INAUGDRAIION OF THE ICKSOM SIATOE. 
 
 E 
 
 ■ I 
 
 JiqV 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS 
 
 GOVERNOR KEMPER 
 
 " li A. T TON" 
 
 REV. MOSES D. HOGE, D. D. 
 
 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1875. 
 
 RiriTTMOXD: 
 
 K. F. WALKEI?, STTPT. PUBLIC FEINTING. 
 
 1875. 
 
Glass ^ ^^7 
 
 Book — J^sVG 
 
<'WV\A./C< 
 
 NADGDRillON OF THE JACKSOi STATU 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS 
 
 OP /I 
 
 GOVERNOR KEMPER 
 
 O R ^ T I O IS" 
 
 REV. MOSES D. HOGE, D. D., 
 
 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 187B. 
 
 RICHMOND: 
 
 R. F. WALKER, SUPT. PUBLIC PRINTING 
 
 •1875. 
 

 H V 3 f 2 
 
 PRINTED BY JAMBS E GOODE 
 
GOV. KEMPER'S ADDRESS. 
 
 My Countrymen: 
 
 The oldest of the states has called together this great con- 
 course of her sons and her daughters, with honored representatives of both the 
 late contending sections of our common country. On this daj^, abounding with 
 stern memories of the past and great auguries of the future, I come to greet 
 you ; and, in the name and by authority of Virginia, I bid you all and each 
 welcome, a heart-warm welcome, to her capital. 
 
 With a mother's tears and love, with ceremonies to be chronicled in her 
 archives and transmitted to the latest posterity, the commonwealth this day 
 emblazons the virtues, and consecrates in enduring bronze the image, of her 
 mighty dead. Not for herself alone, but for the sister states whose sons he'^ 
 led in war, Virginia accepts, and she will proudly preserve, the sacred trust S 
 now consigned to her perpetual custody. Not for the southern people only, (^ 
 but for every citizen of whatever section of the American republic, this tribute 
 to illustrious virtue and genius is transmitted to the coming ages, to be cherished 
 as it will be with national pride as one of the noblest memorials of a common 
 heritage of glory. Nay, in every country and for all mankind, Stonewall 
 Jackson's career of unconscious heroism will go down as an inspiration, teach- 
 ing the power of courage and conscience and faith directed to the glory of Clod. 
 
 As this tribute has sprung from the admiration and sympathy of kindi'ed 
 hearts in another continent; as the eyes of Christendom have been turned to 
 behold the achievements of the man; so will the heroic life here enshrined 
 radiate back, to the remotest bounds of the world, the lessons its example has 
 taught. 
 
 It speaks to our fellow-citizens of the north, and, reviving no animosities of 
 the bloody past, it commands their respect for the valor, the manhood, the 
 integrity and honor of the people of whom this christian warrior was a repre- 
 sentative type and champion. 
 
 It speaks to our stricken brethren of the south, bringing back ins sublime 
 simplicity and faith, ins knightly and incorruptible fidelity to each engagement 
 of duty; and it stands an enduring admonition and guarantee that sooner shall 
 the sun reverse its course in the heavens than ins comrades and ins compatriot 
 people shall prove recreant to the parole and contract of honor which binds 
 them, in the fealty of freemen, to the constitution and union of the states. 
 
 It speaks with equal voice to every portion of the reunited common country, 
 warning all that impartial ju^itice and impartial right, to the north and to the 
 
4 INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 south, are the only pillars on which the avch of the federal union can securely 
 rest. 
 
 It represents that unbought spirit of honor which prefers death to degrada- 
 tion, and more feels a stain than a wound ; which is the stern nurse of freemen, 
 the avenging genius of liberty, and which teaches and proclaims that the free 
 consent of the governed is at once the strength and the glory of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It stands forth a mute protest before the world against that rule of tyrants 
 which, wanting faith in the instincts of honor, would distrust and degrade a 
 brave and proud but unfortunate people, which would bid them repent, in 
 order to be forgiven, of such deeds and achievements as heroes rejoice to per- 
 form, a<nd such as the admiration of mankind in every age has covered with 
 glory. 
 
 Let the spirit and design, with which we erect this memorial to-day, ad- 
 monish our whole country that the actual reconciliation of the states must 
 come, and, so far as honorably in us lies, shall come; but that its work will never I 
 be complete until the equal honor and equal liberties of each section shall be 
 acknowledged, vindicated, and maintained by both. We have buried the i 
 strifes and passions of the past; we now periDctuate impartial honor to whom \ 
 honor is due, and, stooping to resent no criticism, we stand with composui-e \ 
 and trust ready to greet every token of just and constitutional pacification. 
 
 Then let this statue endure, attesting to the world for us and our children, 
 honor, homage, reverence for the heroism of our past, and at the same time 
 the knightliest fidelity to our obligations of the present and the future. 
 
 Let it endure as a symbol of the respect which both the sections will accord 
 to the illustrious dead of each, signifying, not that either will ever be prepared 
 to apologize to the other, but that, while calmly differing as to the past, neither 
 will defile its record, each will assert its manhood, its rectitude and its honor, 
 and both will equally and jointly strive to consolidate the liberty and the 
 peace, the strength and the glory, of a common and indissoluble country. 
 
 Let it endure as a perpetual expression of that world-wide sympathy with 
 true greatness which prompted so noble a gift from Great Britain to Virginia; 
 and let its preservation attest the gratitude of the commonwealth to those 
 great-hearted gentlemen of England who originated and jorocured it as a tribute 
 to the memory of her son. 
 
 Let this statue stand, with its mute eloquence to inspire our children with 
 patriotic fervor, and to maintain the prolific power of the commonwealth in 
 bringing forth men as of old. Let Virginia, beholding her past in the light of 
 this event, take heart and rejoice in her future. Mother of states and sages 
 and heroes! bowed in sorrow, with bosom bruised and wounded, with garments 
 rent and rolled in blood, arise and dash away all tears! No stain dims your 
 glittering escutcheon ! Let your brow be lifted up with the glad consciousness 
 of unbroken pride and unsullied honor ! Demand and resume complete pos- ^ 
 session of your ancient place in the sisterhood of states; and go forward to the 
 great destiny which, in virtue of the older and the later days, belongs to the 
 co-sovereign commonwealth of Virginia. 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 5 
 
 It is in no spirit of mourning, it is with the ?tern joy and pride befitting 
 this day of heroic memories, that I inaugurate these ceremonies in the name of 
 the iDeojile. 
 
 The eulogist of tlie dead, the orator of tlie day, now chiiius your attention. 
 He needs no encomium from me. 1 present him, the companion and friend of 
 Jackson, the reverend man of God — Moses D. IIoge. 
 
ORATION BY REV. MOSES D. HOGE, D. D. 
 
 Were I permitted at tliis moment to consult my own wishes, I would bid the 
 thunder of the cannon and the acclamations of the people announce the un- 
 veiling of the statue ; and then, when with hearts beating with commingled 
 emotions of love and grief and admiration, we had contemplated this last and 
 noblest creation of the genius of the great sculptor, the ceremonies of this 
 august hour should end. 
 
