Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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BY JULIAN A. SELBY. Cen. Preston's Address. By special request, we publish the fol? lowing extracts from the "address" of Gen. John S. Preston before tho alumni of tho Unvorsity of Virginia: The whole brood of nurselings?tho offspring of fifty years inuual parturition of the foremost school of letters, science and philosophy, in this new world?have called me, one of the first-born but humblest of the flock, to stand here by our nursery cradio and speak to them and you. It iB a very notable honor, the most notable of my life, and I undertake it with a tremulous reverence for tho high responsibility it imposes. My fos? ter-brothers are the learned, tho wise, the heroic, elders and teaahers of the land; the intellectual and social "conscript fathers," the "Socraf tei ciri." Coming out from the obscurity of age and a lost country, what theme can I assume to celebrate in the presence of the alumni of the Univeristy of Virginia? The litera? ture, the science, the philosophy, together with the embodied thought of these fifty years, have spread before us a world full of themes bo various, that your speaker may well be more troubled in selection than in treatment Were I to take any of a thousand, appropriate to this day and occasion, I might succeed in win? ning your sympathies and awakening your interest. Standing here, as it were, on the portico of our own academy, where for fifty years wisdow has talked with her sons, we can see the great book and volume of nature unfolding like a scroll to draw our wondering, upturned gaze, or we can wander to and fro in shaded avenuos amid the graceful forms of art, ' 'And seo how Apollo, fair-haired god, Draws in and bends his golden bow, While on the left fair Dian waves her torch." And there let the sweet allurements of fancy woo onr hearts and minds to float along in tho bright enchantment of her flowery pathways. Or better, higher, nobler still, gozo upon that picture? "Athens, tho eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence." With her "Schools of ancient sages. His who bred Great Alexander to subdno the world." ? ? ? * ? And? ? "Blind Mecigencs, thence Homer called, Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own. Thenco what the lofty, grave tragedians taught In chorus or iambic, teachers best Of moral prudence,with delightreccived, In brief, sententious precepts, while they treat " Of fate, and chance, and change in hu? man life; High actions and high passions best describing. Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancients whoso resistless elo? quence Wielded at will that fierce democratic, Shook tho arsenal, and fulmined over Greece To Mace don, and Artaxorxes throne." Or, coming back from tho school where wisdom taught h?r Athenian sons, to the day and the hour, I might with nimble lingers unweavo our thread of fifty years from she warp and woof of the world's history, and hang our joys on its golden tissues, like rich jowels, or our griefs and woo on its torn and jagged shreds. But, my young friends, theso theme's are for your sympathies; they are the fond words of lullaby?"loquela bUtnda atqne infracia"?sung hero at onr mother's cradle to soothe and charm those who still cling to her breast. They are for tho coming world?the after to? day. Science and philosophy own no past. When Gallileo died, Newton was born, and the soul of tho Italian impreg? nated the spirit of the Englishman. They gather up the past, carry it forward and with prophetic calculation toss "it into tho future, to mould new laws and new forms. Year by year they gather here at the store-houses oil for their lamps, or faggots for their torches, or snatch Promothenn flro, only to guide their footsteps onward to an undefined and boundless future, to which they are beckoning and wooing your young devo? tion. But with us grey beards, "stand? ing on tho silent, solemn shore of that vast ocean wo must sail so soon," who see the harvest sickle glittering near, in the unlifted hand of the reaper, to whom time is calling every hour to another birth, the stern present and tho rigid, immuta? ble past now prevails. For us I must soek for other themes, sterner than the dic? tates of scholastic science, broador than that which spans the earth, stronger than that which binds the ocean, higher than that which measures the stars of heaven. It is that theme which burdens ovcry soul, which worships eternal truth and right, to whioh philosophy, science, art poetry?all you are taught in this glo B rions sohool, with its men of