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earnestness with which any such intentions was disclaimed.
They had said, "Let us now prepare to build us an altar,
not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice, but that it may be
a witness between us and you and our generations after us,
that we might do the service of the Lord --- that your chil-
dren may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have
no part in the Lord."

The reader added no comment to this well-chosen Scrip-
ture --- already every heart was full. For these first spoken
words expressed the thought of all, that not in malice or in
mischief, not in rebellion or in disaffection had we come
together beneath the blue skys that so far from rearing an
altar of discontent, we had met with a just pride in our
common heritage, with an abiding devotion in our common
faith, with more than a brother's love to the tribes more
numerous and more favored that ourselves, separated from us
by the hills and streams of our common home.

Such thoughts as these found their utterance in the Te
Deum which was next sung by the assembly; for St. Ambrose's
words become us well when we realize the communion of the
Saints. Prayers were then offered by the Rt. Rev. Bishop
Cobbs, of Alabama, and the Gloria in Excelsis was chanted by
the company.

The Hon. G. B. Duncan next took the stand, and after
some introductory remarks, proceeded to read the Declara-
tion of Independence. He also gave, by request, a