 In attempting to commence my oration, I am forcibly reminded of the falter- 
 ing words with which Bossuet began his splendid eulogy on the Prince of 
 Conde. Said he: "At the moment I open my lips to celebrate the immortal 
 glory of the Prince of Conde I find myself equally overwhelmed by the great- 
 ness of the theme and the needlessness of the task. What part of the habi- 
 table world has not heard of his victories, and the wonders of his life ? Every- 
 where they are rehearsed. His own countrymen in extolling them can give no 
 information even to the stranger. And although I may remind you of them, 
 yet everything I could say would be anticipated by your thoughts, and I should 
 suffer the reproach of falling far below them." 
 
 How true is all this to-day ! Not only is every important event in the life of 
 our illustrious chieftain familiar to you all, but what lesson to be derived from 
 his example has not already been impressively enforced by those whose genius, 
 patriotism, and piety have qualified them to speak in terms worthy of their 
 noble theme? And now that the statesman and soldier, who well represents 
 the honor of Virginia, as its chief magistrate, has given his warm and earnest 
 welcome to our distinguished guests from other States, and from other lands, 
 who honor this occasion by their presence, I would not venture to proceed 
 had not the Commonwealth laid on me its command to utter some words of 
 greeting to my fellow-countrymen who this day do honor to themselves in ren- 
 dering homage to the memory of Virginia's illustrious son. 
 
 I cannot repress an emotion of awe as I vainly attempt to overlook the 
 mighty throng, extending as it does beyond the limits of these Capitol grounds, 
 and covering spaces which cannot even be reached by the eye of the speaker. 
 More impressive is this assemblage of citizens and representatives from all parts 
 of our own and of foreign lands, than ever gathered on the banks of the ancient 
 Alpheus at one of the solemnities which united the men of all of the Grecian 
 States and attracted strangers from the most distant countries. There was indeed 
 one pleasing feature in the old Hellenic festivals. The entire territory around 
 Olympia was consecrated to peace during their celebration, and there even 
 enemies might meet as friends and brothers, and in harmony rejoice in their 
 
8 INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 ancestral glories and national renown. It is so with us to-day. But how defi- 
 cient in moral interest was the old Olympiad, and how wanting in one feature 
 which gives grace to our solemnity. No citizen, no stranger, however honored, 
 was permitted to bring with him either mother, wife, or daughter, but here to- 
 day how many of the noble women of the land, of whom the fabled Alcestis, 
 Antigone, and Iphigenia were but the imperfect types, lend the charm of their 
 presence to the scene — Christian women of a nobler civilization than Pagan an- 
 tiquity ever knew. 
 
 AVe have come from the sea-shore, the mountains, and the valleys of our 
 south-land not only to inaugurate a statue, but a new era in our history. Here 
 on this Capitoline Hill, on this 26th day of October, 1875, and in the one hun- 
 dredth year of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in sight of that historic river 
 that more than two centuries and a half ago bore on its bosom the bark freighted 
 with tlie civilization of the North American Continent, on whose banks Powha- 
 tan wielded his sceptre and Pocahontas launched her skiff, under the shadow 
 of that Capitol whose foundations were laid before the present Federal Consti- 
 tution was framed, and from which the edicts of Virginia went forth over her 
 realm that stretched from the Atlantic to the Mississippi — edicts framed by 
 some of the patriots whose manly forms on yonder monument still gather 
 around him whose name is the purest in human history— we have met to in- 
 augurate a new Pantheon to the glory of our common mother. 
 
 In the story of the empires of the earth some crisis often occurs wliich 
 •develops the genius of the era, and impresses an imperishable stamp on the 
 •character of a whole people. 
 
 Such a crisis was the Revolution of 1770, when thirteen thinly-settled and 
 >videly-separated colonies dared to offer the gage of battle to the greatest mili- 
 tary and naval power on the globe. 
 
 The story of that struggle is the most familiar in American annals. After 
 innumerable reverses, and incredible sufferings and sacrifices, our fathers came 
 forth from tlie ordeal victorious. And though during the progress of the strife, 
 before calm reflection had quieted the violence of inflamed passion, they were 
 branded by opprobrious names and their revolt denounced as rebellion and 
 treason, the justice of their cause, and the wisdom, the valor and the deter- 
 mination with which they vindicated it, were quickly recognized and generously 
 acknowledged by the bravest and purest of British soldiers and statesmen ; so 
 that now, when we seek the noblest eulogies of the founders of American re- 
 i:)ublicanism, we find them in the writings of the essayists and historians of the 
 mother country. We honor ourselves, and do homage to virtue, when we 
 hallow the names of those who in the council and in the field achieved such 
 victories! "VVe bequeath an influence which will bless coming generations, 
 ■when with the In-ush and the chisel we perpetuate the images of our fathers 
 and the founders of the state! Already has the noble office been begun. Here 
 on this hill the forms of Washington, and Henry, and Lewis, and Mason, and 
 Nelson, and Jefferson, and Marshall, arrest our eyes and make their silent but 
 salutary and stirring appeals to our hearts. Nor are these all who merit eternal 
 commemoration. As I look on that monument, I miss James Madison, and others 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. \) 
 
 of venerable and illustrious name. Let us not cease our patriotic work, until 
 we have reared a Pantheon worthy of tiie undying glory of the past! 
 
 But this day we inaugurate a new era. We lay the corner-stone of a new 
 Pantheon in commemoration of our country's fame. We come to honor the 
 memory of one who was the impersonation of our Confederate cause, and wliose 
 genius illumined the great contest which has recently ended, ancl which made 
 an epoch not only in our own history, but in that of the age. 
 
 We assert no monopoly in the glory of that leader. It was his happy lot to 
 command, even while he lived, the respect and admiration of right-minded 
 and right-hearted men in every part of this land, and in all lands. It is now 
 his rare distinction to receive the homage of those wlio most differed with him 
 on the questions which lately rent this republic in twain from ocean to ocean. 
 Fi'om the Nortli, and from the South, from the E ist, and from the West, men 
 have gathered on these grounds to-day, widely divergent in their views on 
 social, political, and religious topics, and yet they find in the attraction wiiich 
 concentrates their regard upon one name, a place where their hearts unex- 
 Ijectedly touch each other and beat in strange unison. 
 
 It was this attractive moral excellence which, winning the love and admira- 
 tion of the brave and pure on the other side of the sea, prompted them to 
 enlist the genius of one of the greatest of modern sculptors in fashioning the 
 statue we have met to inaugurate this day. 
 
 It is a singular and striking illustration of the world-wide appreciation of 
 his character, that the first statue of Jackson comes from abroad, and that while 
 the monument to our own Washington, and the effigies of those who surround 
 him, were erected by order of the commonwealth, this memorial is the tribute 
 of the admiration and love of those who never saw his face and who were bound 
 to him by no ties save those which a common sympathy for exalted worth es- 
 tablishes between the souls of magnanimous and heroic men. We accept this 
 noble gift all the more gratefully because it comes from men of kindred 
 race and kindred heart, as the expression of their good-will and sympathy for 
 our people as well as of their admiration for the genius and character of our 
 illustrious hero. 
 