mighty thought and learning?are but humble hand-maidens and servitors, It is the theme whose purport is to measnro the deep relations of right and wrong, of justice and liberty, and I will talk of it here to-day before these altars and under this sky,, though cautions philosophy may be offended, and timid policy may tremble to approve. I cannot stand in the shadow of Montieello with my heart overflowing with sacred memories and "Let our Just Censures ^Columbia; s. not ease it by utterance. God docs not | grant me the mercy of blind oblivion to j forget tbe past, and the duty of filial piety will not let me be silent concerning the present I tremble to lose your es? teem and approval. Be charitable to these grey hairs, and to one who offered his life, and gave all tho rest, that you might bo free, and lost all, save this woeful remnant of that life. I must ease my heart. From my speech I must drop the fond records, the forms and pressure my youth and observation gathered here, and dare speak to you of that which, bursting wide from tho womb of time, rules the hour in which wo livo here to? day, and wraps in lurid gloom the veiled mystery of its future. I propose to speak to you of tho very hour in which we are here to-day, face to face with it?"latus cum latere'?in all its movements and demands, and thus to try to tell of its relation to the past, and with deep hu? mility and earnest prayer to prophesy of its connection with tho future. My brothers here, who have passed tho "improvida aslas puerorum"?tho unsus? pecting age of boyhood?will happily join me if I praise the past, and weep with me if I recite the woes of tho pre aont; and if, when you have your fifty years, and ours are a hundred, any of you be here anr remember this day, you will not curse my memory for tho lesson and the prayer I have dared to offer you. Yon are hero to gather the fruits of tho past, to feed upon them, that in the future you may have strength to regain tho waste and loss we havo made: to add to tho treasure, to increase its power and carry it onward to your own redemption, and for a pledge of security, and for tho perpetual advantage of those who come after you. Two or three vears after tho close of that war which, in the language of that great lawyer, wise statesman and bravo gentle [ man, Charles O'Conor, of New York, de I stroyed constitutional liberty in Anieri | ca?that heroic and mortal struggle for truth and right?I was invited by the trustees, faculty and students of a Me? thodist College in South Carolina to make the commencement -address. The college, like this, is in tho beautiful Piedmont region, not far from Cowpens and King's Mountain, the turning points, as Bancroft tells us, of the first struggle for American liborty and independence., determined by the joint and knightly gallantry of Carolina and Virginia. Tho j professors were men of eminent piety and ripe culture?scholars, gentlemen, patriots and Christians. The students, a line, manly band of youths, some with one arm, some with one leg, some with j one eye only?for most of these boys bad been soldiers in that mortal struggle for truth and liberty. Around mo were grouped the bishops, ciders and many clergymen, grave, good, bravo men, worthy successors of that sublime evan? gelist of the eighteenth century, John Wesley, who conquered men's con? sciences by the blood of the Lamb of God, and not by tho sacrifice of human victims. These, his disciples and minis? ters, had been ministers and servants of the meek and lowly Jesus in the armies of tho Confederate States. In my ad? dress to this mutilated remnant of those armies--after urging them to keep in mind the seemingly fruitless struggle for liberty, and thereby bo prepared for an? other which, in the just providence of God, must surely come?1 asked them, "Will not a God of truth forbid that your liberties shall be judged forever by Other men's consciences?" As I uttered this question, or affirmation, or you may call it petition, I was startled by hearing from the bishops, the elders and clergy? men, a loud, devout, solemn "amen." It embarrassed mo for a moment, conjec? turing why this heart-full response should be made by these servants of the meek and lowly Jesus. I soon remem? bered that I had, unconsciously repeat? ed, almost literally, the recorded words of a chief apostle, sent by tho Son of God to toll His ways to the world, and these His ministers of to-day recognized their divine power, and on this devout aspiration wafted to His throne tho prayer?that our liberties may not be judged by other men's consciences. I will not dare to encroach on tho