In 1877 the leading citizens of Brooklyn invited General Pryor to deliver an address at the Academy of Music on Decoration Day. This was an opportunity he had long desired, and the invitation was eagerly accepted. With great zeal and bitterness some of the veterans of the Grand Army resented the invitation, upon which my husband promptly declined the honor. I do not give the names of the old soldiers—they have long ago been forgiven and are fully understood. A heated correspondence followed—one side generous, fraternal feeling, on the other the bleeding afresh of old, unhealed wounds. Finally, the general,—although the charm, the grace, of the compliment was all gone,—perceiving it would be childish and ungrateful to persist in declining to speak, consented.
The interesting nature of the occasion, and the conflict it had aroused, drew a very great audience to the Academy of Music. My husband never needed notes in speaking, but this time Gordon, in a very large, clear hand, wrote out his address that he might refresh, if necessary, his memory.
It was not necessary. He was full of fire and enthusiasm, and nobly gave the noble sentiments eagerly quoted next day by the New York Tribune. The closing paragraph strikes no uncertain note. It must have surprised his audience:— 368
"From the vantage ground of a larger observation, with a more calm and considerable meditation on the causes and conditions of national prosperity, I, for one, cannot resist the conclusion that, after all, Providence wisely ordered the event, and that it is well for the South itself that it was disappointed in its endeavor to establish a separate government. Plain is it that, if once established, such a government could not have long endured. It was founded on principles that must have proved its downfall. It must soon have fallen a victim to foreign aggression or domestic anarchy. Nor to the re?stablishment of the union is the Confederate soldier any the less reconciled by the destruction of slavery. People of the North, history will record that slavery fell, not by any efforts of man's will, but by the immediate intervention and act of the Almighty Himself. And in the anthem of praise ascending to heaven for the emancipation of four million human beings, the voice of the Confederate soldier mingles its note of devout gratulation. And now in the unconquerable strength of freedom we may hope that the existence of our blessed union is limited only by the mortality that measures the duration of all human institutions. [Prolonged applause.]"—Tribune, May 31.
"General Roger A. Pryor's Decoration Day address wins golden opinions. It was brave, patriotic, and statesman-like. He grasps the situation. He does not take much stock in bygones, thinks gravestones are made to leave behind and not to tie to, and would rather have a live man with average common sense than the biggest obituary that was ever written. General Pryor is one of the few men who have a to-morrow."—Evening Express, June 12.
The Springfield Republican, May 31, says:—
"The Grand Army fellows who opposed inviting Roger A. Pryor to deliver the address at Brooklyn yesterday 369probably feel pretty well ashamed of themselves by this time. Certainly they would have deprived the country of a very desirable speech if they had succeeded in preventing his speaking."
Broad as were the views of the ex-rebel at this time, the Southern papers indorsed him:—
"General Roger A. Pryor's address on Decoration Day, at Brooklyn, New York, is quite remarkable. It is very brilliant and very eloquent. There is logic, but it is 'logic on fire,' as Macaulay said of Lord Chatham. There is a magnificent sweep in the sentences, and high and patriotic thought throughout. It reminds us in its glow and passion, in its rich and flowing rhetoric, and in its exquisite diction of Edmund Burke's tremendous speech on the 'Nabob of Arcot's Debts.' We do not think any man can accompany the orator, with his kindling, intense periods and sonorous, ornate style, with his lofty thought and impassioned eloquence, without a responsive thrill of emotion and a feeling of pride that this master of speech is a Southron."
—Wilmington (N. C.) Star.
"The address of General Roger A. Pryor delivered on Decoration Day at Brooklyn, N. Y., is a brilliant production. Like everything emanating from him, it is full of fine thought and fine sentiment, with a sweeping array of glowing genius, all clothed in a diction simple, pure, and as opposite as if the idea and language had been born together from a brain entirely original and independent in its conceptions. The spirit of the address, too, is national, catholic, patriotic, and grandly American from beginning to end.
"Pryor is a man of splendid parts, and Virginia has reason to be proud of him."—(Richmond, Va.)
370 The Richmond Whig paid a handsome tribute:—
"Roger A. Pryor is a man of resplendent genius. He has high culture, too, and he is far from being only an orator to excite the passions, to win applause, and to elicit admiration. He has comprehensiveness of brain, coupled with an extraordinary capacity for the nicest dialectics. As a writer or speaker, he should be invited to no second seat anywhere. He is more like William Wirt, perhaps, than any other of the gifted men of this country. And the day is not distant when, if he goes into politics again, he will have a national name as familiar to the North as, when he was a much younger man, it was to the Southern people.
"We have no doubt he will deliver a speech of unsurpassed beauty and eloquence on Decoration Day in Brooklyn."
These are but representative quotations. The whole country was ready to applaud the speech. It was a fitting close to the first twelve years of our life of trial and probation. The sweetest praise of all came in a letter from America's great preacher, Richard S. Storrs:—
"80 Pierpont Street,
"Brooklyn, N. Y.,
"May 31, 1877.
