Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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aaaft-infity aforesaid, that from (and) afttrr.Jikfr passing of this Act. it shall not 1 fcu? lawful for any number of slaves, ftraatcesrroes, mulattoes or mestizos, company with white persons, tto aeegi together and assemble for the iparpwse of mental instrucfion or reHpissr worship, ?ither before the risthe sun or after the going down of siti eame; and all magistrates, sheriIEl suUitia officers and officers of the {sStra?- being commissioned, city or tasrvT? -guards, or watchmen, are hereby vaM&ac with all the powers and authority St>T dispersing such assemblies, befixre t?&y or after sun set; and the said qflTow? <rre also entpowervd to impose on fthS-arr^ slaves, free negroes, mulattoes or iw?6u.rvs- the -same punishment as by the kw: they are authorized to do in eaqpvxute whatsoever. Jfcihe Senate House, the twentieth Asp- ??J December, in the year of our ItcriE one thousand eight hundred, and t5u? Swentj'-fifth year of the Independ?ace of the United States of America. Joan >vara, President of the Senate. Theodore Gaillard, ^Sjntaker House of Representatives. 1834. i Imprison men t or Fifty ,Mjti?Aies to Teach a Negro to Stead. Act to Amend the Laws in Relation Slaves and Free Persons of Color. L. Sie-it enacted by the honorable the Srfjntf-.e and House of Representatives, ifw met and sitting in General AsseinliiV; *iul by the authority of the same, B jcov person shall hereafter teach acag .?lave to read or write, or shall aaf *<r assist in teaching any slave .rcafi ?r write, or cause or procure asjr ^lave to be taught to read or write, snch person, if a free white perasi^ cpoB conviction thereof, shall, for 1 111 * r>(fonce no-nlnct this AsX fee fined not exceeding one hun?tro? dollars, and imprisoned not more tfiaan; six months; or if a free person < ??S j?35?st, shall be whipped not exceedingrtlfty lashes, and fined not exceedMSf fifty dollars, at the discretion of tfejf *Qcurt of Magistrates and freeholdlore which such free person of coloc as tried; and if a slave, to be "mimnpod not exceeding fifty lashes; tei* informer to be entitled to one half nXsk* ilne. and to be a competent witsswa-t. *And if any free person of color ?m- iiave shall keep any school, or ?'S3te;r x?Iace of instruction, for teaching su;i-i->t3ie or free person of color to r*s*j3 or write, such free person of color ?raL>8.v<? shall be liable to the same fine, j.*?jr ziw?nment and corporal punishment, aRttTP by this Act imposed and inflicted oasjfe?*: .persons of color and slaves for tear-king slaves to read or write. 1TIL This Act shall take effect from feJwbSrsfc day of April next. ** ? - O i... TT un uie neuaie xiuusc, iut scvcurocum *? December, in the year of oar one thousand eight hundred and t&urty-four and in the fity-ninth year of fete- Independence of the United States of America. H. Deas, President of Senate. Patrick Noble, ^Speaker House of Representatives. Bar. Calhoun Would Have Conjuress Exclude from the Mails ail Literature on Slavery. As-"Senator, and chairman of special < ocMMsiittee, Mr. Calhoun "brought in a -subjecting to severe penalties any 1 p*?bnaster who should knowingly xsueftvc and put into the mail any ^nubtiration or picture touching the sub- ! lertf ?af -siaxary, to go into any state or fesrxtory in which the circulation of ] ma&. publication or picture should be ] nrrewmen oy me state jaws. i GL2U3HOUX ON RECORD AS OPPOSBD ace fCHE "diffusion of knowl- : EiX?F." Axi Englishman named James M^xthson, who died in 1829, made a tiagoest to the United States of half- ( mi&'on dollars to be kept by the Gov- ] acmuientasa fund "for the increase j susc^f tl>e diffision of knowledge j auneug men." We are told that Cal- { twau, with all his power and elo ( qwcce, opposed the acceptance of j tfel? feequest, he contending that it ( wwarid be beneath the dignity of the < 2t:*fc??n to do so. The bequest was j &-racally accepted, but for some eight ( ntff Jen years its receipt in this country ( vf?s delayed. The Smithsonian In- < aiitetion is today one of the most ] iucportant institutions of its kind in ( titk. world. This instance is men- { t?c3ied only as in keeping, or consist- j es*r?. '^vith Calhoun's lack of interest , i* educating the people, and to show , fcjL*??t the funeral of our dead is no [ proper time to eulogize those who irn8 not shown themselves friendly. ( But, let it be set down to the credit j air (Calhoun that he or his family ed- ( bkxUsq George McDuffie, who was a | fFjcrorgifi youth, the son of poor pa- < rwras. lie became, as you know, at J *HfiR?5Pent times "United States Senator , soz& Governor of the State. , DIFFERENT TO-DAY. \ T* flay the State of South Carolina I>r5% h three-mill tax on all property for -ar.aintaining the public sehools, this tax is supplemented by vote ? ffhe people in nearly every k.