func? tions of those holy men in my form of speech. I shrink from tho shadow of blasphemy, if it be ono; but I know I do not offend the pure majesty of a God of truth, if, in addressing the offspring of that university which the commonwealth of Virginia has devoted to tho nurture and preservation of hor truth, her honor and her liborty, I use meekly, for my argument, the words of that apostlo sent by tho Son of God to toll His ways to the struggling people of tho earth: "For why is my liberty judged of an? other man's conscience?" Tho peoplo of that portion of North America which contributed tho Ameri? can ropnblio to the history of modern* civilization, derived thoir profound est sentiment and principle of civil liberty from the prccopts of that blessod religion which thus proclaimed all men free and equal ^before the tribunals of eternal iustico, and gave tho fullest sanctions of heir Christian revelations to the regula? tions of this liborty. It was the impor? tunate and devoted zeal of the Christian which moved our English ancestry to sacrifice all mere human attributes to the attainment of the freedom of eon science, regarding that as the criterion C SUNDAY MORNING, JI of all human truth, ns well as tho fecun-' dating power of the "Kator thonntv," tho pure rightness of action iu this life, and thus confirming it for nil time as tho royalty and sovereign prerogative of mankind. By a short and purely na? tural process, they mado the attributes of freedom of person, the protection of propcrtv, and tho pursuits of happiness, of vital import in maintaining that freedom of conscience. Thus tho souls of men, their divine faculty imbibed, nnd sanctified tho resistless and indomi? table desire for civil liberty, and tho es? sential part of divino aspiration and im? mortal hope, based on tho Christian faith, became the chief purpose and mo? tive of patriotic duty, and men were divinely taught tho solid rules of civil government in their purest nnd most majestic forms. This indeed was the basis and the essence of their order of governmental economy. It waB just when this essential spirit was brooding, immature, over the institutions of Christ? endom, that its disciples came to America to attempt the political realization of its hopeful promises. And hero when, after many generations, it ripened to its fullness, the people of the English colo? nial provinces rose in its might, asserted its high behests and prerogative, nnd by a sacrifice of blood, instituted tho con | joined principles of religious and civil freedom of conscience. It was a tem? pestuous era of tho world's history, but our forefathers, under the impulse and guidance of the mighty principle, wea? thered the storm, bafiling the fatal blasts of despotism and shunning tho quick? sands of Democracy and tho lurid and delusive glare of fanaticism. They con? verted dependent colonies into sove? reign States, which, by their inherent sacred and innliennble sovereignty guar? anteed the principle on which they wero based, the freedom of religious and civil conscience. On that guarantee, broad as tho widest scope of human want on earth, by a consequent system of natural logic grew up tho incidents of self-go? vernment, and the right of representa? tion, in the exercise of law-making pow? ers. Tho piety, the wisdom and the Jalor displayed in achieving this empire nd effecting this organism, marked tho culmin&tion of that order of civilization to which we have been allotted by tho I providence of God. . It has boon be? queathed to us, and His commandment is that we shall keep this charge of His puro and undented before the world and in his service, according to tho dic? tate of HiB word nnd of our own service. Under this dread responsibility, have we done our best to keep this commnnd? Have we done this piously, wisely nnd valiantly, in full measure of its magni? tude and appreciation of its transcend ant value? "Have we done all these things.we were commanded to do? Have we done that which was our duty to do?" Let us see. We are celebrating to-day tho fifty years life of this University, which began this life fifty years after our forefathers went forth to the sacrifice of blood under that dread command. In that warfare they acquired a continent and a perfect .liberty, and transmitted them to us. For the first ten years they were panting for breath after the strug? gle, under the majestic sway of Washing? ton, and were thus brought to the begin? ning of a new century, apparently set apart and dedicated to their exaltation? something over three-score and ten vears ago. Three-score, and ten years! What of