xt7t4b2x447r https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7t4b2x447r/data/mets.xml Stone, W. J. 1913  books b92-128-29187852 English [s.n.], : Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Military pensions Kentucky Civil War, 1861-1865. United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 Veterans. Argument of Capt. W.J. Stone  : examiner of Confederate pensions : before the Court of Appeals. text Argument of Capt. W.J. Stone  : examiner of Confederate pensions : before the Court of Appeals. 1913 2002 true xt7t4b2x447r section xt7t4b2x447r 



ARGU MENT



              OF



   CAPT. W. J. STONE



EXAMINER OF CONFEDERATE PENSIONS



           BEFORE THE



      COURT OF APPEALS



          JUNE 3D. 1913



FRANKFORT. IY.
  1913

 
  Captain W. J. Stone is the first person not a lawyer
nor party to a suit ever permitted to address the
Court of Appeals on any question. The question of
the constitutionality of an Act of the Legislature is
the greatest and gravest question the courts are ever
called upon to consider. This great honor was con-
ferred on Captain Stone by a unanimous vote of the
seven Judges of the Court and consented to by the
Attorney General and his assistants, who were the
opposing counsel in the case.


 
May it please the Court:
    I am not a lawyer, and therefore want to thank
you for your kindness in granting me the privilege
of appearing before you to defend the Kentucky
Confederate pension law. This suit was not brought
in my name, and the personal pecuniary interest I
have in the law is a very small part of the considera-
tion that has induced me to ask of you this great
privilege. But it is the strong love I have for my
comrades and the great concern I have for the wel-
fare of those who are living and the widows of those
who are dead and who are now indigent, disabled,
and dependent.
  During all the years since the war ended I have
lost no opportunity to befriend one or all of my
comrades in every possible way, in every right am-
bition or honorable effort. And since the constitu-
tionality of this law has been questioned, I have felt
it my duty to do all within my power, to see that the
action of the Legislature in passing the law was sus-
tained. I therefore feel honored that I am permitted
to stand in this honorable presence and discuss this
great question; the question that means so much to
the shortening line of heroes that pass with halting
step and war-worn, toil-bowed, emaciated frames to-
ward the sunset of life.
  I am aware of the fact that it is the sworn duty of
the Court to uphold by their decisions the constitu-
tion and the law; but when the two conflict, and it is
impossible to enforce both, the constitution being the
supreme law, the Court must of reeessity follow the
constitution rather than the statutes, and that the

 
2



question of the constitutionalitv of tan Act of the
Legislature is the gravest and most delicate duty the
judiciary are commanded to perform. My observa-
tion has been that the courts are disposed to indulge
the presumption that the Legislature has been faith-
ful to its obligations, as all members of a legislative
body are sworn to support the constitution, and all
acts of the Legislature are presumed to be adopted
pursuant to the constitution. And this presumption
must stand, unless the contrary be clearly and un-
mistakably shown. And I am sure that when the
Judicial Department is called upon to declare tnat
the Legislature has invaded the constitution that it
cannot shrink from the inquiry, but will approach
it with caution, and will examine the question from
every possible standpoint; and will not declare the
legislative act unconstitutional, or that the Legis-
lature has transcended its powers, unless it be clearly
proven that the law and the constitution cannot co-
exist.
  Under our form of government the legislative
branch is supposed to exercise its greatest wisdom and
best judgment as to the merit and correctness of its
acts, and the courts must construe them so as to carry
out the intent of the Legislature, provided they can
be so construed as to harmonize with the constitution.
All doubt on this point must be resolved in favor
of the constitutionality of the Act in question. On
page 590, of volume 27, of the Encyclopedia of
American and English Law, this language is used:
"If the question be doubtful or dubious, it is the duty
of the trial judge or court to indulge the presumption
of constitutionality in favor of the statutes."
  In support of his contention that the law is un-