*hool < ;i5*XTjct in the State, the whole < *.j??nt thus raised aggregating a < vwj /urge sum. This sum is placed 1 ace Junius VI UUU111J oLIJJvI ill Hjll" ] ;fejt2>: of education who pay teachers, i >r?r; --cnly fur white children, but they i jict" *or negro schools which are main- < :.sd Sf-fyj especially for them?no legal i splice being made between the rsrrsts. i Zve "C'llbotin's (lay we bad the South 1 Oirfiliim College, an expensive institu- ' rj.v, i whose heavy charges as a rule, ex poor \\mng men from its benev :,'> day we had tne Charleston Cit: jf.'v- iT institution which, by a sjs^em <?r i-vsirds. was. 1 believe, mainly for >~t:?. ^.'.u-Mtfit of the son* of gentlemen \.\ been unfortunate. We also >> Erskine College at Dne West, 'is been a great factor in morals j . J.V. 1 -?dncation. Having been bom nn- j *-i <. ioiul of ignorance, it lias grown 1 ?: -ei'niuess unL-r each succeeding -ji. ! ud ) the administration of ; t Moffatt its usefulness ha-= ....? u v*itil the passing years. 1 In Calhoun's day, we had Limestone s College. * 1 In Calhoun's day, if we had a single j public school, the fact has not come to \ my knowledge. i Since Calhoun's day the number of chartered colleges, for white students, State and denominational, has increased to 27. Today we have 2,712 public schools for white children, with an attendance of 153,807. $1,590,753.51 was paid to the teachers last year. In Calhoun's day we had no legally educated negroes. In his day the teachers of negroes to read, if white, received sentences of fine and imprisonment. If negro teachers, they received imprisonment and lashes. Today there are 2,854 public schools for negroes, where 2,696 negroes teach 181,095 negro children, ana the merry jingle of the coins of the realm, in their pockets, makes glad their hearts. $308,153.16 was paid to negro teachers last year. In addition to the public schools there were six chartered negro colleges, and five other colleges. If it took the Calhonn'element ninety years to build four colleges and no public schools, it would seem that the poor white trash have done very well in their thirty-five years in the saddle. It is a notable fact that, with a large share of population cut off from Abbeville county, that this county paid a larger sum last year for teachers and schools in the home of the great statesmon fViQn iitqq noiH v?v thfl whole State luau tu?u ?? ww vj ..? ? ? to educate "buckra" in former years. Here is something that has been don4 in the way of establishing schools since the war, and in sending children to them : IN THE WHOLE STATE. WHITE SCHOOLS. No. of white pupils 151,807 No. of white schools 2,712 Total paid white teachers.. $1,025,370.81 Building school houses 141,144.02 i Land for school purposes .... 27,775.37 Repairing school houses 43,810.37 j Fuel and incidental eip 37,476.29 Total paid white men teachers 419,390.36 Total paid white women teachers 799,676.52 Total for all purposes $1,469,277.93 ( COLORED. No. public schools 2,354 i No. bovs attending school 83,164 1 "KT/-1 nrirla aM-.anriincr school 97.731 Total attendance 181,095 , Total paid colored men teachers $ 100,948.26 j Total paid colored women teachers $ 172.566.69 ' Building school honses 7,13'"-.66 ( Repairing school houses 7,015.91 Land for school purposes .... 579.75 Fuel and incidental exp 10,945.86 Total for all purposes $ 808,158.16 j ABBEVILLE COUNTY. 1 WHITE SCHOOLS. Salaries paid women teach- 1 ers $19,800.55 t Salaries paid men teachers 8,000.84 < Repairs on school houses 1,573.61 f Building new school houses .... 1,594.02 j Rent on school houses 192.13 f Land for school purposes.? 53.60 Fuel and incidentals 1,400.00 s Other purposes 1,044.49 ? " - * * Ann />-n Ai Total for wtnte scnoois foo,oo?.?* COLORED. Salaries paid women teachers...$7,015.69 ^ Salaries paid men teachers 1,592.00 Building 127.00 Fuel ana incidentals 84.81 ) ] Total expenditures $8,769.50 t I 3HALL RULERS DESTROY US FOR ( THE BENEFIT OF MEXICAN GREAS- I ERS? I Public sentiment in favor of equal t education and equal religious privi- t leges has so fur spread over the f land of the former slave, to whom the ^ light of the gospel was refused, ex- t ?ept as delivered to him by others, r that today one of the smallest relig- a ious denominations within the limits f 3f the Southern Confederacy, con- i tributes about half as much'money F for the support, education, medical treatment and religious instruction i )f Mexican Greasers as the State of c South Carolina formerly contributed i --i 1- ?!i. f