the Revolution of 1776. We were the heirs of all the glory of that
immortal struggle. It was purchased with our blood, with the blood of
our fathers which yet flows in these veins, and which we desire to
transmit, pure and consecrated, to the sons that are born to our
loins. The traditions of the past sixty years were a portion of our
heritage, and it never was easy for any great heart and reflective
mind even to seem to part with that heritage to enter upon the
perilous effort of establishing a new nationality.

"Mr. President, it was my privilege once to be thrilled in a short
speech, uttered by one of the noblest names clustering upon the roll
of South Carolina; for, sir, South Carolina was Virginia's sister,
and South Carolina stood by Virginia in the old struggle, as Virginia
stood by South Carolina in the new, and the little State, small as
Greece, barren in resources but great only in the grandeur of the men,
in their gigantic proportions, whom she, like Virginia, was permitted
to produce--I heard, sir, one of South Carolina's noblest sons
speak once thus: 'I walked through the Tower of London, that grand
repository where are gathered the memorials of England's martial
prowess; and when the guide, in the pride of his English heart,
pointed to the spoils of war collected through centuries of the past,'
said this speaker, lifting himself upon tiptoe that he might reach to
his greatest height, 'I said, "You cannot point to one single
trophy from my people, or my country, though England engaged in two
disastrous wars with her."' Sir, this was the sentiment. We loved
every inch of American soil, and loved every part of that canvas
[pointing to the Stars and Stripes above him], which, as a symbol of
power and authority, floated from the spires and from the mast-head
of our vessels; and it was after the anguish of a woman in birth that
this land, that now lies in her sorrow and ruin, took upon herself
that great peril; but it is all emblematized in the regret experienced
by him whose praises are upon our lips, and who, like the English
Nelson, recognized duty engraved in letters of light as the
only ensign he could follow, and who, tearing away from all the
associations of his early life, and, abandoning the reputation gained
in the old service, made up his mind to embark in the new, and, with
that modesty and that firmness belonging only to the truly great,
expressed his willingness to live and die in the position ass