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THE NEW?SO UTH.
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VOL. I NO. 17. WHOLE NO. 09. PORT ROYAL, S. a, SATURBAV, JAM AI'.Y 9, ISO1. ' PRICE FIVE CENTS
THE NEW SOUTH. ;
Published every Saturday Morning by
JOS. H..SEAES, Editor and Proprietor. .
Price : Five Cexts Per Copt.
-* \ i
Advertisements, fifty cents a line, each insertion.
Terms: inmriably cash.
OFFICE: Phoenix Building, Union Sqnare. 1
[b\om l\xlmetto J'icturr.".]
LIVE OAK.
Magxificejct tree,
Over mountain and sea.
Sole monarch, the l'orcsta of each thy dominion,
Those that wave their tops
With a fondago of ropes,
And those, whose proud spars stem the coast Carol in Lin.
Let the tempest rave,
Thou art mighty to save,
The trepidant voyager trusting to thee,
And bending thine arm,
Dost buoy from harm,
Ilini breasting the billowy, bellowing sea.
Thou bindest the shores
Of the Hyperbores
TwSJP&ient zone of the teeming Equator,
And like an AttJe
Of the ArabjaJ^Niglit,
0 magical tree,
There's no winter for thee,
Never Boreal Sorcery blistered thy sheen.
All the weather-cock year
Thine unchangeable cheer
Over shadow and shine, grass and glacier, green.
Representative tree.
Ever typical bo
Of the soul and the spirit that quickens creation,
Plant of deity,
Lone liberty tree,
Leal Evergreen Oak, h'lr, American Xaiion
Correspondence of The New South.
First of January Celebration at Beaufort.
SWORD PRESENTATION TO GEN. SAXTON AND COL.
HIGGINSON?SPEECH-MAKING AND BAR3ECUE
?AN ENTHUSIASTIC CROWD.
Beaufort, S. C., Jan. 1st, 1SG3.
According to previous announcement, the new
year has been ushered in here by a grand demon- i
stratioa under the auspices of the freedmen, in
- honor of the President's memorable proclamation
of a year ago to day. An unusually cold and
rampant South-wester did not contribute particulnrlv
the cmnfort of the occasion, but the pro-!
' - I
gramme was, nevertheless, all carried out with
entire success.
.
A procession of over a thousand colored soldiers,
. quartermasters hands, and colored women and j
children, was formed under direction of Col. T.
W. Iligginson, of the 1st S. C. Vols., assisted by
Jacob Robinson, a well known colored resident
of this town, and marched through the principal
streets to the camp of the 1st S. C. Vols., where ;
a large stage had been erected, appropriately '
ornamented with arches inscribed with historic
na:ues which the world will not willingly let die. !
Singing by the schools and prayer by the Rev.
Abram Murchinson, a colorrti man, opened the
exercises. In the mean time salutes were fired
from various field works, and the John Adams,
slowly, steaming down the river, joined in with
the thunder of her guns. The Proclamation of j
Emancipation was read by Mr. G. Pil'sbury: r.nd j
a happily worded "New "Sear's Greeting from
Gen. Sax ton to the freedicen by It. Tomlinson,
chief superintendent of the Government plantations
on St Helena Islands
Than tfone A sword plantation to General
Saxton, made by the Rev. Mr. Lynch, an educated
colored minister from Baltimore, and no v.- a missionary
to the freedmcn in this Department In
the course of his truly eloquent presentation address,
lie said. "On.1 race here have no pledge to
make action: nut the nation's uniform upon !
, 4
tliem?they will never diijgrace it They are
ready to repeat Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend,'
and "Warner. Over seventy-five well attended
schools flourish in this Department The people
are rapidly improving, and are self-sustaining."
General Saxton replied briefly, spying ?nmong
other things, " I accept thi| beautiful sword with
solemn determination to wear it in the cause of the
freedom till every slave in this land is as free as
you are to-day." The General portrayed the
blessings to follow in the train of liberty, and exhorted
the colored soldiers to stand by the old'
flag whether they received $10 a month or nothing.
The sword presented is a very fine one, with a
richly wrought scabbard on which are engraved
the words:
"To Brioadisb-Gf.xerai. saxnrv, Military Governor, as
a testimonial of the gratitude oLafr.' Fzaedmen of the I)e,
i i i i*i Ml. wi?iili?i<BrtTfWW^rirails iftmn hi "
"IIW <>>r>ii? lihnrfx- r.rnt../?f inn in<l clxvaHnn. Ucailfort. Jail.
riSsT"
on the hilt are the Latin words :
" Palriaf Tibi. (To thee for God and onr country.)"