or tne common scnoois wiuuu iis i >wn bounds. The Mexican Greasers, c is I understand, are not exactly of s ;he same division of the human race i ,vho were, before the war, not only c lot educated, but who were de- s marred the right to be taught to read, r The fact is, the growing sentiment 4 miong our people in favor of educatng colored people beyond the Rio 1 jrrande may develop to such an ex* ;ent as to result ill the crushing of some of the weaker churches in this iountry. The extreme effort to raise c money for strangers, while our own c leedy neighbors receive no pretense 1 it charity in any form, is lamentable 1 indeed. ? c SET FREE BY TILLMAN. j It has been said that the pendulum \ swings back, and it may be that in k )ur rejoicing at the education of the white children of our own country ' we may be so crazed in our efforts to ? benefit Mexican Greasers, that we J may ourselves return to the darkness ( in which Calhoun left us, without the safe anchor of the religion and the ? culture of those who ruled the 1 country before poor and uneducated c people began to do a little thinking c on their own account and before they 1 could dare to assert an opinion that 1 did not originate with, or which ( had not the approval of Calhoun and his satelites. ! ( TO CALHOUN MAY HE GIVEN CREDIT < I'nit T1IK EMANCIPATION OF ^ TIIK SLAVES. J The great lesson which Mr. C'al- i houn's lift* and labors should impress i upon us is this: The people should learn to do a little thinking on their mvn account. Thev should not so 1 iar lorjjei ineir own munnoou aim i tlicir own individuality,swto become tin* blind follower of any man, or the i willing tool of any set of men. They i should not shut their eyes, and open their mouths to swallow all the garbage that may be thrown into their throats, no matter whether to advance 'a political heresy or to promote a religious folly. Former negro slaves honor and worship Lincoln for the emancipation proclamation that let fall from their limbs the shackles that bound them. The credit for that proclamation is primarily due to John C. Calhoun who is, more than any one else, responsible for the war which resulted in their freedom. In attempting to rivet the shackles more firmly, he gave the hand of the deliverer the chance to strike, and when that hand struck, the slave, no less than the "poor white trash," became a freeman. THE UNEDUCATED CITIZEN, LIKE THE UNARMED SOLDIER, IS NOT PREPARED FOR THE CONFLICT. While all admit the ability of Calhoun, and while none deny the purity of his character or the honesty of his purpose, yet the facts and the logic of events show that he was from his own standpoint, mistaken in pursuing the course which resulted in the secession of the State and which secession Drought on the war, and which war freed the slave. This result is due more to Calhoun's efforts than to the for.# or power of any other, ror years ne urged a course that finally led to the accomplishment of his desire for secession, but he did not live to see the country in the throes of a death struggle. He did not live to see the "poor white trash" have an equal chance to prove that his manhood was equal to that of his more wealthy and more pretentious neighbor. That the manhood and the citizenship of the despised "poor white trash" was equal to that of the slave owner is proved in the greater progress, and in the greater development of the country which, for the last thirty years, far surpasses the advancement of a hundred years before Democratic reconstruction. Abbeville County, with a part of its territory cut off, last year contributed for public schools as much as did the whole State of South Carolina in any single year before the war when all of South Carolina sneezed as Calhoun took snuff. if he did favor the education of anybody, and if such proof is on record, it would be well for some man who is better informed than myself to produce it. DALHOUN'S ERROR?DAVIS'S CRUELTY. Did not the great Calhoun contribute more than any other to the Secession movement? Did not Jeff Davis propose to have the last of his followers slain even after General Johnston had said that further fighting would be murder? Do not !/he words of the unequalled Calhoun ind the proposed unsurpassed cruelty )f Jeff Davis teach us to be a little jelf-reliant, and learn us to do a ittle of our own thinking? We >hould not forfeit our own manhood. iCRIPTURE MAY BE QUOTED TO SUSTA1JN ALi-UUSi. A.