 
                         3
constitutional, the Attorney General quotes a clause
in the third section of the Bill of Rights as laid down
in the present constitution of this State which says:
"No grant of exclusive, separate, public emoluments
or privileges shall be made to any man, or set of
men, except in consideration of public services."
And then preceeds to argue that Confederate soldiers
have rendered no public services to Kentucky, and
therefore they are not entitled, under the constitu-
tion, to receive a pension at the hands of the State.
Public service in the present constitution means the
same public service named in the old constitution.
And the Court of Appeals has decided that public
service as used in the old constitution means a ser-
vice rendered to the public by heroic deeds, inventive
genius, or great mental endowments, and a life of
public virtue. The person attaining such distinction
becoming in the judgment of the Legislature a pub-
lic benefactor. Ferguson, c. vs. Landrum, c., 1
Bush, page 593."
   It is claimed that the Confederate soldiers rend-
ered Kentucky no service because Kentucky did not
secede from the Union. Grant that Kentucky did
not secede. What was the Confederate army fight-
ing for They were fighting to maintain the princi-
ple on which alone it was possible to form the
American Union of States. That principle was the
right of each State to manage its own local affairs
in its own way, and Kentucky was as much interested
in the preservation of that fundamental doctrine as
any other State in the Union. If the debates in the
convention that adopted the present constitution of
the United States be carefully read by any one, it will
take no further argument to prove the truth of the

 
4



assertion made above and in forming the Union these
rights were expressly reserved to the states, and with-
out this reservation the constitution could not, and
would not, have been adopted. That this was the
real question at issue, so far as the Confederates were
concerned, has come to be acknowledged by every
well informed citizen, both North and South, in this
country.
  In October, 1912, General Charles H. Grosvener,
of Ohio, who was a gallant soldier in the Federal
army, and for many years one of the leaders of the
Republican party in Congress, in a speech made to
his comrades of the Army of the Cumberland at
Chattanooga, Tenn., said: "The constitution of the
United States is almost the wisdom of the Almighty.
The greatest English statesmen have said that the
hand that wrote it must have been inspired. Now,
if there is a Confederate soldier in the house, I want
him to stand up. Figuratively speaking, I am go-
ing to defend him. You Confederate soldiers did
not believe that you were compelled to stay in the
Union. Lee, Jackson, Calhoun, and other great men
of the South, believed the same on that question.
They did what they believed to be right. They saw
the constitution as it was adopted. Who is here to
call them criminals Certainly not I."
  I might continue to quote you sayings of other
leaders among the men who fought against us in the
conflict who now, by open declaration, declare and
maintain that the Confederate soldier fought for
that great principle of government upon which
American liberty is founded, severeignty of the
citizen, and sovereignty of the State.
  It is contended that this law makes provision for

 
5



a class of citizens unjustly because of the conditions
prescribed on which the pension is to be paid. If
that contention is good, you must open the doors of
the lunatic asylums, the feeble-minded institute, the
blind asylum, the deaf and dumb asylum, the State
Normal Schools, and cease the appropriation of
money to the Children's Home Society, because the
State appropriates hundreds of thousands of dollars
each year to these institutions, and in each case con-
ditions are prescribed before the individual to be
benefitted by these charities, can receive the benefit
of the law creating them. It will not do to say that
these institutions are open to all the citizens of the
State because no one can become an inmate of, or
a beneficiary of, the provisions made for these insti-
tutions, except upon the conditions prescribed. And
an overwhelming majority of the people of the State
do not come within these conditions. Beside that,
these institutions are provided for the benefit of a
special class in each case, that is, separate and dis-
tinct from the balance of the people of the State, and
they have not, nor are they expected, ever to render
any public service.
    Furthermore, if it is unconstitutional to grant
a special privilege to any man or set of men, and this
third section of the Bill of Rights shall be strictly
construed, then every lawyer in Kentucky must sur-
render his license, for that license grants him a
privilege for no public service in the world to any-
body, but to enable him to practice his profession
for personal gain. The same rule would apply to
all doctors, pharmacists, school teachers, and in fact,
to every citizen of the State who is licensed to do a
business to the exclusion of the great mass of the peo-

 
6



ple of the State. It will not do to say that all the
citizens of Kentucky may have these licenses by ap-
plying for them, because there is not one out of every
one thousand of the people in the State who are, or
can be, in a position to fit themselves with the qualifi-
cations that the law requires before one can enter
either of these callings or professions, and while they
are all supposed to be for the benefit of the public,
the real object of the person securing the license is to
secure a personal privilege and benefit to himself
individually.
  In the case of the Normal School, the law requires
that before a person can enter one of these schools, he
or she must be eighteen years old and a graduate of
a district high school, or hold a county certificate to
teach school, and then be subject to the choice of the
county school superintendent, and that the number
who can thus enter is further limited by law, thus
prescribing conditions in that case. But I am told
that each one of these persons who enter Normal
Schools as beneficiaries of the State's bounty agrees to
teach in the common schools of the State as
many months as they attend the Normal School.
But I ask, do they teach these months free of charge
to the State And I am told, No. They are paid
the same price for this teaching that the other person
is who has paid his way through the Normal School.
So that, we find in this case that the State is selecting
annually from among its citizens a certain number
of young ladies and young gentlemen who are the
special beneficiaries of the State's bounty to the ex-
clusion of all others who are equally as well qualified
by birth, education, and environment, to receive its
bounty.