 We accept it as the visible symbol of the ancient friendship which existed in 
 colonial times between Virginia and the mother country. We accept it as a 
 prophecy of the incoming of British settlers to our sparsely populated territory, 
 and hail it as a pleasing omen for the future that tiie rebuilding of our shat- 
 tered fortunes should be aided by the descendants of the men who laid the 
 foundations of this commonwealth. We accept it as a pledge of the i)eaceful 
 relations which we trust will ever exist between Great Britain and the con- 
 federated empire formed by the United States of America. 
 
 In the first memorial discourse that was delivered after his lamented death, 
 the question was asked, "How did it happen that a man who so recently was 
 known to but a small circle, and to them only as a laborious, punctilious, hum- 
 ble-minded Professor in a Military Institute in so brief a space of time, gathered 
 around his name so much of the glory which encircles the name of Napoleon, 
 and so much of the love that enshrines the memory of Washington?" And 
 
10 INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 soon after, in the memoir which will go down to coming generations as the 
 most faithful portraiture of its subject, and an enduring monument of the genius 
 of its author, the inquiry was resumed, "How is it that this man of all others 
 least accustomed to exercise his own fancy or address that of others, has stim- 
 ulated the imagination not only of his own countrymen, but that of the civil- 
 ized world? How has he, the most unroinantic of great men, become the 
 hero of a living romance, the ideal of an inflamed fancy, even before his life 
 has been invested with the mystery of distance? "' From that day to this, these 
 inquiries have been propounded in every variety of form, and with an ever in- 
 creasing interest. 
 
 To answer these questions will be one object of this discourse; and yet the 
 public will not expect me in so doing, to furnish a new delineation of the life 
 of Jackson, or a rehearsal of the story of his campaigns. Time does not per- 
 mit this, neither does the occasion demand it. By a brief series of ascending 
 propositions, do I seek to furnish the solution. I find an explanation of the 
 regard in which the memory of Jackson is cherished — 
 
 1st. In the fact that he was the incarnation of those heroic qualities which 
 fit their possessor to lead and command men, and which therefore always at- 
 tract the admiration, kindle the imagination, and arouse the enthusiasm of the 
 people. 
 
 There is a natural element in humanity which constrains it to honor that 
 which is strong, and adventurous, and indomitable. Decision, fortitude, inflex- 
 ibility, intrepidity, determination, when consecrated to noble ends, and especially 
 when associated with a gentleness which throws a softened charm over these 
 sterner attributes, ever win, and lead captive the popular heart. 
 
 The masses who compose the commonalty, consciously weak and irresolute, 
 instinctively gather around the men of loftier stature in whom they find the 
 great forces wanting in themselves, and spontaneously follow tlie call of those 
 whom they think competent to redress their wrongs and vindicate their rights. 
 
 These are the leaders who are welcomed by the people with open arms, and 
 elevated to the high places of the earth, to become the regents of society — to 
 develop the history of the age in which they live, and to impress upon it the 
 noble image of their own personality. 
 
 As discoverers love to trace great rivers to their sources, so in our studies of 
 the characters of those who have filled large spaces in the public eye, it inter- 
 ests us to go backward in search of the rudimentary germs which afterwards 
 developed into the great qualities which commanded the admiration of the 
 world. 
 
 Never was the adage, "the child is the father of the man," more strikingly 
 illustrated than in the early history of the orphan boy whose name subsequently 
 became a tower of strength to the armies he commanded, and to the eleven 
 sovereign states banded and battling together for a separate national life. 
 
 There is no more graphic i^icture on the pages of Macaulay than that of 
 Warren Hastings, at the age of seven, lying on the bank of a rivulet which 
 flowed through the broad lands which were once the property of his ancestors, 
 and there forming the resolve that all that domain should one day be his, and 
 never abandoning his purpose through all the vicissitudes of his stormy life, 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 11 
 
 until, as the "Hastings of Daylesford," lie tasted a joy which his heart never 
 knew in the command of the millions over whom he ruled in the Indian empire. 
 
 But stranger still was it to see a pensive, delicate orphan child of the same. age,, 
 the inheritor of a feeble constitution, yet with a will even more indomitable than 
 that of Warren Hastings, renouncing his home with a relative, who, mistaking 
 his disi^osition, had attempted to govern him by force, and alone and on foot 
 performing a journey of eighteen miles to the house of another kinsman, where 
 he suddenly presented himself, announcing his unalterable resolve never to 
 return to his former home — a decision which no remonstrances or persuasions 
 could induce him to revoke; and stranger still to see him, the year after, on a 
 lonely island of the Mississippi river, in company with another child a few 
 years his senior, maintaining himself by his own labor, until driven by malaria 
 from the desolate spot where beneath the dreary forests and beside the angry 
 floods of the father of waters he had displayed the self-reliance and hardiiiood 
 of a man, at a period of life when children are ordinarily scarcely out of the 
 nursery. This inflexibility of purpose and defiance of hardship and danger in 
 the determination to succeed, was displayed in all his subsequent career — 
 whether we see him at West Point, overcoming the disadvantages of a deficient 
 preliminary education by a severity of application almost unparalleled, in ac- 
 cordance with the motto he inscribed in bold characters on a page in his com- 
 mon-place book, " You may be whatever you resolve to be" — or whether we 
 follow him through the Mexican campaign, winning his first laurels at Cheru- 
 busco, and at Chepultapec, where he received his second promotion — or whether 
 we accompany him to his quiet retreat in Lexington, where, after the termina- 
 tion of the Mexican war, he filled the post of Professor in the Military Insti- 
 tute, and there affording a new exhibition of his determination in overcoming 
 obstacles more formidable than those encountered in the field, in the persistent 
 discharge of every duty in spite of feeble health and threatened loss of sight. 
 
 I know of no picture in his life more impressive than that which presents 
 him as he sat in his study during the still hours of the night, unable to use 
 book or lamp — with only a mental view of diagrams and models, and the arti- 
 ficial signs required in abtruse calculations, holding long and intricate processes 
 of mathematical reasoning with the steady grasp of thought, his face turned 
 to the blank, dark wall, until he mastered every difficulty and made complete 
 preparations for the instructions of the succee<ling day. 
 
 These years of self-discipline, and self-enforced severity of regimen, main- 
 tained with rigid austerity, through years of seclusion from public life, consti- 
 tuted the propitious season for the full maturing of those faculties whose energy 
 was so soon to be displayed on a field which attracted the attention of the 
 world. 
 