* I TENTION. Did not. our preachers, during the yar, presient Scripture authority to mpport the justice and the righteousiess of a slavery which was then reauisive to all the world and, except n the Southern States, stunk in ;he nostrils of civilized men in every Dart of the earth? Do not the clergy >f today burden home churches for no letter purpose than that of robbing ;he people under some mysterious ilea of Scripture authority to squeeze he life out of home churches that heir pride or their vanity may be gratified at the enormity of the vrong thatthey are inflicting upon he people, or the injury which they nay be doing tochurches? Scripture LUthority may be auotedjfor any pur>ose. When garbled words are ised the scriptures may be guoted to >rove "that there is no Goa." The enormity or the sin or couectng money for the Lord from innoent, confiding people, may be seen n the fact that of all money collected or the Lord about ninety per cent, if it goes in fancy salaries for alleged ervices of which no definite accountng is ever made. The Lord or his ause gets almost none of it. It eems that the Mexicans "work" our nissionaries, and that we are 1 'worked," too. >R. JOHN DE LA HOWE THE POOR MAN'S GREATEST BENEFACTOR. Then, may it not be asked if any trator has ever mentioned the name >f Dr. John DeLa Howej who left housands of acres and a big sum of noney to educate and to support for ill time twelve boys and twelve girls >f the poorer or orphan class? The jrobability is that a majority of my learers never heard of the Lethe School. But all have neara 01 trie giory 01 he Cokesbury School, which is a ;ood denominational school, but vhich is no longer in Abbeville bounty. All have heard of Erskine College ind the College for Women?denom UUUOIlcU v.UIlUttc:i,? iviicic txic uc;ji/ )f boys and the best of girls may be sducated for the hig-her walks and nay become better fitted for the disiharge of the more important duties )f lifo?if they have the price. All have heard of Dr. Wad dell's school -at Willingto'n where sous >f plutocratic fathers might be educated without the contaminating touch or the humiliating association with despised sous of plebeian parents. When Mr. Calhoun was to be jnlike McDullie and I'etigru, he ignored our own colleges and went to Vale College. Willington school no longer exists. It passed into history when the nceil "or its existence had ceased. The iristocracv found other and greater institutions. Its praises however, ire still being sung, but nobody' has anything to 9ay of the c orphan's greatest benefactor, Dr. c John DeLa Howe. He died a hun- i dred years ago, but his school still t exists. Neither orator nor politician t has sung his praise for the act which t has blest more boys and girls of poor c people than the act of any dozen a men who have ever lived in Abbeville County. On the other hand we are, on all public occasions?even when we come to pay tribute to the valorous dead of our own blood? ( asked to pay tribute to politcians who i never helped to set the feet of any \ needy boy or girl on a higher level i n or sought to put any helpless orphan J on a better plane. SEEKING TO PLEASE THE PEOPLE ( BY INSULTING THEIR INTELLI- , GENCE. , The criticism which might be 1 made of all the orators is, that they 1 seemingly would seek to please the ] people by trying to lead them to f believe that they are nobody, as j | compared to men that never did anytning to bless any poor man, woman or child. Did not the idol- ' izod greatness belong to that class of ] plutocrats who taught theiT slaves to call poor people, "poor white J trash," or "poor buckra?" Does ( Q/x.'H.n.M imlni. nii Qnufhorn manhnnrl 1 OUULIIOt U vauu \JL uwuuiiViu .MMU..VWV. owe anything to men who may have * been vulgar enough, or who may have ' been self-jonceited enough, to teach * their slaves to speak thus of our 1 ancestors? Do the respectable and 1 the honorable poor people of today owe anything to any man who mayhave spoken disrespectfully of the fathers and mothers of the men 1 whose vilor, fifty-years ago, in the ? hour of its greatest struggle, reflected t the highest honor upon the fame and 1 the military glory of the common 1 country? t Where is there a more striking in- t stance of disinterested valor to be 1 found than in the "poor white trash," 1 if you will, who stood at the elbow of the landlord, in a hundred hard- -i fought battles, and at the last went to t his death and to an unknown grave, J defending the property rights of an- fc other? The rich man died in battle, \ and his landed estate fell to his widow c and children. The estate of the "poor r iirliifo frouh" ormcidtprl in t.hfi strength t of his good right arm, and when that was stilled in death, pitiable woe and misery were entailed upon his family. But these things were below the level of polite history, and future generations will never know how the live:} of the humble poor were sacrificed to hold the property and to glorify the names of