"My dear General Pryor:—
"I have read with the very greatest satisfaction and pleasure your admirable address of last evening. I sympathize, in fullest measure, with the delighted enthusiasm with which my wife and daughter spoke of the address after hearing it last evening, and am only more sorry than before that my unlucky and imperative engagement with the Historical Society Committee and Board forbade me to enjoy the splendid eloquence of utterance which they described to me. 371I do not see how you could possibly have treated the theme which the occasion presented more delicately or more grandly—with a finer touch, or a more complete mastery of all its proper relations and suggestions.
"It is a great address, and must have a wide and great effect. I only wish that all the papers would give it in its full extent.
"I am faithfully and with great regard,
"Yours,
"R. S. Storrs."
This address, which has been handsomely bound by the Brooklyn committee, was followed by invitations all over the country to speak—even from the Gospel Tent. But, unhappily, honor does not fill the basket, nor warm the body, nor pay the rent, nor satisfy the tax-gatherer. It is a nice, nice thing to have,—there's no use denying it,—but I think my dear general would have given it all, every bit, for one good, remunerative law case.
General Hancock.
Firmly fortified, as he persuaded himself, against ever again indulging in the fascinations of politics, his admiration for his old foe at Sharpsburg drew him into the Hancock campaign.
General Hancock, the hero of Gettysburg and Antietam, was worth every effort of every Democrat in the country. He was a superb man in every respect, and we soon became his ardent friends. His wife was a most dear, beautiful woman, whom I learned to love. So charming was their simple home on Governors Island, I could have brought myself to the point of begging the government—that had taken so much from me—to grant me a little 372corner to live near them and their two delightful friends, General James Fry and his wife.
At General Hancock's I spent much time, and while my general consulted with him on political matters, Mrs. Hancock and I would, when we could escape from the crowd, sympathize with each other as only stricken mothers can sympathize. She had just lost her beautiful Ada—and small indeed seemed the honors of this world to her.
My general made a fine speech for General Hancock, which was praised by the press as generously as the Decoration Day speech. It was understood that he would be Attorney-General in case of Hancock's election. We know the result; and I must confess that as the election returns were reported to us, I quite abandoned myself to disappointment. From my window next morning I could see another Democratic mourner, and in order to signal to her my state of mind, I hung a black shawl which I had on at the moment out of the window. Early on the day after the election I went with my daughter Gordon across the ferry to Governor's Island to assure myself of the welfare of my friends. It was a raw day in November, and snow was falling. We were the only passengers on the boat, with the exception of two serious-looking women who carried a large paper box between them. "Funeral flowers," suggested Gordon. Upon arriving, we walked up to General Hancock's house, and at the door perceived our fellow-passengers had followed us. They entered with us, and in order to give them the right of way in case they were come on appointment, Gordon 373and I passed on to the back parlor, leaving them in the front room. Presently we heard General Hancock accost them courteously, whereupon they arose and explained, with much solemnity, their errand. "General, for some time past we have been engaged in preparing a testimonial for you, with the assistance of your many admirers. Here, sir, is an autograph quilt,"—unfolding an ample and fearful object,—"and upon it there are autographs of our celebrated men: General Grant is here, Mr. Hayes is here, Mr. Garfield is here!"—General Hancock interrupted, "But—ladies! Thanking you for your kindness, let me inform you I have been defeated—your offering was probably designed for the elected President." With warm vehemence they both protested: "Oh, no, no, General! We are Democrats! No, sir! No Republican is ever going to sleep under this quilt if we can help it!" "Ah, well, then," said the general, "I suppose I can do nothing more than thank you. Yes, I can call Mrs. Hancock. She will say how much we appreciate your kindness."
Passing through the back parlor, he espied us. "Oh, Mrs. Pryor! Hang it all!" he ruefully exclaimed, as he went aloft. When Mrs. Hancock took charge of the situation, he returned to us.
"And so the general has sent you over to represent him at the funeral! Tell him I am all right; but by the bye, how many people came over with you?"
"Those two," indicating the party now descanting to Mrs. Hancock upon the fine collection of autographs. 374 "Had the result been different, a fleet could not have brought them all! However, the canes are coming in as well as the quilts. We shall not lack for fire-wood this winter, nor for covering."
Mrs. Hancock was soon relieved of her kind friends, and both she and the general accompanied us on a "little walk" proposed by him. "I shall not be lonely here," he told us; "a new ship comes in sight every day; and I've plenty to do. I must have all these leaves swept up, too. I'm a happier man than Garfield this day. Only," he added sadly, "I cannot reward my friends."
Mrs. Hancock opened the gate of her little garden and gathered a souvenir posy for Gordon, and so we parted from the two—so great, so dignified in the hour of defeat.
When I reached home, it was well I had a douceur for my general. He held in his hand the New York Tribune of the day, and pointed an indignant finger to a communication in which the public was warned against the incendiary principles of "persons in the family of a noted Southern lawyer, now resident on Brooklyn Heights, who had, in the moment of the nation's rejoicing, displayed in a window a piratical flag, deep-bordered and ominous." My poor little jest with my neighbor! My humble black shawl!
Having had an invi............