Providence dealt with them
very differently. The one was struck down by a mortal wound before
his task was well begun; his life, to all human seeming, was given in
vain, and his name will ever be associated with the mournful memories
of a lost cause and a vanished army. The other, ere he fell beneath
the assassin's stroke, had seen the abundant fruits of his mighty
labours; his sun set in a cloudless sky. And yet the resemblance
between them is very close. Both dared:
For that sweet mother-land which gave them birth
Nobly to do, nobly to die. Their names,
Graven on memorial columns, are a song
Heard in the future;...more than wall
And rampart, their examples reach a hand
Far thro' all years, and everywhere they meet
And kindle generous purpose, and the strength
To mould it into action pure as theirs.
Jackson, in one respect, was more fortunate than Lincoln. Although
born to poverty, he came of a Virginia family which was neither
unknown nor undistinguished, and as showing the influences which went
to form his character, its history and traditions may be briefly
related.
It is an article of popular belief that the State of Virginia, the
Old Dominion of the British Crown, owes her fame to the blood of the
English Cavaliers.
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