this allotment of time to tho natural span of human life, in its relation to the life of liberty, under the nurture of our j own fathers, and of our duty and devo? tion to its sacrod behests? Three-fourths of the nineteenth century of grace; have gone into tho boundless abysm of the past, and already lime is casting its re- j cords and traditions into the waste of oblivion, dimming his ghastly and swift- j moving phantoms, leaving to us their | dark trail, only to warn or to mislead us. It has been an erastmngcly commingling good and evil to the human family; espe? cially that portion assigned to the Ame? rican continent and most notably to the people who derived their political exist? ences from the English colonies, in Europe, the first decade was signalized and emblazoned by the over-mastering genius of Napoleon subverting the sys? tems nnd ruling over tho continent, and the mighty intellect of Pitt defying that rulo, nnd hurling it back from England. In. America, Washington was dead. Bis robes of unsmirched purple, misfitted for a time, wero again worthily on the shoulders of Jefferson; and bore white handed hope waved her sceptre of faith, and liberty sat smiling beneath tho bright enchantment, or serenely and grandly seemed to move onward to the anointing and the coronation. Tenderer and moro devoted, Btronger and purer, higher and holier, than aught on earth save a mother's love for her child, is tho almost divine sentiment which makes us love and live for the land of our birth. Bnt above this, above all of earth?more heavenward stiU?is that feeling whioh makes us reverence with worship, and oherish by devotion, tho trnth whioh is trans? mitted to us by our fathers; for that is the filial obedience shining in the same sphere with immortal love. This holy sentiment, in all its most heroic, forms, developed into action all the virtuous energies of the men who had won the liberties of America, and with wise, ard Attend the True Event." JLY 11, 1875. VO out and valorous devotion, they went on building up a grand and glorious struct uro on that foundation, strengthening and adorning it with the pillars and mu? niments of the right of self-government and tho mighty prerogative of the freed? om of conscience. They were grandly inspired architects, those master-build? ers, who came out of the first war for civil independence in this new world, and in fifty years they completed an edi? fice dedicated to civil freedom nnd free conscience, whose foundation was a con? tinent, whose boundaries were boundless seas, and whoso turrets aspired to heaven to catch the light and blessing from a God of Truth. This was tho temple which was to become tho pride of his? tory, tho joy of a great and happy people ?"the joy, the pride, tho glory of man? kind"?in which no man's liberty was to be judged by another man's conscience For this sacred purpose tho covenants wero placed upon the altar, the gates were opened to the people, and they went in and prayed, with thanksgivings and hymns of praise, and renewed the covenants, and the world began to know them and call them blessed: "In one loud, applauding sound, Tho nations shout to her around, How supremely art thou blessed." How awful the holy purity, how wonder? ful the grandeur of this temple, dedi? cated to truth, to liberty, and to free con? science?a temple fitted for the crowned truth to dwell in forever. Brothers, it was the design, tho struct? ure, the offering of our very fathers?our fathers who drank tho waters of the Che? sapeake and tho South Atlantic, and built the University of Virginia. The men who begat us wero tho royal priest? hood, who sanctified themselves to bear the ark with its covenants, and placo it securely as they prayed on their Zion; and they were thoso who called on tho earth to rejoice, and on the nations to say that liberty again dwelleth on tho earth, and on us, their sons, in humblo faith to cry "Amen!" And what is our answer? It was in this supreme hour that there sprung from tho god-like brain of tho high-priest of that hierarchy this our saintly ond benignant nurse-mother, whose generous breasts havo nurtured this generation, who have renewed all that covenant by sprinkling that altar ! with their blood?with our blood, young men. We are that generation?wc are the men who have hazarded our lives tor that covenant. Here they are, to-day, at their mother's knees, their palm branches covered with cypress; but they are tho sons of the master-builders of the temple of liberty, who drank the waters of tho Chesapeake and the South Atlantic?the very sous of those sires who, three-score and ten years