 When his native state, whicli had long stood in the attitude of magnanimous 
 mediation between the hostile sections, in the hope of preserving the Union 
 which she had assisted in forming, and to whose glory she had made such con- 
 tributions, was menaced by the rod of coercion, and compelled to decide between 
 submission or separation, then Jackson, who would have cheerfully laid down 
 his life to avert the disruption, in accordance with the principles of the political 
 school in which he had been trained, and which commanded his conscientious 
 
12 INAUGURATION OF THE ^JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 assent, hesitated no longer, but went straight to his decision as the beam of 
 light' goes from its God to the object it illumines. Simultaneously with the 
 striking of the clock which announced the hour of his departure with his 
 cadets for the Camp of Instruction in this city, the command to march was 
 given. Never was there a home dearer than his own ; but he left it, never 
 again to cross its threshold. From that time, as we are told, he never asked or 
 received a furlough — was never absent from duty for a day, whether sick or 
 well, and never slept one night outside the lines of his own command. And 
 passing over a thousand occasions which the war afforded for the exercise of 
 his unconquerable will, there is something impressive in the fact that in the 
 very last order which ever fell from his lips, was a revelation of its unabated 
 force. After he had received his fatal wound, while pale with anguish, and 
 faint with loss of blood, he was informed by one of his Generals that the men 
 under his command had been thrown into such confusion that he feared he 
 could not hold his ground, the voice which was growing tremulous and low, 
 I thrilled the heart of that officer with the old authoritative tone, as he uttered 
 / his final order, " General, you must keep your men together, and hold your 
 ground." 
 
 These were the elements which shaped Jackson's distinctive characteristics 
 as a soldier and commander which may be most concisely stated; a natural 
 genius for the art of war, without which no professional training will ever de- 
 velop the highest order of military talent; a jiower of abstraction and self-con- 
 centration which enabled him to determine every proper combination and dis- 
 position of his forces, without the slightest mental confusion — even in those 
 supreme moments when his face and form underwent a sort of transfiguration 
 amid the flame and thunder of battle; a conviction of the moral sui)eriority of 
 aggressive over defensive warfare in elevating the courage of his own men and 
 in depressing that of the enemy; an almost intuitive insight into the plans of 
 the enemy, and an immediate perception of the time to strike the most stun- 
 ning blow, from the most unlooked for quarter; a conviction of the necessity of 
 following every such blow with another, and more terrible, so as to make every 
 success a victory, and every victory so complete as to compel the speedy termi- 
 nation of the war. 
 
 In the county where all that is mortal of this great hero sleeps, there is a 
 natural bridge of rock whose massive arch, fashioned with grace by the hand 
 of God, springs lightly toward the sky, spanning a chasm into whose awful 
 depths the beholder looks down bewildered and awe-struck. That bridge is 
 among the cliffs what Niagara is among the waters — a visible expression of 
 sublimity — a glimpse of God's great strength and power. 
 
 But its grandeur is not diminished because tender vines clamber over its 
 gigantic piers, or because sweet-scented flowers nestle in its crevices, and warmly 
 color its cold, gray columns. Nor is the granite strength of our dead chieftain's 
 character weakened because in every throb of his heart there was a jiulsation 
 so ineffably and exquisitely tender, as to liken him, even amidst the horrors of 
 war, to the altar of pity which ancient mythology reared among the shrines of 
 strong and avenging deities. 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 13 
 
 This admirable commingling of strength and tenderness in liis nature is 
 touchingly illustrated by a letter, now for the first time made public. 
 
 An officer under his command had obtained leave of absence tovisit a stricken 
 household. A beloved member of his fiimily had just died; another was 
 seriously ill, and he applied for an extension of his furlough. Tliis is the reply : 
 
 "My Dear Major: 
 
 "I have received your sad letter and wish I could relieve 
 your sorrowing heart, but human aid cannot heal the wound. 
 
 " From me you have a friend's sympathy, ami I wish the suffering condition 
 of our country permitted me to show it. But we must think of the living and 
 of those who are to come after us, and see that, with God's blessing, we trans- 
 mit to them the freedom we have enjoyed. What is life without honor? Deg- 
 radation is worse than death. It is necessary that you should be at your post 
 immediately. Join me to-morrow morning. 
 
 *' Your sympathizing friend, 
 
 "THOMAS J. JACKSON." 
 
 Not only was he sensitive to every touch of human sorrow, but no man 
 was ever more susceptible to impressions from the physical world. The 
 hum of bees, the fragrance of clover-fields, the tender streaks of dawn, the 
 dewy brightness of the early spring, the mellow glories of the matured autumn, 
 all, by turns charmed and tranquilized him. The eye that so often sent its 
 lightning through the smoke of battle, grew soft in contemplating the beauty 
 of a flower. The ear that thrilled with the thunder of the cannonade drank 
 in with innocent delight the song of birds, and the prattle of children's voices.. 
 The hand which guided the rush of battle on the plains of Manassas and the 
 Malvern hills was equally readjr to adjust the covering around the tender frame 
 of a motherless babe, when at midnight he rose to see if it was comfortable 
 and warm, though its own father was a guest under his roof. The voice whose 
 sharp and ringing tones had so often uttered the command, "Give them the 
 bayonet," culled even from foreign tongues terms of endearment for those he 
 loved which his own language did not adequatel}^ supply; and the man who 
 filled two hemispheres with the story of his fame was never so happy as when 
 he was telling the colored children of his Sabbath-school the story of the cross. 
 
 2. Another explanation of the universal regard with which his memory is hal- 
 lowed, conducts to a higher plane, and enables us to contemplate a still nobler 
 phase of his character. His was the greatness which comes without being 
 sought for its own sake — the unconscious greatness which results from self- 
 sacrifice and supreme devotion to duty. Duty is an altar from which a vestal 
 flame is ever ascending to the skies, and he who stands nearest to that flame 
 catches most of its radiance, and in that light is himself made luminous forever. 
 
 The day after the first battle of Manassas, and before the history of that vic- 
 tory had reached Lexington in authentic form, rumor, preceding any accurate 
 account of that event, had gathered a crowd around the post-office awaiting with 
 intensest interest the opening of the mail. In its distribution the first letter 
 was handed to the Rev. Dr. White. It was from General Jackson. Recogni- 
 zing at a glance the well-known superscription, the Doctor exclaimed to those 
 around him, "Now we shall know all the facts." 
 
14 INAUGURATION OF THE. JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 This was the bulletin : 
 
 ''Mv Dear Pastor: 
 
 "In my tent last night, after a fatiguing day's service, I 
 remembered that I had failed to send you my contribution for our colored 
 Sunday school. Enclosed you will find my check for that object, which please 
 acknowledge at your earliest convenience, and oblige 
 
 "Yours, faithfully. 
 
 "THOS. J. JACKSON." 
 
