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Address of the At the Reunion of the Sixti in 1879, With General E (The News and Heralu GENERAL BRATTON'S INTRODUC TION. Comrades: You have been assem-! bled once again for the advancement of the purposes of our Association. Vain would be any attempt to express the mingled feelings with which I greet you today, nor is it necessary to make it, for d'oubtless the occasion stirs ,in us all the same conflicting emotions, deeply, inexpressibly sad, and yet gloriously inspiring. It car ries us back to your enthusiastic re sponse to the call of the State for your services. Through the sicken dng drudgery of the camp of instruc tion.. through the higher test of your unselfish, dutiful devotion, reenlist ment on the spot where your term of service expired, through the weary marches and heavy battles, of a pro tracted war, aye, and through glori s charges and thrills of .victory, to .ring us at last to overwhelming dis aster, defeat and ruin. But we need not traverse the whole field of war tor cause. Many an hour in your ca reer would furnish abundant food for the most varied and intense motion.: I would :recall, briefly cite, by way of illustration, one short hour's work of which, so far as I know, there is no record, no report having ever been made of it. It was on a day when "the colors," this identical stand of colors, was made by special order of your Colonel, the only guide to the Regiu:kt, that you l-d the notable advance of the Second Brigade of the Firt Division in the Battle of Seven: Pines, which excited so much of ad miring comment in high military cir cles at the time. In that brief hour you broke and dispersed the enemy in four distinct combats, in each of which you were greatly outn-umbered, beating him back for about two nile: Of course, my comrades, when so much was achieved, it was necessarily attended with severe loss to our selves-more than one-half. On this' field, Captains Gaston and Crosby, LyLes and Phinney and Walker and too many of our brave officers and men poured out their lives for South Carolina, filled the full measure ofT their duty without regard to cost or', danger, leaving the consequences to the God of our native land. It was not my fortune to be with you, but overwhelmingly sad must have been your roll call, and the gloom of mourning ov erhaung your bivouac fires: on that night. But even then, my' comrades, you know that there is not only consolation, but a power in the thought of heroic action and duty ncobly done, that can fiash a halo of glory .upon the sad and ghastly scene' of a bivouac on the battle field. Close?y connected with and deeply interested as I was in the Regimeut,' I have always felt a delicacy, perhaps 4aise, in sounding its praises, and an nounc.ing its heroic deeds; and I had hoped tuat the distin:guished soldiier,; who was at that time Brigadier Gen eral commanding tne brigade, would be with us today, and tell the story1 of Seven eines. But, my comrades, General Richard H. Anderson, having * . finished 'his work here, has been sum-( moned to join his and our great Chieftain, and is now on the other side, resting .in the shade with Jack- i son and Gregg in the vast army of our comrades over there. South Car olina had no more devoted son, or val-' jant and distinguished warrior than.a that modest and unassuming gentle man, "Fighting Dick Anderson" (Ap plause). You have, my comrades, to day formed again on -these colors, t and marched .with them to martiali anusic. And although they are the ensign of no country, but merely the~ battle flag of a crushed cause, and are now, .in the eyes of the world, the : symbol of defeat, I fail to discover on your brow the faintest shade of a shadow of shame. (Applause). Youi followed it in the days of its glory and powcr, when it was borne proud- ,e ty thro-ugh the storm of battle to fi * wave over victories won. Crushed to earth, trodden in the dust, you st.ill :1 clin,g to it with tenderness. You have 4iterally followed it through good re-< port and evil report. What higher evidence could be produced of God- * givenaconsciousness of the right? < Whatever it may be to others, my. comrades, it is to us a sacred relic of the ti:ne when we were all animat ed by one common spirit of self-sac rifloing devotion to country. (Al) 4plause). B3ut I am encroaching upon the reg qilar order of business. It is my pleas ing duty to introduce the orator of* the day. You all, my comrades, re aneber a fair youth, who, by his gen-. tIe and .genial manner, in conscien-i tious discharge of duty endeared him-1 self to us all. He was knocked out - of service at an early period of the. .war by a disabling wound; and on cz:in home enlisted in the service > the Confederates, we were always; isposed to resent indignantly the harge that we were fighting from aerely selfish consideration-that It vas a low spirit of zeal for African lavery, which impelled the Southern "tates to that last and confessedly lesperate measure, a withdrawal rom the Union. No, gentlemen, while he