 
7



  Therefore, to declare the Confederate pension law
unconstitutional, and leave these others to which I
have referred in full force and effect, would be a
clear discrimination against these maimed and dis-
eased and indigent citizens of the State because they
had been Confederate soldiers.
  It is further claimed by the learned Attorney
General that this law is unconstitutional because it
makes a class of a class, of the citizens of the State
who are indigent and in needy circumstances, and
provides for them this pittance of a pension because
they were Confederate soldiers. It is true that this
law provides for paying this money to these men,
and the widows of those who are dead, who made an
honorable record in the Confederate Army, because
they were Confederate soldiers. But it was not left
for the Legislature to make this distinction in favor
of these men, for it is a fact that they do occupy a
place distinguished from all other classes of our
citizens in the hearts and minds of the people. There
is no other class of the citizens of our State who have
sacrificed so much in defense of principle; who have
have risked so much; who have suffered so much;
who have lost so much; and who have done so much
to crown with glory and honor the character of our
people and establish an honorable place for the State
in the historv of the times. And whether the law
shall classify them or not, they are in a class to them-
selves, and will be throughout all coming ages. It
is not necessary that there be a law to declare their
distinction in nobility and courage; that has already
been proven on a hundred battle fields and by their
conduct as citizens since the close of the war. Their
title of nobility has been conferred by the public

 
8



sentiment of the State upon the Confederate Veter-
ans, and this fact must be reckoned with in con-
struing whatever laws have been or may be passed
by the Legislature relating to them.
  It is further claimed that the law is bad because
there is no clause in the law levying a tax to pay the
pensions, which leaves the money to be paid out of
the general expenditure fund in the treasury. While
I am sure practically every tax payer in the State
would have gladly paid a tax of the necessary amount
to pay the pensions, I am surprised at such an argu-
ment coming from those who oppose this law. If a
special tax should have been imposed to pay pensions,
how about, and from what source should come the
money to pay the salaries and expenses of the various
commissions created by the last Legislature, ano the
large sums of money appropriated for many other
purposes Why is the pension law singled out from
all the other laws to attack on this point
  I have stood by the monument erected to the
memory of General John C. Breckenridge, a brave
Confederate soldier, with money appropriated out
of the State Treasury. I have seen a statue erected
largely with the State's money in memory of that
gallant, fearless, tender-hearted, and almost in-
vincible, cavalry leader, General John H. Morgan,
who laid down his life while engaged in service as
a Confederate soldier. I have read the law appro-
priating money out of the State Treasury of Ken-
tucky to place a memorial at the birth-place of Jeffer-
son Davis, a native Kentuckian, and President of
the Southern Confederacy; and I have read the law
appropriating money to protect and care for graves
of Confederate soldiers, and on last Thursday-the

 
9



29th day of May-I stood by a monument and saw
the markers placed on the battle field of Chicka-
mauga (where so many Kentuckians laid down their
lives) at a cost of 15,000.00, paid out of the State
Treasury of Kentucky, but I have neither seen nor
heard of any question of the constitutionality of the
laws appropriating these sums of money, nor any
complaint because the money was not raised by a
special tax. Can it be that it is lawful and constitu-
tional to appropriate money out of the State Treasury
to build monuments and erect memorials to dead
Confederate soldiers, and unlawful to appropriate
money out of the State Treasury to relieve in a small
degree the pressing needs of the few of these old
heroes who yet live, but who are fast hastening to
eternity
  It is further objected that this law proposes to give
a charity to those who may be able to prove them-
selves within its provisions, because they were Con-
federate soldiers, and leave out others who are in
equally needy circumstances. I desire to assert that
we are not asking charity for these men at the hands
of the State. It is true that this law was passed for
the benefit of Confederate soldiers, purely because
they had been Confederate soldiers, and while I feel
sure that I have shown plainly that this law is not
out of harmony with many precedents set by the law-
making power of the State, I assert that we have
not come to the Legislature of Kentucky asking a
charity. We come to you demanding that a contract
made by the State with the Confederate soldiers be
fulfilled. We have been made to feel, however, that
almost the entire body of the people of the State are
ready and willing to bestow a charity in the form