 Not a word about the conflict which had electrified a nation ! Not an allusion 
 to the splendid part he had taken in it: not a reference to himself, beyond the 
 fact that it had been to him a fatiguing day's service. And yet that was the 
 day ever memorable in his history — memorable in all history — when he received 
 the name which is destined to supplant the name his parents gave him — Stone- 
 wall Jackson. "When his brigade of twenty-six hundred men had for hours with- 
 stood the iron tempest which broke upon it without causing a waver in its line, 
 and when on his I'ight, the forces under the command of the gallant General 
 Bee had been overwhelmed in the rush of resistless numbers, then was it that 
 the event occurred which cannot be more graphically described than in the 
 burning words of his biographer: 
 
 "It was then that Bee rode up to Jackson, and with despairing bitterness 
 exclaimed, 'General, they are beating us back.' 'Then,' said Jackson, calm 
 and curt, 'we will give them the bayonet.' Bee seemed to catch the inspiration 
 of his determined will, and galloping back to the broken fragments of his over- 
 taxed command, exclaimed, 'There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall. 
 Rally behind the Virginians!' At this trumpet-call a few score of his men re- 
 formed their ranks. Placing himself at the head, he charged the dense mass 
 of the enemy, and in a moment fell dead with his face to the foe. From that 
 time, Jackson's was known as the Stonewall Brigade — a name henceforth immor- 
 tal_, and belonging to all the ages; for the christening was baptized in the blood 
 of its author; and that wall of brave hearts was on ewevy battle-field, a stead- 
 fast bulwark of their country.'' 
 
 'f he letter written to his pastor in Lexington on the day following that battle 
 gives the key-note to his character. Nor on any occasion was he the herald of 
 his own fame: never, save by the conscientious discharge of duty, did he aid 
 in the dissemination of that fame. Never did he perform an act for the sake 
 of what men might say of it; and while he felt all the respect for public opinion 
 to which it is justly entitled, he was not thinking of what the iiublic verdict 
 might be, but of what it was right to do. The attainment of no personal ends 
 could satisfy aspirations like his. To ascertain what was true, to do what was 
 best, to fill up the narrow measure of life with the largest possible usefulness, 
 was his single-hearted purpose. In such a career, if enjoj'ment should come, 
 or well-earned fame, or augmented^ influence, or the power which accompanies 
 promotion, they must all come as incidents by the way, as satellites which 
 gather ai-ound a central orb, and not as the consummation toward which he 
 ever tended. This singleness of aim was inseparable from a soul so sincere. 
 A nature like his was incapable of employing the meretricious aids by which 
 some men seek to heighten or advance their reputation. 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 15 
 
 Hence he never affected mystery. Ilis reticence was not the assumption of 
 impenetrability of purpose. His reserve was not the artifice of one who seeks 
 to awe by making himself unapproachable. He hedged himself about with no 
 barrier of exclusiveness. He assumed no airs of portentous dignity. He 
 studied no dramatic eftectsi. On the field, so far from condescending to those 
 histrionic displays of person, or theatrical arts of speech, by which some com- 
 manders have sought to excite the enthusiasm of their armies, wlien his troops 
 caught the sight of his faded uniform and sun-burnt cap, and shook the air with 
 their shouts as he rode along the lines, he quickened his gallop and escaped 
 from view. When among the mountain pyramids, older than those to which 
 the first Napoleon pointed, he did not remind his men that the centuries were 
 looking down on them. When on the plain, he drilled no eagles to perch on 
 his banners, as the third Napoleon was said to have done. But one thing he did, 
 he impressed his men with such an intense conviction of his unselfish and 
 supi-eme conseci'ution to the cause for which he had perilled all, and so kindled 
 them with his own magnetic fire, as to fuse them into one articulated body — 
 one heart throbbing through all the members, one spirit animating the entire 
 frame — that heart, that spirit, his own. It was his sublime indifference to per- 
 sonal danger — to personal comfort and personal aggrandizement — that gave him 
 such power over the armies he commanded, and such a place in the hearts of 
 the people of the Confederate States. 
 
 The true test of attachment to any cause is what one is willing to suffer for 
 its advancement, and it is the spectacle of disinterested devotion to the right 
 and true at the cost of toil, and travail, and blood, if need be, that captivates 
 the i")Oi)ular heart, and calls forth its admiration and sweetest affection. He 
 who exhibits most of this spirit is the man who unconsciously wins for himself 
 enduring fume. When he passes from earth to a higher and diviner sphere his 
 influence does not perish. It is not the transient brilliance of the meteor, but 
 the calm radiance of a star whose light undimmed and undiminished comes 
 down to kindle all true and brave souls through immeasureable time. Exalted 
 by the disinterested works he has wrought, by his example he elevates others, 
 and thus becomes the trellis, strong and high, on which other souls may stretch 
 themselves in the pursuit of whatsoever is excellent in human character and 
 achievement. 
 
 Such a man was Jackson. Such is the recognition of him beyond the sea of 
 which this statue is the token. Such is ovir appreciation of his claim upon our 
 gratitude — upon our undying love — in testimony of which we gather around 
 this statue to-day, and crown it with the laurel, first moistened by our tears. 
 
 3. But this universal sentiment of regard for his memory rests upon founda- 
 tions which lie still deeper in the human heart. At the mention of his name 
 another idea inseparably associated with it, invariably asserts its place in the 
 mental portraiture which all men acquainted with his history have formed of 
 him, and so I announce as the third and last explanation of the homage 
 awarded him, the sincerity, the purity, and the elevation of his character as a 
 servant of the Most High (lod. 
 
 No one acquainted with the moral history of the world can for a moment 
 doubt that religious veneration is at once the profoundcst and most universal 
 
16 INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 of human instincts; and however individual men may chafe at the restraints- 
 which piety imposes, or be indifferent to its obligations, yet there is a senti- 
 ment in the popular heart which compels its homage for those whose character 
 and lives most faithfully reflect the beauty of the Divine Image. 
 
 "When a man already eminent by great virtues and services, attains great 
 eminence in piety and wears the coronal of Heaven on his brow, because the 
 spirit of Heaven has found its home in his heart, then the world, involuntarily,, 
 or with hearty readiness, places him on a higher pedestal, because with their 
 love and admiration for the attractive qualities of the man, there is mingled a 
 veneration for the ennobling graces of the Christian. 
 
 I do not agree with those who ascribe all that was admirable in the character 
 of Jackson and all that was si)lendid in his career, to his religious faith. He 
 was distinguished before faith became an element in his life, and even after his 
 faitii attained its fullest development, it did not secure the triumph of the 
 cause to which his life was a sacrifice. 
 
 But this I say, that his j^iety heightened every virtue, gave direction and 
 force to every blow he struck for that cause, and then consecration to the sac- 
 rifice when he laid down his life on the altar of his country's liberties. He was 
 purer, stronger, more courageous, more efficient because of his piety ; purer,, 
 because penitence strains the soul of the corruptions which defile it ; stronger, 
 because faith nerves the arm that takes hold on omnipotence; more courageous, 
 because hope gives exaltation to the heroism of one who fights with the crown 
 of life ever in view ; more efficient, because religion which is but another name 
 for the right use of one's own faculties, preserves them all in harmonious bal- 
 ance, develops all in symmetrical proportion, and by freeing them from the 
 warping power of prejudice, the blinding power of passion, and the debasing 
 slavery of evil habits, gives them all wholesome exercise, trains them all to 
 keep, step to the music of duty, and inspires them with an energy which is both 
 intense and rightly directed. 
 
