What the Ex-Confederate has done in Peace. 225
nous sank the star. A solemn stillness, unbroken save by the voices of the night wind and the sea, reigned supreme.
A more beautiful or a more impressive spectacle never greeted the gaze of one who looks reverently and wonderingly upon the splen- dors of the physical universe; and as I watched that evening planet sinking to its rest a voice within me whispered, "So, too, to the patriot's eye there is no vision more grateful than the career of him who, forgetful of self, and mindful only of the rights and liberties of his fellow-men, gives his life to their service, and, with the lustre of his virtues ever brightening to the end, passes from their view."
THE
EX-CONFEDERATE, AND WHAT HE HAS DONE IN PEACE."
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE
ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, BY HON.
WM. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE.
Richmond, Virginia, October 26th, 1892.
The annual reunion of the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia was held in the hall of the House of Delegates on the night of October 26th, 1892. A large audience filled the hall and galle- ries.
At 8 o'clock General Thomas L. Rosser called the Association to order, and asked Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., the chaplain, to lead in prayer.
General Rosser then, in a few graceful words, introduced Hon. William C. P. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, the orator who had been invited to deliver the annual address, which was as follows :
ORATION.
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and my Comrades during the late War:
It had always occurred to me that a true history of the Confede- rate cause and of those who participated in it could not fairly be written that did not include a history of the struggles of the Anglo-