ago, standing at James? town, by the waters of the Chesapeake, with tho voice of God's own patriot priest, offered this pravcr to Almighty God. [Bishop Madison, 1?09:] "Hallowed be this place where Thou didst manifest Thy goodness to our forefathers, and where Thy heavenly plan for spreading Thy blessings?the blessings of social right?first beamed forth. It was here, oh God! it was here, on this chosen ground, that Thou didst first lay the sure foundations of civil happiness. Here didst Thou say to our forefathers, who, under Thy guidance, had defied the perils of an untried ocean, 'Hero fix your abode forever. Here shall the great work of political salvation begin. Here I will strike deep the roots of an everlasting empire, where justice, and liberty, and peace shall flourish in immortal vigor, to the d. ty of My name and the happiness of man. Here ye shall sleep? but your sons a: ' your daughters shall possess the land which stretcheth wide bet?re you. They shall convert the wilderness and the solitary places into fields smiling with plenty. They shall, in ages to come, ex? ceed the sands of the sea-shore in num? ber. They shall, when 200 years have gone, here resort, here recall to mind your sufferings and yonr valor; and here, in a lively sense of the blessings vouch? safed to them, they shall exalt and adore My name, and acknowledge that the mightiness of My arm, and the over? shadowing of My spirit, hath done these great and excellent things for them and ! for their children forever.'" Such wis tin; prayer, and such the promise made by the immutable God to those from whose loins we sprung, as they worshipped on the shores of the Chesapeake, those shores now "obedient to the stranger ami the slave." An age illustrated by travail of patriot? ism, truth and justice, ever bears in its womb a generation ready to defcnil and maintain these attributes, with nil the valor it has inherited; nnd histe>ry re? cords this <lny two of her gr?ndest proofs in view of the shores of the Chesapeake ? proofs of equal blazonry-under the aus? pices of George Washington and Robert Leo. Oh, immutable God! will not the i mightiness of Thy arm, ami tho over? shadowing of Thy Spirit, again do these grent and excellent things for onr ohil | dren and their children's children for j evor? Brothers, I have recitod in brief the schedule of our inheritance, and our di? vine title and indenture to the franchise, that onr liberty should not bo judged by other men's consciences. R is not all ! the story of this threc-Bcoro and ten years and of to-day. With bated breath iLUMB XI?NUMBER 95. I will present the converse of this talc of grandeur. ^3:o;toi2 O. HULL, PROrKIETOIl OF TUE EXCELSIOR MILLS, (Formerly Stovall's Excelsior Mills,") AUGUSTA, GA., MANUFACTURES FLOUR in ?II grades. The old and well-known EXCELSIOR BRANDS: Pride of Augusta, Golden Slicaf, Extra, Little Beauty, Always on hand, and their well-earned reputation will be faithfully ? maintained. CORN MEAL, CRACKED CORN, CRACKED WHEAT; GRAHAM FLOUR, MILL FEED, BRAN, Etc., Constantly made, and orders promptly filled at the Lowest HL?fte>js June 25 lino KiNAnn A Wiley?To patrons in arolinn for their liberality: Wc Indeed thank you for buying /~\ ur fine ready-made Clothing, \_f "VTeckwear, Under-wear, cheapest, TT ^Li nrgest stock ever in tlia city; w^l And we believe best, for we neiYX/T } nion Adams' Black Silk Ties, C/ EussianBraces.SuBpenders. Skirts"]*/!" ade specialty, good fit; guarantee Irl. Durability, elegance, comfort to Tj> uycr. The Quaker City and J> &Stnr Shirts are all the go, and T n Silk, Linen,Gingham UnibrellasJL We claim to sell at less profit a good A rticle than any house in the tradexA. In fine, ready-made Clothing, our O tyle and price is unequaled. ? Linen Cuffs,Handkcrchief8,Collars;/^\ ur stock can't be surpassed. \J Elegance, style and fashion, Hats in assimerc, Silk, Straw, Felt,Wool.\J Youths'Clothing,Shirts,Hats,Caps, A t No. 121 Main street. Jjl urjM'O ?finirno' iULll?, lULlIlu ' AND CHILDREN'S CLOTHING ' AND HATS, FOB & P B I OF 1875, Now in store, and to 1><- said .:t lo"w prices. 11. & W. 8. SWAFFIEL1K g Spring Clothinglg gSpring Clothing ?5 H Spring Clothing!. Just opened The Largest ami Best Stock Ever seen here, AT D. EPSTIN'S, UNDER COLUMBIA HOTEL. STYLES, New and Handsome! FABRIC and DESIGN, Elegant! BEST MAKE UP! PRICES, Lower than over! Very full lines of Boys' find Youths' CLOTHING, FURNISHING GOODS nnd HATS. Call and examine at April 4 ? Under Columbia Hotel. . Mackerel. CHOICE MESS MACKEREL. No. 1, 2 and 3 MACKEREL. . Just opened and for sale low, at retail, by JOHN AGNEW & SON.