Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z
History
Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z
Speeches, addresses, etc.
Two other Southern representatives, because of admirable
achievements and brilliant strokes of fortune, have recently gained
great distinction and won much applause in Wall Street. If I called
their names it would awake an echo in the temple of history, where an
illustrious ancestor is enshrined in immortal renown. [Applause and
cries of "Calhoun! Calhoun!"]
It is not only as financiers and railroad magnates that the South ranks
high in Wall Street, but Southern lawyers likewise have established
themselves in this dollar district, and to-day challenge attention and
deserve tribute. Under the brilliant leadership of two commanding
generals, the younger barristers are steadily winning wider reputation
and pressing forward in professional triumph.
One question, with its answer, and I shall have done: Are these
Southerners in Wall Street divorced in spirit and sympathy from their
old homes? [Cries of "No! No!"] You say "No." Let the record of their
deeds also make reply. One of them had done a thing so unique and
beautiful that I cannot refrain from alluding to it. It touches the
chord of humanity in every true heart and makes it vibrate with sacred
memories. In the cemetery of the little town of Hopkinsville, Ky., there
stands a splendid monument dedicated to "The Unknown Confederate Dead."
There is no inscription that even hints at who erected it. The builder
subordinated his personality to the glory of his purpose, and only the
consummate beauty of the memorial stands forth. The inspiration of his
impulse was only equalled by the modesty of his method. Truth, touched
by the tenderness and beauty of the tribute to those heroes who died
"for conscience sake," has revealed the author, and in him we recognize
a generous surviving comrade. [Applause, and cries of "Latham! Latham!
John Latham!"]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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