question of slavery figured promi iently in the beginning, progress and :ermination of our struggle; while it ,as made the subject of innumerable leclarations and resolutions,-the ore and the marrow of the difficulty, the kernel and essence of the dis pute is to be found in the antag mnistic views and interpretations of he very nature and structure -of the Government itself. It was a differ mene that reached to the fundamen tal law of the land, and struck at the very heart of the Constitution-the one party holding that this is a gov ernment of the people, and the other, that this is a government of States; the latter view admirably expressed by one of the greatest statesmen of our country, and he a Carolinian, in these words: "Resolved, That in de legating a partion of their powers to be exercised by the Federal Govern ment, the States retain, severally, the exclusive and sole right over their own domestic institutions and police, to the full extent to which those powers were not thus delegated, and are alone responsible for them, and that any intermeddling of one r more States, or a combination of the citizens, with the domestic insti tutions and police of the others, on any ground, political. moral or religi ous, or under any pretext whatever, with a view to their alteration or sub version, is not warranted by the Con stitution, tending to endanger the do :nestic peace and tranquility of the States interfered with, subversive of the objects for which the - Constitu tion was formed, and, by necessary onsequence, tending to weaken and destroy the Union itself." In that declaration, you have a statement of the powers of the gover ment and thie rights of the States a declaration that was endorsed, that was heartly maintained, by the whole South-a declaration that was resist ad by those who held that slavery was the "sun of all villainies," and hat as a domestic institution it could ot claim, and should not receive, the protection of the Constitution. Here vas a difference that discussion, con :ession and compromise only widen d, and yet one so vital and practical ;hat it must be settled. After years f fierce and bitter agitation, after :he most manifest, persistent efforts .o interfere with the institution, after - he avowed purpose was taken in the: arious ordinances of secession, ~vhether or not that was the wise, r the proper remedy. need not now e discussed. There were wise states-: nen, and sincere, earnest patr&ots, ho differed about that. The truth: s, the case was very much like that )f the man who was very fond of ushooms, and went to a scientific riend and asked him how he could eli a mushroom fromi a toodstool. he wise man replied: "The only way s by eating it. If it kills you, it is a c~dstool; if it doesn't, it is the nushroom."~ I rather think secession : ias proved the toadstool. This. however, is by the way. The oint that I wish to present is that e war was not in its primal cause pro-slavery and anti-slavery." I eel that we stand .upon higher ~rounds, that we were contending for' 'ights and principles which were real, :t present and as pre~cious as they 'ere in 1860, although it is nearly eventeen years since the emancipa ion proclamation. (Applause). They rere principles of the Government, .nd so long as the Government exists hey will live. They may be ignordd, hey may be trampled under foot, but .ey cannot be destroyed without :hanging the very form of the Gov-I rment, and he who supposes that vith the emancipation of the slave, d the abolition of the peculiar in titutions, therefore, all questions of ifferences are settled, will find him elf sadly disappointed. What have e witnessed in the late .extra ses ion of Congress? Did we not have here a discussion as protracted. ear iest, vital and. 1 had. almost said as ble as in the convention of 17S7, vhen the very principles of the Gov mnment were announced, and inter )reted what radical divergence of inion was developed in reference to he very question stated by 3Mr. Cal oun in the resolution already quot d, and who does not see and feel that :his is but the opening of a great ;truggle, and that if we have laid side the implements of war, yet that ur battles are to be fought over on :elds, happily, where victories are )loodless. This is one of the iewsons )f our contest, which deserves espec al emphasis. It d-d bring to t(de ront certain ideas, it did give a dis inctive prominences to ecertain im ortant principles and wi,i for them place, which they could have secur dd in no other way, and when men of ther nations and other days. stand ghast at the immense sacrifice of the ... .Cn-- etru.ne, shall ask them There is a 14 knowing that yc pay for. In Jewe you can rest ass is just as we r< the price is as 1< dising will perrm We know t dealing has plai position that enjoys. We are alwa WE KNO SELL CHAS. Columbia, M ower! We are ager Wood's Celebre Rakes. Not Made or Coi Just as good as market and ce lowest prices. - best value to be Repairs for in stock and al their regular a for them. See Us for Mc W. C. flea It Late Dr. Grier Regiment at Winnsboro ratton's Introduction. 