 
10



of a pension upon these old heroes, and we appreciate
the fact that this feeling exists. In the year 1901
a few Kentucky Confederate soldiers, realizing that
a number of their comrades were in need, decided in
a conference held, to undertake to build a Home for
Confederates in Kentucky. They appointed a meet-
ing to be held in October of that year in the city of
Louisville, to which they extended a general invita-
tion to persons who felt an interest in the matter to
attend. That meeting was held, and a movement
was set on foot to raise money by private subscription
to buy ground and build a home for indigent and
dependent Confederate soldiers. Committees were
appointed to solicit funds, and the work was im-
mediately commenced. After a considerable sum
had been raised by contribution, from Confederate
soldiers and their friends, an opportunity presented
itself to buy the splendid property at Pewee Valley,
now occupied as a Confederate Home. That prop-
erty was bought and paid for and became the prop-
erty of the persons who had contributed the money.
A committee was appointed to appear before the
State Legislature and propose to deed to the State
that property, upon condition that it should be used
as a Confederate Home as long as it might be needed
for that purpose; the consideration on the part of
the State to be that the State care for the inmates
of the home. The proposition was accepted by the
Legislature, and an Act was passed which was ap-
proved by the Governor on the 27th day of March,
1902, in which the State pledged itself to appropriate
annually 125.00 for each inmate of the Home to
be used in caring for them. Later that sum was
increased to 175.00. Who were to be the inmates

 
11



of that Home Indigent and disabled Confederate
soldiers. How many There is no limit fixed in
the law as to the number, and therefore it means
ALL indigent and disabled Confederate soldiers who
might be admitted to that Home. Then who were
entitled to be admitted All who are indigent and
disabled, and have made an honorable record as
Confederate soldiers and who lived in Kentucky.
  As time has gone by the number of indigent, and
disabled, Confederate soldiers has increased to the
extent that the accommodations at the Home would
have had to be largely increased in order that they
might be provided for there. Then it was that those
of us who had the welfare of our comrades at heart,
as well as the interests of the tax payers of the State,
came to the Legislature and asked the enactment of
this pension law. And while it is not written out in
words, the meaning of the act is that we proposed to
relieve the State of the expense of providing enough
house room and equipment to care for all these in-
digent and disabled soldiers if they would allow them
to remain at home and still keep the contract writ-
ten in the law in the first instance, and furthermore,
to reduce the amount allowed for the maintainance
of each soldier entitled to enter the Home from
175.00 to 120.00, if they would allow 120.00
each to the widows of deceased Confederate soldiers
who had an honorable record. That is the sum and
substance of this whole matter, and all we are asking
is that the State comply with its contract made
with us and our friends who contributed the money
in the first place to buy the property at Pewee Val-
ley now known as the Confederate Home. These
things being true, and they are true, it does not seem

 
12



to me, that any person, who will acquaint himself
with them, could entertain the slightest doubt for
one single moment that this law is not in full ac-
cord with the constitution of the State.
  It is claimed as an objection to the law that the
Confederate soldier has rendered no public service to
the State of Kentucky. Tell me not that these gal-
lant sons of the men who followed Washington at
Valley Forge went out as a lawless band and fought
and marched, half-clothed and hungry, suffered and
endured hardships and privations without parallel
in modern war-fare and laid down their lives on the
field of battle, and filled the rudest trenches as graves,
far away from home and friends, for a cause or a
reason entirely removed from every interest of the
people and land that gave them birth. Services to
Kentucky Yes, and of the grandest and worthiest
sort. Since Daniel Boone stood on the mountain
at the point where Kentucky and Virginia joins,
and looked down on this wonderful land of Ken-
tucky, to the present hour, Kentucky has produced
no body of men who have rendered such noble,
patriotic, unselfish, sacrificial, service to the State as
have the men who enlisted and served in the Confed-
erate Army. Shall I call the roll If I could call
the roll of all who were soldiers from Kentucky in
the Confederate Army, how many hearts would be
made sad as they thought of the great sacrifice these
men had made, but whose faces would shine with
joyful gladness in the next moment because these
same names are on the roll of those who were brave
enough to do and die for a great principle of human
government. Let me call a few names to refresh
your memory: Albert Sidney Johnson, John C.