The next announcement was that of a speech
from Colonel Van Wyck, of the 50th X. Y. Vols.,
formerly chairman of the famous Congressional
Investigating Committee. The Colonel traced the
real issue between rebeldom and the rest of the
country from its inception at the ballot box, to
the appeal to the arbitrament of war, showing
that issue to be simply the Question whether the
labor should be slave or free. He eulogizes
Abraham Lincoln, the representative of free
labor; "the pure in purpose, the honest.in
heart," showed emancipation to be a military
necessity : said "the rebels have placed the yew
tree and the cypress in all the graveyards of the
North, they have clothed mothers and wives in
the habiliments of mourning, and have caused the
child to moisten his playthings with tears and
argued that for these and their other innumerable
crimes, the Negroes should go in and possess
their land, as did the* emancipated Jews that ol'
the Canaanites, for "an inheritance forever,"
The rebels lie said, talk a great deal about our
being invaders. Why, have we no right to come
into the State of South Carolina ? Our fathers
and theirs gave it to nie as ranch as the soil of
New York. We are bound to defend this mighty
country for posterity, as we should he treasures '
nlaced in our hands to be kept safely for others. ;
Not one of its stars shall be plucked away till j
every loyal American has pone down to the tomb. :
Colonel Elwell, Chief Quarter-Master of the
Department, was next introduced, and made a ;
brief speech to the colored people in plain anu j
simnle lancmaue. lie alluded to the " yankce
weather," and said that the yankee himself had !
come. The Emancipation Proclamation had finished
the work of the Declaration of Indepe ndence,
and it wonld never more be undone. 'Hie yankec
had come to stay, bringing with him his guns and
steamboats, and it would not be long before the
iron liorsc would tear across those islands,?so
long shut out from every energizing influence, and
Port Royal, the finest harbor on the Southern coast,
would be worth something. " Think of it, Colonel
Van Wyck," he exclaimed, turning to the Colonel,
" you could stand on the floors of Congress and
battle for freedom, but you could not come to
Port Royal. Speaking of General Gillmore ho
said, "General Gillmore makes you work hard
and we work hard, but no man in the Depa-tmcnt
of the South works harder than General Gillmoro
himself." He closed by saving, "We arc going
to fight out this war whether it be two years or
i.1.i.V?oln s\f rinil on/1 lltn
IUUIJ JCIUB lUU^CI, UJ lilb u? uvu uuu tuv.
black man."
Dr. Brisbane, one of the Tax Commissioners*,
was next called on. He briefly alluded to his
early school days at this place, and to his labors
as an abolitionist. Unexpectedly to himself, beyond
all his hopes, he stood here to-day, seeing
that his labors, mingled with those of others, had
been successful. Slavery was dead and only nwaited
burial. He believed that as sure as there
was a God in Heaven, all would speedily be free,
throughout the length and breadth of our land.
A well written poem, apropos to the occasion,
penned by Mr. H. G. Judd, was read by Mr. A.
P. Ketchum and congratulatory remarks to the
schools were made by the Rev. L. D. Barrows, D.
ja ( rianomJ gnp^ri?tpn/ln}flf..f>r Jrmf-'TK-tirrtK
An elegant sword was then presented Colonel
Higginson by Rev. M. Hall, a colored preacher, in
behalf of twelve of the prominent colored residents
of Beaufort and vicinity.
- a
Mr. Hall's speech iu presenting the sword was
directly to the point and told more than was expressed,
of the high appreciation, in which Colonel
H. is held by his men and their friends.
Colonel Higginson accepted the sword, not for
himself he said, but in the name of that regiment
which it was the greatest honor of his life to command.
They had not yet made assaults lihe that '
on "Wagner, but it had been their honor to conduct
an enterprise of as great danger, that of storming
the fortress of prejudice against the black man.
It was they who had made Fort Wagner, Fort
Hudson and Milliken's Fend, possible. Fifty thouniorir
soldiers were now marching throncli
the breach which their bayonets were the Crst to
storm. He had been presented with another
sword, not so line a one as this, which was taken
at Willtown Bluff by his soldiers. They had captured
it from the rebel Brigadier in command of
that place, and his men thought it was about good
enough for a Union Colonel. He trusted in the
name of God that the one now given him, he
should never disgrace.
A benediction closed the proceedings at the
stand. The good hits of the various speakers
were applauded with a vigor which showed their
entire appreciation, and cheers were given with a
will for President Lincoln, General fc&xtcn, Gen.
mill mill rs_
V .111111' 'IV , IliiVi
After the speaking the procession was reformed
anil marched to the tables m the rear of the camp,
where eight roasted oxen, a quantity of hard taclc,
two thousand loaves of brer.il and two barrels of
molasses were awaiting consumption. These preparations
received duo attention from the multitude
present, the barbecue closing in time lor
those from abroad to take the steamboats for home,
in good reason.
A friend suggests that something ought to be
said the music. He is right. 1 have all
along been intending to do it. It was Inrnished
by the regimental bands of the 8th Maine, and the
ixiU Vr.iv Vm-tr in thmrfof-st stvle. To those who
know those bands this will Ik; sufficient?lor the
benefit of those who are not so fortunate, I may
add that their music was as good as any martial
music to be had in this Derailment.
C.