those who scorned them in civil life. THE BUILDING OF COTTON MILLS. / In 1877 there was much poverty among our people and for two or three yet\rs great numbers of white men were constantly going to other States. To stop this emigration, Wm.H. Parker of this county, and others in the Legislature from different counties, conceived the ideaof returning to cotton mills the taxes which they might pay for ten years. This gave an impetus to the building of cotton mills, and so it was that a emigration from this State was \ stopped. Men, women and children a from that time were offered comfort- I qMo hnmps '.n whioh to live while c earning the best wages that were ever a paid for labor in South Carolina. c It is a fact r;hat Mr. Parker's son, i L. W. Parker, now of Greenville, is at the head of the cotton mill busi- t ness in 8outh Carolina, receiving as t a salary a larger sum than is paid to c any other man in the State. In t conferring inestimable blessing upon g the people W. H. Parker also t conferred a benefit on his own son, L. W. Parker, by opening the g way for his distinction as a captain t of industry. e a mr. calhoun would have e helped. s If Mr. Calhoun had been alive in ? 1880 he would have modified his anti- ? tariff principles and would no doubt J* have joined Mr. Parker in his effort 0 to place South Carolina in the fore- e * ?? /> infnrinff Sfotil TVTl" irUIJL tW U> Luauuiav/kuiiug mmwi Calhoun opposed the tariff because ? the South was an agricultural, not a ? manufacturing, country. As soon as . slavery was abolished, there was then 11 no reason why South Carolina should Q longer remain out of the manufacturing industry. Mr. Calhoun was a lover of his country and he unflinchingly stood for all those measures n which would tend to its best inter- p ests as they then existed. But the ? times changed, and Mr. Calhoun, like a the rest of us, would have changed e with them. H SOUTH CAROLINA LEAD3 THE jj 80UTHERN STATES. ^ Favorable laws and good labor, en- * abled the manufacturer to realize ^ a profit on his investment. This good investment stimulated the ? building of great cotton mills in ? all parts of South Carolina, until this ? State, in point of the number of v looms and spindles, leads every ? Southern State, and is second in the r United States only to Massachusetts, r Our great water powers, our healthful climate, our immense and grow- 8 ing army of willing workers will yet P put South Carolina further in the {] lead. LABOR A VALUABLE ASSET. The former slaves, who were but chattels before the war, are now turning their industrious feet in the paths of civilization, and their indus- d try and their kindly nature, are I making of them important factors in fi the agricultural and commercial e world, and in this way the former v slaves are groat aids to thestruggling 1< white man of today. J With more than a hundred a thousand white people drawn from d the field to the cotton mills in this h State we are making annually ii increased cotton crops. And every | b man, be he white or black, who raises a bale of cotton, or sells a load ft of bay or brings to market anything o that grows out of the ground is a r< contributor to the business interests \\ >f the country. He thus in:rease3the volume of trade and busness. To that extent he is a public >enefactor, And is worth to the counry a thousand times more than all he mere political agitators who listurbed the peace of the country ind died before the war. ?HE COUNTRY LOST NOTHING BY EMANCIPATION. While the slave owner, at the close )f the war, was made poor indeed, pet the labor was left, and is here still, and labor is one of the most important assets of any country. The individual owner of slaves was impoverished, but the country has been, ieprived of nothing. Free labor is more valuable to the country than was slave labor. Before the war the negro was a slave and he performed For his master the assigned labor of a slave, but now, that he is a freeman tie performs the labor of a freeman, ina he is a citizen. MATERIAL AND MORAL WEALTH. With churches, schools and coleges to train the mind and heart, (vith the good climatic conditions, :he fertility of the soil of our rolling litis and our vast stretches of proiuctive levels, the unequalled labor md the limitless water powers of ;his country will at no distant day nake this the best country on the ?ace of the footstool of Him who made :he dry land, the sea and all that in ;hem is. GREATER VICTORIES IN PEACE. Truly, in war the Southern soldier ost all, save. H&nor. But worthy ions of worthy sires, inspired and mimated by the example of their heroic fathers,''have won greater victories in peace than any of which heir fathers ever-dreamed of