 It was thus that he gave to the world an illustration of the power which re- 
 sults from the union of the loftiest human attributes and unfaltering faith in 
 God. 
 
 To attempt, therefore, to portray the life of Jackson wliile leaving out the 
 religious element, would be like undertaking "to describe Switzerland without 
 making mention of the Alps" — or to explain the fertility of the land of the 
 Pharaohs without taking into account the enriching Nile. 
 
 If what comes from the speaker to-day on this subject loses aught of its force 
 because it is regarded as professional, he will deeply regret it. The same testi- 
 mony might have more weight from the lips of many a statesman or soldier on 
 these grounds to-day, but it would not be a whit more true. Sturdy old Thomas 
 Carlyle, at all events, was not speaking professionally when he said: "A man's 
 religion is the chief fact with regard to him." "The thing a man does practi- 
 cally lay to heart concerning his vital relation to this mysterious universe, and 
 his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for him, and 
 determines all the rest." 
 
 It was surely the primary fact — the supreme fact in the history of General 
 Jackson; and I cannot leave the subject without adding that those who con- 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACFCSON STATUE. 17 
 
 found his faith in Providence with fatalism, mistake l)Otli the sj.iiitual history 
 of the man, and the meaning of the very words they employ. 
 
 Those who imagine that his faitli savored of bigotry do not know that one 
 characteristic of his religion was its generous catholicity, as might well be in- 
 ferred from the fact that the first spiritual guides whose instructions ho sought 
 were members of communions widely different in do(;trine and polity ; that wlien 
 he connected himself with the church of his choice it was with doubts of the- 
 truth of some of its articles of doctrine — doubts ultimately and utterly re- 
 moved, indeed, but openly avowed while they possessed him; that nothing sc 
 rejoiced his heart, during the progress of the war, as the harmony existing be- 
 tween the various denominations represented in the army; that in selecting his 
 personal staff, and in recommending men for promotion, merit was the sole 
 ground, and their ecclesiastical relations were ne\^r even considered ; that 
 with a ciiarity which embraced all w^ho held the cardinal truths of revelation, 
 he ardently desired such a unity of feeling and concert of action among all the 
 followers of the same Divine Leader as would constitute one spiritual army, 
 glorious and invincible. 
 
 It is refreshing too to note, that at this day, when political economists aban- 
 don the weaker races to the law of natural selection, and contemplate with 
 complacency the process by which the dominant races extirpate the less capable, 
 he sought to place the gentle but strong and sustaining hand of Christianity 
 beneath the African population of the South, and so arrest the operation of 
 that law by developing them, if possible, into a self-sustaining people. 
 
 It is still more refreshing to note that at this day, when scientific men assert 
 such an unvarying uniformity in the operations of the laws of nature as to dis- 
 credit prophecy, and deny miracle and silence prayei", that he whose studies 
 had lain almost exclusively in the realm of the exact sciences, was a firm be- 
 liever in the supernatural. Well did this humble pupil in the school of the 
 Great Teacher — this diligent student in the school of physical science — know 
 that true x>i'ogress was not mere advance in inventions and in arts, or in sub- 
 sidizing the forces of nature to human uses, but that true progress was the pro- 
 gress of man himself — man, as distinct from anything external to himself. 
 Well did he know that there is a celestial as well as a terrestrial side to man's 
 nature, and that, although the temple of the body has its foundation in the 
 dust, it is a temple covei'ed by a dome which opens upward to the air and the 
 sunlight of Heaven, through which the Creator discloses Himself as the goal of 
 the soul's aspirations — as the ultimate and imperishable good which satisfies its 
 infinite desires. Those were true and brave words of the British Premier 
 when he said, '"Society has a soul as Avell as a body; the traditions of a natij>n 
 are a part of its existence; its valor and its discipline, its religious faith, its 
 venerable laws, its science and its erudition, its poetry, its art, its elotfuence 
 and its scholarship, are as much a portion of its existence as its agi'iculture, 
 its commerce, and its engineering skill." 
 
 The death of every soldier who fell in our Confederate war is a protest against 
 that base philosophy "which would make physical good man's highest good, and 
 which would attempt to rear a noble commonwealth on mere material founda- 
 tions." Every soldier who offers his life to his country, demonstrates the supe- 
 
18 INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 riority of the moral to the physical, and proclaims that truth, and right, and 
 honor, and liberty are nobler than animal existence, and worth the sacrifice, 
 even when blood is the offering. 
 
 And now we recognize the Providence of God in giving to this faithful ser- 
 vant the illustrious name and fame as a leader of armies, which brought the 
 very highest development of his character to the notice of the world. It was 
 his renown as a soldier of the country which made him known to men as a sol- 
 dier of the cross. And since nothing so captivates the popular heart, or so 
 kindles its enthusiasm as military glory. Providence has made even that sub- 
 servient to a higher purpose. Men cannot now think of Jackson without asso- 
 ciating the prowess of the soldier with the piety of the man. Thus his great 
 military renown is the golden candlestick, holding high the celestial light which 
 is seen from afar and cannot be hid. 
 
 Such was the man who was second in command in our Confederate armies, 
 and whose success as a leader during the bright, brief career allotted to him, 
 was second to that of no one of his illustrious comrades in arms. 
 
 And yet the cause to which all this valor was consecrated, and for which all 
 these sacrifices were made, was not destined to triumph. And here, perhaps, 
 we learn one of the most salutary lessons of this wonderful history. 
 
 Doubtless all men who have ever given their labors and aflfections to any 
 cause fervently hope to be the witnesses of its assured triumph. Nor do I deny 
 that success makes the pulses of enterprise beat faster and fuller. Like the 
 touch of the goddess, it transforms the still marble into breathing life. But 
 yet all history, sacred and profane, is filled with illustrations of the truth, that 
 success, and especially contemporary success, is not the test of merit. Our own 
 observation in the world in which we move proves the same truth. Has not 
 popular applause ascended like incense before tyrants who surrendered their 
 lives to the basest and most degrading passions ? Have not reproach and perse- 
 cution, and poverty and defeat, been the companions of noble men in all ages, 
 who have given their toils and blood to great causes? Are they less noble 
 because they were the victims of arbitrary power, or because an untoward gene- 
 ration would not appreciate the grand problems which they solved, or because 
 they lived in a generation which was not worthy of them? 
 
 If we now call the roll of the worthies who have given to the world its valued 
 treasures of thought or faith, or who have subdued nature or developed art, it 
 will be found that nearly all of them were in a life-long grapple with defeat 
 and disaster. 8ome, and amongst them those whose names shine the brightest, 
 would have welcomed neglect as a boon, but instead, endured shame and 
 martyrdom. 
 
 Other things being equal, the tribute of our admiration is more due to him, 
 who, in spite of disaster, pursues the cause which he has espoused, than to one 
 who requires the stimulus of the applause of an admiring public. We are sure 
 of a worthy object when we giv'e our plaudits to the earnest soul who has fol- 
 lowed his convictions in the midst of peril and disaster because of his faith in 
 them. 
 
