This was a _Confederate sandwich_. And on such food Southern
soldiers marched incredible distances, fought desperate battles. The
world will never cease to wonder at the unfailing devotion, the
magnificent courage, the unparalleled achievements of the Southern
armies. Scarcely less admirable is the heroic spirit in which they
have accepted defeat; the industry which has hidden the desolation of
our land with bountiful harvest, the honesty of purpose which now
seeks to restore the constitution framed by our forefathers as it was,
the patient yet invincible determination which has driven out tyranny
and oppression, and reclaimed for posterity this beautiful Southland,
rich with historic memories, made sacred and beautiful by the graves
of heroes.
And these are _my boys_--still--always my boys. From the highest
places of the land they turn to give me a comrade's greeting. I glory
in the renown of these, but just as dear and precious to me is the
warm grasp of the toil-hardened hand and the smile which beams upon me
from the rugged face of the very humblest of "the boys who wore the
gray."
Dear friends, this subject is to me inexhaustible; but I may no longer
trespass upon your patience.
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