winling in war. And it is said that victories in peace are no less relowned than victories in war. To the descendants of patriotic varriors and to the sons and daughers of the noble women of a former feneration Abbeville County, the State of South Carolina, and the vorld, is indebted for these splendid lolleges which stand amid these magliflcientoaks whose towering heads each us to look from Nature up to Nature's God. These classic halls each us to reach out for the higher, he purer, and the better things of ife. In the diffusion of knowledge, n the spread of religion, and in the :ultivation of the polite arts they itand as beacon lights on the mounain's summit. Here in these coleges young men and young women, ike Paul at the feet of Gamaliel, may 'be taught according to the perfect nanner of the law of the fathers." ind not until the good people of Due West come down from their ligh estate, will they cease to pay a leart's tribute to the memory, to ;he sacrifice, the suffering, the life md the death of those who went out rom their doors to shed lustre on Southern arms. A COUNTRY'S TRUE GREATNESS. On occasions like this, when men issemble to listen to chosen or incited orators, the speakers too often ire forgetful of the character, the mtriotism and the sturdy manhood if the multitude whom they are iddressing. They forget that the ountry's greatness is not measured n the exaltation of a few men. A. country's greamesa is eswiijuuxi ?y the character, the courage and he valor of those who are on the ommon level. The grandeur of he firmament which showeth the ;lory of the great Architect is seen in he stars and not in the meteor. Except as an incentive to ;reater effort to reach the higher and he better things, or to strengthen a ore steadfast determination to ,ttain the mastery, there is neither xcuse nor justification for the contant reiteration of any name, and eslecially should there be no toleration n occasions like this, in the use of ny name except to ''point a moralt r to adorn a tale." There is never any mitigation for he irrelevant mention of the names fthe great, or the near-great, exept to elicit applause where the abject matter of the speaker is not a itself inspiring or entertaining. BEAT MEN SOMETIMES OF DOUBTFUL BENEFIT. Thfl stereotyped and wearisome lention of the names of distinguished oliticians may lead the citizen } doubt the benefit of being born in land where the common people are "i" J k/\ftA?V4A AO T-Vl r?m 1 OC fKaf XptXICU l/U UWULUC (U ?SIgU<lU>3 vwuv hey may idolize the great. Shall he highest evidence of culture rest a our ability to toady to the rich or o become the subservient vassals of he great ? We all sing the praises f Lee and Jackson, of Davis and ohnston, but who has ever heard f the name and the valorous act of ny private soldier? The praise all ;oes to those who suffered least in par, or who attained greatness in ieace. Beneath the homespun oat of the humblest and the least :no\va American citizen may palpiate a heart as true, as honest, and as ood as that which throbs in the ireast of the great, however much 1 ie may have electrified listening Senates, or led great battalions of sol- ' liers to their fate. VIIAT GOOD WOMEN DID FIFTY YEARS AGO. Fifty years ago loving wives and i ICVOttJU IIlULIlUI.'i ??,vu men muands jui(I their sons that they might j ight for .Southern Rights. The fair- st und the sweetest maidens that the j irorld has ever known sent their i ivers and their brothers to the war. Uid the world attests the fidelity : nd the courage of the Southern sol- i ior in maintaining not only the onor of his country, but in deserv- j ig the love and the affection of the i est woni"n on earth. It is, therefore, eminently proper < >r Due West, the far-famed center .> f education, civilization, purity, i jiigion and patriotism to assemble I itii reverential hearts to pay u just IJ tribute to the dead and to attest their love and fidelity to the living. Hfl Heroic soldiers in the sublime QBE struggle for Southern Bights, wheth- Hfl er living or dead, conferred honor 9B9 upon their people, and it is but HCT natural that an appreciative genera- jBBB tion should, on occasion# like this, Kg give expression to their feelings after |B| ''righteousness and peace have kissed HH each other." Kg AN HONORED ORATOR WHO OBSEBVED THE PROPRIETIES. Bfl On this occasion an honored des- BB cendant from a family of distinguish- ?Pfl ed defenders of Southern Bights was jj| properly chosen as your orator. That HI orator has sat in the councils of the 9H State, and, for a time, he adorned the United States Senate. He could HH have no other thought than that of IB loyalty to you and to your interests. 