 It is well that even every honest effort in the cause of right and truth is not 
 always crowned with success. Defeat is the discipline which trains the truly 
 
INAIKJURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 19* 
 
 heroic soul to further and better endeavors. And if these last should fail, and 
 he can do battle no more, he can la}^ down his armor with the assurance that 
 others will put it on, and in God's good time vindicate tiie trntli in uiiose be- 
 half he had not vainly spent his life. 
 
 Our people since the termination of the war iiave illustrated tiie lessons 
 learned in the school of adversity. Having vindicated their valor and endur- 
 ance during the confliict, they have since exhibited tlieir patience and self con- 
 trol under the most trying circumstances. Their dignity in the midst of pov- 
 erty and reverses, their heroic resignation to what they could not avert, have 
 shown that subjugation itself could not conquer true greatness of soul. And 
 by none have these virtues been illustrated more impressively than by tli.e vete- 
 rans of the long conflict, who laid down their arms at its close and mingled 
 again with their fellow-citizens, distinguislied from the rest only by tlieir supe- 
 rior reverence for law, their patient industry, their avoidance of all that might 
 cause needless irritation and provoke new humiliations, and their readiness to 
 regard as friends in peace, those whom they had so recently resisted as enemies 
 in war. 
 
 The tree is known by its fruits. Your Excellency has reminded us that our 
 civilization should be judged by the character of the men it has produced. If 
 our recent revolution had been irradiated by the lustre of but the two names — 
 Lee and Jackson — it would still have illumined one of the brightest pages in 
 history. 
 
 I have not spoken of the former to-day; not because my heart was not full 
 of him, but because the occasion required me to speak of another, and because 
 the day is not distant when one more competent to do justice to his great theme 
 than I have been to mine, will address another assembly of the men of the 
 South, and North, and West, upon these Capitol grounds, when our new Pan- 
 theon will be completed by the erection of another monument, and the inaugu- 
 ration of the statue of Lee, with his generals around him, amid the tears and 
 gratulations of a countless multitude. 
 
 It was with matchless magnanimity that these two great chieftains delighted 
 each to contribute to the glory of the other. Let us not dishonor ourselves by 
 robbing either of one leaf in the chaplet which adori:is their brows; but, catch- 
 ing the inspiration of tlieir lofty example, let us thank God that he gave us two 
 such names to shine as binary stars in the firmament above us. 
 
 It was in the noon-tide of Jackson's glory that he fell; but what a pall of 
 darkness suddenly shrouded all the land in that hour. If any illustration were 
 needed of the hold he had acquired on the hearts of our people, on the iiearts 
 of the good and brave and true througliout all the civilized world, it would be 
 found in the universal lament which went up everywhere when it was an- 
 nounced that Jackson was dead — from the little girl at the Chandler house, 
 who "wished that God would let her die in his stead, because then only her 
 mother would cry; but if Jackson died, all the people of the country would 
 cry" — from tliis humble child up to the Commander-in-chief, who wept as only 
 the strong and brave can weep, at the tidings of his fall: from the weather- 
 beaten sea-captain, who had never seen his face, but who burst into loud un- 
 controllable grief, standing on the deck of his vessel, with his rugged sailors 
 
20 INAUGURATION OF THE, JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 around him wondering what had happer.ed to break that heart of oak, up to 
 the English earl, honored on both sides of the Atlantic, who exclaimed, when 
 the sad news came to him, "Jackson was in some respects the greatest man 
 America ever produced.'' 
 
 The impressive ceremonies of the hour will bring back to some here present 
 the memories of that day of sorrow, when at the firing of a gun at the base of 
 yonder monument, a procession began to move to tlie solemn strains of the Dead 
 March in Saul — the hearse on which the dead hero lay, preceded by a portion of 
 the command of General Pickett, whose funeral obsequies you have 'just cele- 
 brated, and followed by a mighty throng of weeping citizens, until, having 
 made a detour of the city, it paused at the door of the capitn], when tlie body 
 was borne within by reverent hands and laid on an altar erected Ijeneath the 
 dome. 
 
 The congress of tlie Confederate States had adopted a device for their flag, 
 and one emblazoned with it had just been completed, which was intended to 
 be unfurled from the roof of the capitol. It never fluttered from the height it 
 was intended to grace. It became Jackson's winding-sheet. Oh! mournful 
 prophecy of the fate of the Confederacy itself! 
 
 The military authorities shrouded him in the white, red, and blue flag' of the 
 Confederacy. The citizens decked his bier with the white, red, and blue flowers of 
 spri'ig until they rose high above it, a soft floral pjramid; but the people every- 
 where embalmed him in their hearts witli a love sweeter than all the fragrance 
 of spring, and immortal as the verdure of tlie trees under which he now rests 
 by the river of life. 
 
 And where in all tlie annals of the world's sorrow for departed worth, was 
 there such a pathetic impersonation of a nation's grief, as was imbodied in the 
 old mutilated veteran of Jackson's division, who, as the shades of evening fell, 
 and when the hour for the closing of the doors of the capitol came, and when 
 the lingering throng was warned to retire, was seen anxiously pressing through 
 the crowd to take his last look at the face of his beloved leader. "They told 
 him he was too late; that they were closing up the cotBn for the last time; tliat 
 the order had been given to clear the hall. He still sti'uggled forward, refusing 
 to take a denial, until one of the marshals of the day was about to exercise his 
 authority to force him back; upon this the old soldier lifted the stump of his 
 right arm toward the heavens, and with tears running down his bearded face,, 
 exclaimed, 'By this arm, which I lost for my country, I demand the privilege 
 of seeing my general once morel' Such an appeal was irresistible, and at the 
 instance of the Governor of the commonwealth, the pomp was arrested until 
 this humble comrade had also dropped his tear upon the face of his dead 
 leader." 
 
 Your Excellency did well to make the path l»ioad which leads through these 
 capitol grounds to this statue, for it will be trodden by the feet of all wlio visit 
 this city, whether they come fi-om tlie banks of the Hudson, the Mississippi, or 
 the Sacramento; whether from the Tiber, the lihine, or the Danube. 
 
 Tender though they be, cold and sad are the closing lines of Collins in his 
 ode to the memory of the brave whose rest is hallowed by their country's ben- 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE. 21 
 
 ■edictions, depicting as they do, honor coming as "a pilgrim gray," and freedom 
 as a " weeping hermit" repairing to the graves of departed heroes. 
 
 Not so will Honor come to this shrine, not as a worn and weary pilgrim, but 
 as a generous youth with burnished shield and stainless sword, and heart beat- 
 ing high in sympathy for the right,and true, to lay his mail-clad hand on this 
 altar and swear eternal fealty to duty and to God. 
 
 Nor will Freedom for a time only repair to this hallowed spot, but here she 
 will linger long and hopefully, not as a weeping hermit, but as a radiant divinity 
 •conscious of immortality. 
 