1, August 9th, 1879.) )f the Church Militant. We have all vatched with pride and gratification jis constancy and even tempered ouTage in the pursuit of his duty ,hrough all the depressing and des perate gloom that weighed upon the tate, and his steady growth and. de velopment to higher and higher stages of usefulness, until we can justly claim for him that he has won his spurs in that service. He needs o introduction, when I tell you that the Rev. Dr. Grier is our own brave, boy, Moffatt Grier (prolonged ap plause). Dr. Grier then irose and after the applause had subsided, he said: "General, allow me to thank you for your kind words of introduction. However deeply I may feel that what nou have said is undeserved, I am yet none the less grateful." He then continued, as follows: Dr. Grier's Address. Fellow Citizens and Comrades of the Sixth Regiment: This is a sight that moves and stirs my heart like a vi sion of th,. dead. "It is like a dreai when one awaketh," standing here in this presence, In the presence of these men, -in the presence of this old flag, planted rightly in this temple, dedi-' cated to the cause of Truth and Jus tice-what memories crowd upon me! In a moment the dead past is resur rected. From its crowded graves, green and fragi'ant. ten, thousaind fo-,ns start into life until mind and ti;.a - are full-too full for utterance. t is seventeen years the 5th of May last, my comrades, since I looked into your faces. How well I remember it. Every instance of the brief but vig orous fight is distinctly before me. And especially do I remember, and I feel that I must mention it, the mag nificent advance of the Regiment in Face of the enemy. and .under a rat-: .ling fi-re. as fhe Colonel gave the or aer, "Forward, march!" The line was perfect-every man was in posi ion, every movement was as proper. nd as exact as "dress parade." It vas a steady tramp of Regulars, with' 1ll the pluck, high resolve and un uenchable enthusiasm of fiery Cru ;aders. (Applause). You had many, battle after that, but you never be aved bette-r than in the first fight. .nd if the Sixth Regiment had done othing else but advance as it did .nto the fight at iliamsbu.'rg; if it md disbanded, it would have f-urnish d such an exhibition of perfect drill, oldiery bearing and dauntless cour mge as 'would have earned higher )raise from friend and foe. That act vas itself a splendid promise-a prom se which was nobly 'redeemed in four -ears of hard service. On that day ou received your baptism of fire,, nd I received my discharge. Today ee meet again and call the roll. How anny are absent. forever absent, from hese delightful gatherings. ''No *und can wake them to glory again." n mid-time of their days, and in the' lory of their strength, they laid henselves willing victims on the al ar of the country, but though they nswer not our call. and. though we ee them ne~t, yet they speak to us, to u hearts, and they -appeal .to us by 111 that is sacred and holy and unsel sh devotion to truth, in lofty patriot sin, to cherish their memory, vindi-: ate their motives, and last. but not; east, to care for their families. We we it to them, we owe it to our elves, we owe it to history. to as ert on all proper occasions, with hon-' stt manly sincerity the convictions.1 -iich led to sacrifices unparalled in his century.. and to declare the real ssues at stake in a conflict so stu endous and appalling: There is great Lner lest in allowing others to ne our history for us, we permit he truth to be perverted, and our elves to be placed in false position. t is surprising how general is the npression that slavery was the issue -that we fought for its perpetuity: .nd extension, while the North bought. or its abolition. This impression is viespread, not only among those rho are interested in fostering it. but. mong ourselves. It is, as we con-, eeive, a grave and radical mistake,! Lnd we cannot allow such a view to' ncorpo'ate itself into history with )ut an earnest protest. It was the' ccion and only the occasion of the: trugle; and the destruction of the eeliar instituti-on w'as an incident. ndd only an incident of its progress nd end. To show we are not speak 2g at random, or presenting a theory, 'ou have this distinct and emphatic. nnouncement by the Federal Con rees after the War had fairly open d-Tht this war is not prosecuted 'or the purpose of overthrowing or [iterfering with the rights of estab-) ished institutions of the Southern states." This clear and explicit dis laie1r by a co3mpetenlt authority< aus t be accepted as satisfactory and )t of satisfaction in u get just what you Buying ry Here ured that everything present it, and that )w as good merchan it. 1at this method of :ed us in the high this business now rs ready to serve you. W WHAT WE IS GOOD. F. SENTZ, -. -: -:- S. C. s '&Rakes' ts for Walter A. ted Mowers and trolled by a Trust any mower on the nf be sold at the Positively the best Shad. all Mowers .less prices than gents are asking >wers and Rakes. ty Compnly.d