Presenting Portrait of Gen. Wade Hampton. 135
mentary terms. The speaker called this name, the last of a noted list of statesmen. The audience applauded spontaneously and im- mediately. One or two of the old vets shook their heads, but it was evident that the name of the sage of Princeton was pleasant to the ears of most of them there.
The camp met in regular session and transacted a mass of busi- ness, routine and otherwise,. Commander J. P. Smith presided, with his usual grace. He introduced Colonel Finney, who spoke in part as follows:
THE PRESENTATION ADDRESS.
Commander, Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I should do violence to my profound sense of the honor con- ferred by the far-famed Washington Light Infantry batallion of Charleston, S. C., Company A, Hampton Legion, in having me represent them on this occasion; violence, too, to my keen appre- ciation of the further honor yourselves bestow upon being present to-night, were I not, at the outset, to make to all here and in Charleston at least the poor return of my thanks for the unmerited compliment. At the same time it is, I assure you, with sincere dis- trust and unaffected embarrassment that I undertake a duty that had been entrusted far more wisely to some other, to any other comrade. Indeed, so acute is this feeling that I am restrained from throwing down my accoutrements and running away in disgrace, only I fear, by remembering our great commander's definition and exemplification of the sublime word, duty. This remembrance will, I trust, ever hold me to my own duty, if not in all things, at least my duty to my old comrades in arms, whether they be living or dead.
That duty demands that I present, at this time, to R. E. Lee Camp, No. i, in the name and on behalf of the Washington Light Infantry Battalion of the city by the sea, this portrait of South Carolina's most distinguished son among many distinguished sons Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton illustrious name!
How the spirit is stirred and the eye kindles and the heart throbs with unbounded admiration and love akin to adoration whenever and wherever it is spoken "through all the wide border" of his and our beloved Southland!
What vivid and abiding recollections of lofty patriotism, of un- flinching courage, of unsullied honor, of knightly deeds, of master-
