hey 'may. e\'en be derided; but they start tendencies, and ten dencies, especially when seconded by thll depraved instincts of nature. speedily become results if not arrested in their incep~ tion. It becomes UJ with all our might to resist that corrup-· tion of manners which is incompatible with the simplicity of free institutions, and the purity and integrity of moral char acter. The overwhelming affliction through which we have passed, the trials through which we are still passing, and the memory of our dead, should lead us to a corresponding gravity of deportment. Who of us is there who does not sometimes weep over the glorious past? Is there one of us across whose soul there does not sometimes sweep the storm of an irrepres sible grief? We are not yet done burying our dead. We are now standing by the open graves of those who died for liber ty, who died for us. We cannot put off the signals of mourn ing yet. Shall we ever do it, while our liberties are prostra ted? It is to be greatly feared that a temper of levity is growing upon us which ill befits the seriousness, the deep sad ness of our condition. These are homely counsels. Would that they were not suggested by obvious dangers. 0! my coun trymen, if ever we are really, finally conquered, it will be by ourselves. The process ofdissolution will commence from within. The history of the past indicates it to be an almost universal law. The most powerful nations have succumbed under their own deterioration of moral sentiment, and dPgeneracy of man ners. As long as these canses of decay were inoperative no external force or internal agitations availed to destroy them. Look at the English people. While comparative simplicity and purity of manners prevailed, revolution followed revolu tion but the country stood. The fundamental law was perfect P.d by fresh guarantees of freedom; Every conflict enhanced the vigour· of their institutions; every storm settled the roots of the tree of liberty deeper and faster in the soil. It is said by observers that luxuriousness of living has greatly increased among them. If so, the checks and balances of their conservative government will be soon put to the strain; its noble embankments will not long stand againt>t the sea of Radicalism which is beginning to dash in thunder ~ga~nst ~h~m. . . . We must resist the influence of RadiCalism m Its SoCialistiC a11pects as we would oppose the progress of a plague. Soc~al • ism and Communism are developments of the same Radical spirit. They go hand in hand. When the relations of life are 14 subverted the rights which spring from them are destroyed. When the altars of the Family are overthrown it is but a step to tear down the pillars of the State. The stability of political principles and the happiness of the people depend upon the preservation of the social system from the inroads of corruption. To poison this is to poison the fountain. Let us read in the fearful tragedy now enacting in Paris before the horrified ga.ze of the world the bitter end to which we, too, shall inevitably come unless we steadfastly maintain the principles which have been twice consecrated by patriotic blood-that of our ances tors in the first, and that of our brethren and fathers in the second, revolutionary war. We have seen that in the complex constitution of our nature the religious element forms an integral part, and that provision is made for its exercise in the Divinely-appointed institute of the Church. In contending against those influences which threaten to sap the foundations of every venerable institution, our slain brethren fought for their altars, as well as for their fire-side? and their political franchises. This is not an extravagant statement. The spirit of the Christian Religion pervaded the armies of the Confederacy. The vast majority of our soldiers were its nominal adherellts, and thousands of them were professors of its faith. Its influence was felt in almost every regiment. In the quiet of camp, during the march and on tho · eve of battle its sacred services imparted fortitude under hardship and heroic courage for the day ofconflict. From the Commander- in-chief to the humblest private in the ranks a reverent respect was paid to its ministers and its ordinances. We have seen RoBERT LEE, unattended by E:\ven a sergeant, go afoot through the mire to the soldiers' gathering for worship, and sitting in the midst of them devoutly listen with them to the preaching of God's Word, and mingle his prayers and praised with theirs. JACKSON was proverbially a man of prayer. He led his fiery and resistless columns into the tempest of battle with hand uplifted to heaven in token of dependence on God, and supplication for His blessing. It deserves to be mentioned that that great soldier before the breaking out of hos'tilities taught an humble Sabbath-School at Lexington, the pupils of which when his remains were taken there for burial followed them with every mark of affection to their last, quiet resting-place. I desire to record it, amidst the affecting solemnities of this funereal occasion, that during an extended experience as chaplain I never encountered a sick, wounded or dying Southern soldier who re · ' 15 jected the Christian faith, or treated its proffered consolations with con tempt. Let us then accept from them as in some sort mar tyrs for religion as well as for liberty the solemn obligation to maintain the Christianity which sustained them amid the pri vations of a soldier's life and the anguish of a soldier's death. The relation between our people and the Gospel at once confers invaluable benefits and creates imperishable responsibilities. We cannot impair it without doing ourselves irreparable damage. Our civilization-takes its dominant type from Christianity. All its distinctive moral features are derived from it. Ancient Pagan civilizations embodied. the intellectual as well as our own. \Ve can boast of no capacity of thought, no mental culture superior to that which distinguished the land of Homer and Aristotle, or the home of Virgil and Cicero. But the incompleteness and self-destructiveness inherent in a civilization merely intellectual are illustrated in the history of every great power, save one, of ancient times. The stability of a State, and of the institutions which it embraces and which go to make up its organic life, depentis on the degree in which the principle of moral obligation obtains, and the rules of virtue are practiced. But, as has been observed by a splendid writer on American Democracy, there can be no true morality without religion. It is incumbent on us, therefore, as possessing the only perfect religion which the world has known, to appreciate the responsibilities which flow from such an endowment. Apostasy from Christianity .would be suicide. But it may be asked, What special danger is there of such :i.n event growing out of present circumstances ? It may he. said in reply that the danger is two-fold: First, The critical changes through which we have passed expose us to the invasion of theories and the pressure of influences which were excluded by the settled condition of the past. The violence of the revolution in our circumstances can scarcely be exaggerated. Not only has our political'state been so altered as to reverse relations formerly existing, but one element has been torn by force, and torn suddenly, out of the very fabric of our social system. Our domestic life is passing through a most extraordinary transition. We are therefore in a forming condition. Every month is settling precedents for the future. Old institutions, customs and sentiments are break-. ing up as by the upheaval of a deluge; and it i!! a question of the last importance, into what order, what tJ)le of t~oug~t, opinion and practice we shall finally crystallize. It IS while 16 we are passing through this transitional process that the peril · is imminent that ideas, theories and usages may be imbedded ; in the yielding mass which, when it shall have cunsulidated, no . power will avail to extract. Already does this danger threat-· en us in the sphere of religion ; and it becomes us to watch ' against tendencies which carry in them the seeds of defection from a pure religious faith. Secondly, The prostration of our civil, forebodes injury to our religious, liberties. Civil Liberty and Religious Liberty are twin sisters. They stand or fall together. Here, however, a: distinction is necessary. It is freely conceded that the essential liberty of the soul cannot be forced by human power. ' There are two prerogatives with which our Maker has endowed us which no tyranny can affect. They lie beyond the jurisdiction of human courts and the coercion of human executives. They are as free in the dungeon, at the stake and on the gibbet, as in the assemblies of an unconquered people, or in the issues of an unlicensed and unmuzzled press. They are the inalienable, indestructible powers of thought and languagethe faculty by which we form our opinions, and that by which we express them. The body may be manacled in irons, while the mind in its limitless excursions mounts as on wings of· fire above the stars. The tongue, the glory of our corporeal frame, the harp from the strings of which is evoked the spontaneous adoration of God, the trumpet which heralds forth to mankind the noble conceptions of the human intelligence, the tonguethe obedient organ of free though~-cannot be coerced. It may be cut out but cannot be compelled to speak. When, therefore, physical liberty is restrained, these essential, Godlike prerogatives of_ the soul are as untrammelled as ever. But the freedom to express positively our convictions, to embody in outward form our worship of the Deity, to maintain institutions significant of our faith,-this freedom may be crushed by human power. The Church in its external manifestations may be suppressed. In this point of view the difference between civil and religious liberty becomes exceedingly thin. The one may to some extent survive the other, especially if the ruin of that other be not total; but the destruction ofone originates the impulse to the subversion of the other, and supplies the motive to it. What has been done may be done; and wlten civil liberty has in fact been extinguished, _the argument is a short one to the extinction of rdigious. It is the argument of triumphant power. Farther than this, the connection between these two complementary forms of liberty is 17 so close-the fire on the one altar so readilv communicates itself to the smouldering ashes on the other_::_ that it is evident that as long as one is enjoyed, the other cannot be completely quenched. Their principles are akin· and the existence of one necessarily conduces to the maintena~ce of the other. Consequently, that a people should be thoroughly subdued neither can be left intact. Both must be crushed. The people, therefore, which deliberately consents to the destruction of one form of liberty vainly dreams when it hopes that the other may escape. As surely as _the law of contagion operates, so surely will one not long survive the contact with the corpse of the other. To this conclusion, then, must those come who abandon the last ·struggle for civil liberty-they must expect as a legitimate inference the loss of religious. To sum up what has been said: Our brethren will not have died in vain if we their survivors adhere to the great principles for which they contended unto death f if we preserve an attitude of protest against those Radical influences which threaten to sweep away every vestige of constitutional rights and guarantees, to pollute the fountains of !'ociallife, and ultimately to whelm our civil and religious liberties in one common ruin. Can this attitude be maintained? I presume not to speak of special political measures, but would earnestly urge the adoption of a course which will enable us to retain our hold upon our principles, and keep a posture of preparation for any relief which a gracious Providence may .be pleased in answer to our prayers to grant us from the evils which now oppress us : Let us cling to our identity as a people ! The danger is upon us of losing it-of its being absorbed and swallowed up in that of a people which having despoiled us of the rights of freemen assumes to do our thinking, our legislating and our ruling for us. Influences are operating on us with every breath we draw which, if we be not vigilant, will sooner or later wipe out every distinctive characteristic which has hitherto marked us. Are we prepared for it? In that event, not~ing of t~e past will_be , left to the South but a history which will read hke an eleg!ac poem, nothing for the present but a place on th~ maps wh1ch our children study, nothing for the futurH but a smgle element of existence-a geographical one.-B~t can we p_reserve our identity in the face of the difficulties whiCh oppose It ? '\Ve may do it, by continuing to wear the badg~s of mourning befitting a deeply affiicted people; by consent~ng to und~rgo the trials which distinguish us from a people mflated With 3 18 material prosperity rather than abate one jot or tit!le of our adhesion to principle; and by transforming the suffermgs cn~lure1l for freedom's sake into a discipline which may save our virtues from decay, and our liberties from extinction. We may do it, by utterly refusing to participate in any measures, of howe~er great apparent utility, which require the slightest compromJsc of our innermost convictions ; by declining to acquiesce where only to submit is demanded of us ; and by preserving a dignified silence by which we shall signify our resolution, if we may not act for truth, right and liberty, not to act at all. W c rna y do it, by instituting peculiar customs and organizations which will d1schargc the office of monuments perpetuating the past ; by forming associations of a memorial character like that whose