“Had it pleased God to spare the precious lives of those of his companions in arms who have passed over the river, then we had seen the peerless Lee, the brave Johnston, and the dashing Hampton sharing our grief and mingling their tears with ours over the remains of the soldier whom Lee loved. Is there e’en a suggestion of irreverence in the thought which would people this hall with the dauntless spirits of our dead?
“Having met defeat in an unequal struggle and having loyally accepted the results of that struggle; having devoted our time and scanty means to the upbuilding of our loved land; having been blessed by a merciful God beyond our dreams or deserts, we lay aside our tasks to-day for awhile to recall the glories of our past and to tell of the valor of one who fought and bled for us.
“The foeman need not frown,
They are all powerless now;
We gather here and we lay them down,
And tears and prayers are the only crown
We bring to wreathe each brow.
“Having passed the span which Providence ordinarily allots as the term of human life, General James Longstreet has answered the roll-call of the great God.
“What a brilliant page in history is filled with his grand career. Born more than eighty years ago in the neighboring State of South Carolina, he entered West Point in his seventeenth year and graduated therefrom in his twenty-first. He served with marked distinction in the Mexican War and was more than once complimented for his gallant conduct and merited and received promotion.
“When the Southern States withdrew from the Union by reason of attacks on their reserved rights which were guaranteed by the Constitution, and were forced into the war between the States, James Longstreet offered his services and sword to the cause of self-government. No history of the war may be written which does not bear emblazoned on every page the story of his deeds. Why need I recount them here? Assuredly no one will question the gross impropriety of discussing incidents of the career of Longstreet during the war which have been the subject of criticism by some.
“We who knew him forty-odd years ago; we who shared his convictions and in humble ways bore a part in the good cause; we know what a tower of strength Longstreet was to the noblest knight who has graced tented field since the peerless Bayard passed from earth,—Robert E. Lee; we feel and know to-day that neither boundless praise nor fullest words of gratitude can exaggerate the worth of James Longstreet or pay him what we owe.
“By what I deem is a peculiarly fortunate coincidence, we are committing his remains to the tomb on a day when the Catholic Church commemorates the manifestation of our Saviour to the Gentiles in the persons of the wise men, who, led by a star, came from their distant homes to Bethlehem. The Bible tells us that they found the Child and Mary, His Mother. God has sent stars which have been beacon-lights on our pathway through the world, though in their gleaming we have foolishly failed at times to see the guiding hand of a merciful Providence. Joy and sorrow, sickness, and even death have been stars which should have led us nearer and nearer to God.
“It is my duty as a priest of God to call your attention to the obvious lesson of this occasion,—the vanity of mere earthly greatness and the certainty of death and the necessity of preparation for it. James Longstreet was a brave soldier, a gallant gentleman, but better still—a consistent Christian. After the war between the States he became a member of the Catholic Church, and to his dying day remained faithful to her teaching and loyal to her creed.
“Deep down in the heart and breast of every man when touched by the correcting hand of God there is a longing for some means of communicating with loved ones who have been taken from us by death. Oh that we might reach them or tell them of our love or do something for them!