 It is true that memories unutterably sad have at times swept through this 
 mighty throng to-day, but we are not here to indulge in reminiscences only, 
 much less in vain regrets. We have a future to face, and in t^at future lies not 
 only duty, and trial perhaps, but also hope. 
 
 For when we ask what has become of the principles in the defence of which 
 Jackson imperilled and lost his life, then I answer: A form of government may 
 •change, a policy may perish, but a principle can never die. Circumstances may 
 so change as to make the apjilication of the principle no longer possible, but its 
 innate vitality is not affected thereby. The conditions of society may be so al- 
 tered as to make it idle to contend for a principle which no longer has any 
 practical force, but these changed conditions of society have not annihilated 
 one original truth. 
 
 The application of these postulates to the present situation of our country is 
 obvious. The people of the South maintained, as their fathers maintained before 
 them, that certain principles were essential to the perpetuation of the Union 
 according to its orginal constitution. Rather than surrender their convictions, 
 they took up arms to defend them. The appeal was vain. Defeat came, and they 
 accepted it, with its consequences, just as they woyld have accepted victory with 
 its fruits. They have sworn to maintain the government as it is now constituted. 
 They will not attempt again to assert their views of state sovereignty by an ap- 
 peal to the sword. None feel this obligation to be. more binding than the sol- 
 diers of the late Confederate armies. A soldier's parole is a sacred thing, and 
 the men wlio are willing to die for a principle in time of war, are the men of 
 all others most likely to maintain their personal honor in time of peace. 
 
 But it is idle to shut our eyes to the fact that this consolidated empire of states is 
 not the Union established by our fathers. No intelligent European student of 
 American institutions is deceived by any such assumption. We gain nothing 
 bj' deceiving ourselves. 
 
 And if history teaches any lesson, it is this, that a nation cannot long survive 
 when the fundamental principles which gave it life, originally, are subverted. 
 It is true republics have often degenerated into despotisms. It is also true that 
 after such transformation they have for a time been characterized by a force, a 
 prosperity, and a glory never known in their earlier annals, but it has always 
 been a force which absorbed and obliterated the rights of the citizen, a prosper- 
 ity which was gained by the sacrifice of individual independence, a glory which 
 was ever the precursor of inevitable anarchy, disintegration, and ultimate ex- 
 tinction. 
 
22 INAUGURATION OF THE. JACKSON STATUE. 
 
 If then it be asked hoiv are we to escape the catastrophe, I answer by a vol- 
 untary return to the fundamental principles upon which our republic was orig- 
 inally founded. And if it be objected that we liave already entered upon one 
 of those political revolutions which never go b.ickward, then I ask, who gave 
 to any one the authority to say so ? or whence conies the infallibility which en- 
 titles any one to pronounce a judgment so overwhelming? Why may there 
 not be a comprehension of what is truly politic, and what is grandly right, 
 slumbering in the hearts of our American people — a people at once so practical 
 and emotional, so capable of great enterprise and greater magnanimity — a pa- 
 triotism which is yet to awake and announce itself in a repudiation of all un- 
 constitutional invasion of the liberties of the citizens of any portion of this 
 broad Union? AVhen we remember the awful strain to which the principles of 
 other constitutional governments have been subjected in the excitement of 
 revolutionary epochs, and how, when seemingly submerged by the tempest, 
 the}' have risen again and re-asserted themselves in their original integrity, why 
 should we despair of seeing the ark of our liberties again resting on the summit 
 of the mount, and hallowed by the benediction of Ilim who said. "Beliold, T 
 do set my bow in the cloud?'' 
 
 And now standing before this statue, and as in the living presence of the 
 man it represents, cordiallj' endorsing, as I do, the principles of the political 
 school in which he was trained and in defence of which he died, and unable 
 yet even to think of our dead Confederacy without memo.ies unutterably. ten- 
 der, I speak not for myself, but for the South, when I say it is our interest, our 
 duty and determination to maintain the Union, and to make everj' possible 
 contribution to its prosperity and glory, if all the states which compose it will 
 unite in making it such a Union as our fathers framed, and in enthroning above 
 it, not a Cfesar, but the Constitution in its old supremacy. 
 
 If ever these states are welded together in one great fraternal, enduring 
 Union, with one heart pulsating through the entire frame as the tides throb 
 through the bosom of the sea, it will be when they all stand on the same level, 
 with such a jealous regard for each other's rights that when the interests or 
 honor of one is assailed, all the rest feeling the wound, even as the body feels 
 the pain inflicted on one of its members, will kindle with just resentment at 
 the outrage, because an injury done to a part is not only a wrong but an indig- 
 nity offered to the whole. But if that cannot be, then I trust the day will 
 never dawn when the Southern people will add degradation to defeat and 
 hypocrisy to svibjugation by professing a love for the Union which denies to one 
 of their states a single right accorded to Massachusetts or New York — to such 
 a Union we will never be heartily loyal while that bronze hand grasps its 
 sword — while yonder river chants the requiem of the sixteen thousand Confed- 
 erate dead who, with Stuart among them, sleep on the hills of Hollywood. 
 
 But I will not end my oration with an anticipation so disheartening. I can 
 not so end it because I look forward to the future with more of hope than of 
 despondency. I believe in the perpetuity of republican institutions, so f;ir as 
 any work of man may be said to possess that attribute. The complete emanci- 
 pation of our constitutional liberty must come from other quarters, but we 
 have our part to perform, one requiring patience, prudence, fortitude, faith. 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE JACKSON STATUE, . 23 
 
 A cloiul of witnesses encompass us. The bronze figures on these monuments 
 seem for the moment to Ije rephiced by the sj^irits of the immortal men whose 
 names they bear. 
 
 As if an angel spoke, their tones thrill our hearts. 
 
 First, it is the calm voice of Washington that we hear: "Of all the disposi- 
 tions and habits which lead to j^olitical prosj^erity, religion and morality are in- 
 dispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of 2>atriotism 
 who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firm- 
 est props of the duties of men and citizens." 
 
 Then, Henry's clarion notes arouse us: "Liberty, the greatest of all earthly 
 blessings: give us that precious jewel, and you may take all the rest!" 
 
 Then Jefferson speaks: "Fellow-citizens, it is proper you should understand 
 what I deem the essential principles of government. Equal and exact justice 
 to all men of whatsoever state or persuasion, religions or political. The support 
 of state governments in all their rights as the surest bulwarks against anti-re- 
 publican tendencies; the i:)reservation of the general government in its whole 
 constitutional vigor as the sheet anchor of our joeace at home and safety abroad ; 
 the supremacy of the civil over military authority; the honest payment of our 
 debts and sacred preservation of the i:)ublic faith. And should we wander from 
 these principles in moments of error and alarm, let us hasten to retrace our 
 steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to i:)eace, liberty, and safety." 
 
 And last, it is Jackson's clear ringing tone to which we listen : 
 
 "What is life without honor? Degradation is worse than death. We must 
 think of the living and of those who are to come after us, and see that by 
 God's blessing we transmit to them the freedom we have enjoyed." 
 
 Heaven ! hear the prayer of our dead, immortal hero ! 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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