 
13



Breckenridge, John H. Morgan, William Preston,
"Cero Gorda" Williams, Roger Hanson, Joseph H.
Lewis, Basil W. Duke, Simon Boliver Buckner
and a host of others of field officers, who won
renown on many a battle field, and by distin-
guished public service as citizens of the State after
the war had ended. But far more to be hon-
ored than these are the private soldiers who
marched, and endured, and suffered hunger and
cold, with no hope of reward, except duty well done,
in defense of a great principle. What service have
they rendered Kentucky since the war They have
made honorable, law-abiding, upright citizens. They
have filled with credit, honor, and distinction to the
State, every office within the gift of the people, and
in no instance has any suspicion of dishonorable
action attached to their official conduct. The judi-
cial ermine of the State has been honored by the
manner in which Confederate soldiers have presided
over the courts, and even the bench upon which you
sit has been honored by their presence upon it, wit-
ness the renowned services of William Lindsay,
Thomas H. Hines, James H. Hazelrigg, and others.
  When the last gun had been fired and their shot-
riddled flags had been furled, those war-worn veter-
ans turned their faces toward the places where had
been their homes. The soldiers of the Federal
armies also commenced to return to their homes,
but how different the home-coming to the men of the
two armies. As the Federal soldiers reached their
homes they heard drums beating, bands playing, saw
the whole populace out in holiday attire, the build-
ings covered with bunting, and the people shouting
Hosannas of Praise, and the Government standing

 
14



with outstretched arms to receive and care for them.
And at once the government commenced to build
homes at public expense in which to maintain him
in ease and luxury, and also commenced to pay him
bountiful pension. Not only to the indigent and
disabled, but to all who desired to avail themselves
of this bounty.
  But, oh! it was pathetic to see the return of the
Confederate soldier. By twos and threes, and some-
times one alone, bronzed from exposure to heat and
cold, and sun and rain; forms emaciated, and faces
drawn from hunger, their ragged gray jackets but-
toned trimly around them, and the slimest excuses
for hats and caps, drawn in military style over their
foreheads, they came with military tread to what
had once been their home. Often times they found
a lonely mound, or two, under which lay the re-
mains of mother or other loved ones, who had died
during the absence, with weeds of mourning and
blackened chimneys to tell of the sorrow and devas-
tation.
   They found a law on the statute books of Ken-
tucky, put there in 1863 by a radical partisan Legis-
lature, declaring them and their friends expatriates,
with no rights of citizenship. Did thev defy the law
Did they seek revenge for this great wrong done them
during the reign of blind passion in the State Did
they commit murder, rapine, or arson No. They
stood for a brief moment contemplating the situ-
ation, then like the brave, gallant men they had
shown themselves in battle, they turned their faces
toward heaven and asked God for his aid, and by his
blessing and the application of muscle and brain
power to a soil, fertilized by the blood of their com-

 
13



rades, they commenced the struggle to re-build the
waste places and bring order and quiet and peace and
prosperity to the "Old Kentucky Home." So well
did they succeed that the Governor of the State, Hon.
Thomas E. Bramlette, demanded of the Legislature
the repeal of the Expatriation Law, and it was re-
pealed. Immediately thereafter, the people of the
State commenced to put Confederate soldiers in
places of honor and trust, and they largely domi-
nated public affairs in Kentucky for many years, and
during all that time peace, prosperity and content-
ment reigned among the people. They became lead-
ers in politics, business, manufacturing enterprises,
all lines of commerce. agriculture, and industry of
every kind. But greatest and best of all, many of
them became ministers of the gospel, and thousands
of them active followers of, and earnest workers for,
the teaching of the lowly Nazarene. And in the
recent past when the affairs of the State had been en-
trusted to other hands, and dissention, and political
strife had seemingly brought on chaotic conditions
in the State, it was to a Confederate soldier the people
turned, as the proper person to bring quiet and order,
and happiness to the land, and he now sits in the
gubernatorial chair, by the voice of such a majority
of the people of the State as has not been given to
any man in this State for many long years. The
Legislature enacted this pension law and this gov-
ernor, the Honorable James B. McCreary affixed
his signature to it because he knew it was just; knew
it to be the desire of practically the whole people of
Kentucky. His experience as a soldier, and his long
public service, and close contact with the people,
and familiarity with law in general, eminently fitted

