Confederate Veteran, May, 1930.
MEMORIAL DAY IN SOUTH CAROLINA
[ Address delivered at Greenwood, May 10, 1930 ,
by Col. W.Jasper Talbert, a Confederate veteran and former Member of the
Congress from the Second District of South Carolina.]
" Ladies, Fellow Countrymen and may I say,
Fellow Soldiers....In accepting the summons to speak to you here, I hoped that
in my humble way I might add some interest to the day's proceedings. So I am
here, and while I may not be so eloquent as some others, I bring to you a
heart beating as true to the Southern Cross as ever beat in the breast of
living man. If I have more respect for any one individual than all others, it
is for the Confederate soldier; and I deem it the proudest thought of my life
that as a breardless boy I bared my bosom to the storm of bullets in the Army
of Northern Virginia, under Generals ROBERT E. LEE and STONEWALL JACKSON, in
defense of my country; and I want to say to you, sons and grandsons of the
Confederate veterans, that you should deem it a grander honor to be the
descendant of one of the humblest heroes of the Army of Northern Virginia than
to trace your lineage back to ...Caesar.
This is no ordinary occasion, when it is
known that it is a day set apart to commemorate the deeds and sacrifices of
the Confederate soldier and to place flowers upon the graves of the departed
heroes. Thus it is with the great power impelling the Southern people to go to
war in defense of their homes. The cause for which they fought and died was
worthy of the sacrifice made..... FOR WHAT ? Was it conquest ? No. Was it that
they wanted to bathe their heads in their brothers blood? No. Was it for more
territory? No. It was for a single word... that word was LIBERTY .
And the cause for which they fought is not
lost and can never be lost, because it is the everlasting cause of liberty. In
the face of the facts, it is but natural for those of us who still survive to
meet together to commemorate their noble deeds, and we will continue to do so
as long as the stars twinkle in the heavens, the rivers continue to flow into
the sea, and the dew drops to fall upon their graves. Ah, but some will say,
this is only a sentimentality expressed. Then I accept the issue as made, for
sentiment is but principle refined......"
