tured them. "They bowed the knee and spit upon her; they cried, 'Hail!' and smote her on the cheek; they put a scepter into her hand, but it was a fragile reed; they crowned her, but it was with thorns; they covered with purple the wounds which their own hands had inflicted on her, and inscribed magnificent titles over the cross on which they had fixed her to perish in ignominy and pain." They had quarreled with and weakened the Confederacy, out of pretended love for the habeas corpus, and now they sustained a government that trampled upon every form of law and every principle of liberty. They had been foremost in leading the people into war, and now they turned upon them to punish them for treason. Even some who were still loyal at heart, appalled by the danger that surrounded, overwhelmed by the powers that threatened us, were timid in spirit and stood silent witnesses of their country's ruin. Others there were^ many others, as loyal, brave, noble, heroic spirits as ever enlisted in freedom's cause. They could suffer defeat in honorable war, but would not, without resistance, though fallen, submit to insult and oppression. Their fortunes were destroyed, their fields desolated, their homes laid in ashes, their hopes blighted, but they would not degrade their manhood. To their invincible spirit and heroic resistance we are indebted for the peace, prosperity, and good government we enjoy to-day. Long live their names and deeds. Let our poets sing them in undying song; let our historians register them in imperishable records; let our teachers teach them in our schools; let our mothers recount them in our homes; let the painter transfer their very forms and features to the canvas to adorn our public halls; let the deft hand of the sculptor chisel them out of the granite and marble to beautify our thoroughfares; let every true heart and memory, born and to be born, embalm them forever.
Among all the true sons of Georgia and of the South in that day, one form stands conspicuous. No fear blanched his cheek, no danger daunted his courageous soul. His very presence imparted courage, his very eye flashed enthusiasm. Unawed by power, unbribed by honor, he stood in the midst of the perils that environed him, brave as Paul before the Sanhedrim, ready for bonds or death, true as the men at Runnymede, and as eloquent as Henry kindling the fires of the Revolution. As we look back upon that struggle one figure above all others fixes our admiring gaze. His crested helmet waves high where the battle is fiercest, the pure rays of the sun reflected from his glittering shield are not purer than the fires that burn in the breast it covers. His clarion voice rang out louder