 
16



him to judge whether or not this law came within the
lines of the constitution, and his honorable career is
a sufficient guarantee that he never would have ap-
proved an act for any purpose whatever which con-
travened the constitution of the State. And since
the constitutionality of the law has been questioned,
he has been greatly worried because of the delay thus
brought about in carrying out its provisions and
hindering the worthy objects of the law from receiv-
ing the stipend provided therein for them.
  This question is being considered on this third
day of June, when in every city and town and ham-
let of the South, and in many cities of the North,
memorial services are being held and addresses de-
livered in memory of Confederate soldiers; graves be-
ing decked with flowers, in honor of the memory of
those of this class who are gone and to pay homage to
those who remain. Yea, in many places, where one
lone soldier, buried by himself, in an out-of-the-way
place, loving hands on this day are placing flowers,
bedewed with tears, on his grave.
   There are more than fifty monuments erected on
Kentucky soil in honor of Confederate soldiers by
the Daughters of the Confederacy. That organiza-
tion engaged in the noblest and grandest work ever
undertaken by a body of women in purely human
affairs since history commenced to be written. Would
any man or set of men on earth believe for one
moment that these women were engaged in thus
honoring a body of men who had rendered no ser-
vice to their country or State in any of the ways set
out by the Court of Appeals in its construction of
the term "public service" as used in construing the
old constitution Who are the Daughters of the

 
17



Confederacy As a class, they are the highest type
of womanhood; they are the wives and lineal de-
scendents of the men who returned ragged and war-
worn from the Confederate army and that brave
band of young women who became the wives of
these men. They have no superiors in intelligence,
energy, business acumen, determination of purpose,
high ideals, beauty, and loveliness, anywhere on
earth. They are the descendants of the mothers,
sisters, and sweet-hearts who, though their hearts
were breaking at the parting, sent forth their loved
ones to war. Who, figuratively speaking, laid them
on the altar of sacrifice for a great principle, and
said to each one: "Be a brave soldier. Do your
duty; and come back with an honorable record, or
not at all.' They are descendants of the women
who toiled early and late in an effort to provide com-
fort for the soldier in the field, and who went into
the field hospital and out on the battle field and did
all that human hands could do toward relieving the
suffering of the wounded and dying. Aye, in the
silent watches of the night, with tired limbs and
aching bodies, soothing as best they could the pain
of the soldier as the life was leaving his body, and
with tender hands gently wiping the rapidly gather-
ing death dew from his forehead, and with ear held
close to his lips to catch the last message of the dying
stranger to his loved ones far away. It would be im-
possible to convince anybody that these noble wo-
men, with such patriotic blood in their veins would
thus honor an unworthy men or set of men.
   The bones of Kentucky Confederate soldiers lie
mouldering in every prison cemetery in the country
and on or near every battle field where the two arnies

 

18



met. Their names are honored in every quarter of
the civilized world. The United States Government
has placed a tombstone to every one of their graves
that could be found, who died in prison, and with
money appropriated out of the United States treas-
ury has erected monuments in many places in the
North to the memorv of Confederate soldiers. Every
State in the South has now on its pension roll the
names of Kentuckians who served in the Confederate
army and are now citizens of those States. Then in
view of all the history that has been made by the
Confederate soldier in the fifty-two years that have
passed since the war begun, and in view of the fact
that the passions of war have subsided, and all bit-
terness been wiped out, and all the people of the
country have become one in sentiment and in
patriotism, shall it be said that Kentucky, grand,
brave, magnanimous, old Kentucky, has by decision
of her highest court put the seal of condemnation on
that portion of her citizens who were Confederate sol-
diers.
  May it please the Court, if I seem to speak with
feeling, I hope I may be pardoned because of the
subject and the occasion. The first blood shed, the
first soldier killed in battle, west of the Allegheny
mountains, in that terrible conflict, was a Kentucky
soldier, and it was my fortune to be in line touching
elbows with him as we faced a storm of leaden hail,
when the cruel bullet struck his heart and he fell a
sacrifice to the great principle for which he fought.
And since this law has been brought into question
my mind has many times traversed the route it was
my lot to travel during my service in the army. I
have watched again the dauntless courage with

 
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which my comrades charged the enemies' line amid
the sweep of rifle balls and shot and shell. I hare
seen again their torn and mangled bodies, and heard
the cries of anguish of the wounded, and looked
into the faces of the dead as they lay stark and stiff
in the embrace of death after the chariot of the "War
God" had passed over the battle field. Then I have
witnessed the unequaled courage with which those
who survived have fought the battle of life, and have
seen the line grow shorter, and thinner, as the years
have gone by, till now only a few ire left to testify
for, and tell of the wonderful sacrifice and grand
achievements of the Confederate soldier, and each
time these things