99 He could have no other feeling than SgB that which would glorify the deserv- M ing of your ranks, and which was Bfl responsive to your sentiment and In IW sympathy with your love for heroic HB defenders. The orator's ancestors SB were, like yours, in the thickest of g| of the fight. So For these reasons, if for no other, you were assured that the orator 'Hi would not inflict upon you at so in- HH nrinnrtnnp u tima tho ifepontcn<vi !C?i ron-call that has been repeated by nearly every speaker who has addressed an Abbeville County audience since the war. We all knoyv by heart lists of names of politicians who did nothing to promote the growth and prosperity ot the country, but who were so effective in bringing upon the country a trouble that asvept the land like a besom of destruction. Mr. Gary knew that you not want to hear it when you were at the graves of your valorous dead, or when you were bowing before your country'* altar to the Eatriotism of her citizens and doing omage to the valor of her soldiers. At the funeral of our dead, or when we are assembled to pay tribute to the heroism of our fathers, is no time to eulogize troublesome statesmen or to praise little political disturbers of the peace. And for this reason, if for no other, your invited orator very properly avoided the threadbare story of anybody's greatness before the war. In peace as in war, his has been a family for achievement and not for abasement of the humble before greatness. ? . o * 1 , w MEMORIAL DAYS TO VALOR. No soldier, nor the son of any soldier, would take from any distinguished statesman a single diadem that may adorn his brow, nor would the warrior, or his descendants, detract one iota from the glory of the laurel wreath that may entwine the brow of any civil or military offlcerr Yet the descendants of these soldiers who fought their country's battles, would do honor to their fathers and pay a just tribute to their comrades fn the armed conflict. Their descendants would assemble in recognition of the meritorious discharge of duty by the humble soldier who was flesh of our flesh, who was our kinsman, our friend and our neighbor, living, being and dying on a common level with ourselves. However great others may have been, we would be more or less than men if we did not honor the valor,of our own ancestors. These descendants assemble on "Memorial Days" to honor those of their peers who merit and who d& serve their country's gratitude. The noble part which they took in the war reflected honor not only upon themselves but it gave distinction to the country.They gave us reason to keep their names imperishable in warm hearts. If orators on these occasions should turn their attention to per sonalities, and If they were disposed to speak of the incidents pertaining to some of the sublime struggles in which Due West's valorous soldiers participated, they might tell a thrilling story of many noble men, who bravely suffered and courage- , ously died for their country. THE BATTLE OF GAINES MILL. To even mention the names and the dates of the thousand battles that occurred in a four years' war would fill a book. For this reason only one battle is specifically named today. In other battles the valor of the Confederate soldier was no less conspicuous than at Gaines Mill. Gaines' Mill, as you all may know, was the second day's battle of the famous Seven Days Battle Around Richmond. Every man from the humblest soldier in the ranks to the commander of the army knew that a battle was imminent. Any proposed movement of an army is one of the things ?even if never told in words?that cannot be kept secret from the soldiers. Either from brain waves or through the existence of some sense . not yet sufficiently developed ? in any one man, the men of > an army know of the intended movement, whether to fight or to change camps. To change camps may be a pleasant diversion and a relief, but to go to battle is another matter. Those who know its significance regard it seriously, and every man, even if the lips do not move as he goes to battle, utters a heart prayer to Him who "rides upon the storm," and who controls alike the destiny of men and the fate of nations. When the soldiers in both armies had looked to the same over-ruling Providence for protection, all went to battle trustingly ana nopeiiuiy. On the twenty seventh of June, ISG2, General Lee's army attacked General Porter's command of the Kederal army, and from two o'clock in the afternoon until seven o'clock the buttle raged in deadly conflict. I'he l-Vderal loss in killed, woundh1 and captured in that five hours is jet down officially at G.3S7. Because )f their advantage of position, and lecause of their greater number, tho federal loss was less than that of the ?