Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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those who believe in getting things without regard to the method or the sacrifice. Ladies and gentlemen. we ire for getting the Old South, for ting the brightest pages in our h. ory, for getting the idealism that has given so much to the nation in the past, and must ultimately save it from the break ers ahead. If this nation is great, if she has wrought well, if her commercial and industrial achievements are the marvel of the world, if she takes pre-emi nence among the great powers, it is due to the fact that she is built upon the foundation laid by the wisdom and conservatism of her ante-bellum statesmanship. And the southern man who sneers at the accomplish ments of his ancestors, and joins their critics in passing adverse judg ment upon the part they took in making our national life, must be re garded as lost to self-respect, a trai tor to his own people, an unworthy son of a splendid' site. Such a man forgets that the greater part of the history of the nation is the history of southern men; such a man has been too busy to acquaint himself with the accomplishments of southern states manship, both in the way of furnish ing the nation its highest conception of right, and in crowning her with material successes. The career of the nation during that time was a succssion of triumphs in every field of human thought and action. With the daring and courage belonging to youth, she met and mas tered every- situation, solved every problem, overcame every difficulty, ?nd routed every foe. Nations weak and strong fell before the prowess of her -unmatched soldiery. Her can dor with dealing with other nations, her refusal to entangle herself with affairs not belonging to her, were more than a match for the wily diplomacy of the old world. Religious bigotry and intolerance dissipated into broad and wholesome liberalism under the influence of her guarantee of individual freedom of conscience, and her jealous protection of the most absolute liberty of thought and speech, developed in her people that independence of belief, political and otherwise, without which, . no people can be of any special force. The nation then stood for some thing more than mere industrial and material strength; hers was the strength of lofty idealism, and her victor-,as, material and moral, are the triunplagt answer of the idealist to the materialist in government. The very life of the nation flowed from the 'fount,. of pure idealism, and yet, notwithstanding that fact, she went forward to industrial victorier such as the world has never seen. .aefore. The spiritual and m'a rial forces of the nation were kept in perfect bal ance, and progress came in perma nent form. Her statesmanship, while active and alive to material accomplishments, was at the same time careful not to allow these to smother the moral forces of the na tion. The man was kept foremost in mind. To his protection and devel opment, as such, the. nation bent its best efforts. The result was the most harmonious, entity in the shape of human government that has ever blessed mankind since the perfect law was handed fo Moses on Sinai. The ideal had been reached; the hope of the fathers had found realization, ant their wisdom was established be yo'rl a doubt, and it was the work of the southern man.. WitA the government of the nation in his' hands for so many years, it is a remarkable tribute to, his character that not one solitary scandal arose in all that time to mar the beauty of the temple he had built. No other people can make a like boast. Grand Old Senator Lamar, answering Win. H. Seward, in a speech filled with dramatic fervor and patriotism, speaking of the part the Old South had played in the nation's life, said: "The power has passed from our hands, but do not forget, it can not be forgotten, it is written on the bright est page of history, that we, the slave holders of the South, took our coun try in her infancy and after ruling her sixty out of seventy years of her existence, we return her to you with out a spot upon .her honor, matchless in her splendor, incalculable in he-r power, the pride and the admiration of the world. Time will show what you will do with her, but no time can sponsibility." And it is said by great writer. "The North occupied th succeeding four years in vindicatin the truth of that proud boast. Th government that had been fashione by southern statecraft was so a< mirable, that the North poured o1 rivers of blood and expended billior of treasure to preserve it. Ever gun that was fired in that great w, was an involuntary tribute to th; section that had guided the Unic sixty out of seventy years of h existence." It is here that the influence of tl South in the government, in a manne ceases. The gathering clouds hate and dissension burst into ti most fearful tragedy that the wor has ever seen. The war was for ordained. the battle of ideas had to 1 fought out, the seeds were sown the very fundamental law itself, ar human agency could not avert tl storm. The southern man, as a soldie needs no eulogy. A hundred vict ries mark him as without an equal the. field of battle. The God of W was against him, his proud bann was lowered, with honor, in defeat. It was now that southern state manship was put to the severest te: The heel of the alien was upon I neck, his fertile fields were deva tated, his home burned to the groun the earnings of a life time waste and his government in the hands illiteracy, incompetency and disho esty. For ten years, this dre; night-mare hung over the lar stupefied its people, and locked tJ wheels o: progress. But again, ti capacity of the southern man f rule, his hatred of oppression, h love for- local self-government, a serted themselves, and in a peac ful revolution, overthrew the reil of the alien, and put the state ba again into the hands of the virti and intelligence of its own peop Nowhere in the annals of time there found a like achievement wi so little blood-shed. It is an eve lasting tribute to the courage ai wisdom of the southern people. And yet, ladies and gentlemen, wi her splendid record for statesmanshi patience and courage, it is assert, with a degree of truth, that tl South, with one third of the elector vote, is without influence in shapii the policy of this nation. For for years, her voice, the voice first reis< for freedom, the voice that gave tl Declaration of Independence, was p tent in the construction of the co stitution, and in laying broad ax deep the foundations of our prospe ity and happiness-that voice, f, more than a generation has be< without avail, in solving the compl< problems of national life. The cou: sels of her 'statesmen have gone u: heeded, their warnings have been u: heard, their pleadings have fall< upon the ears' deaf with prejudice -ar hate. The most valuable asset of ti nation-the conservatism of ti South-has been cast aside for ti time being. The two sections ha, stood aloof and viewed with unfo tunate suspicion the acts of ea< other. But happily the period of hate ar misapprehension is passing with eat day. The war is 'but a memory, ha lowed alike by each section, ar prized by the whole nation as a he itage of the splendid manhood at womanhood it developed. We a: neaing an era of good feeling, whe mutual confidence between the set tions, a clearer understanding of ti relative rights and peculiar problen of each, shall give rise to such syn pathy as will make of the difficulti< of each section. the difficulty of i whole nation. The day is not f~ distant, let us hope, -when the Nort will recognize that if there is negro problem, we of the South kno best how to solve it; a.nd we are soc to realize that the so-called confli< between labor -and capital in ti North is a problem in whose settl< ment. we have a vital interest. Th day will come, and God speedi when each section must learn that is dependent upon the other, in measure, for the full development< its resources and energy. anid fc the ultimate glory of the natio1 When such an understanding is ha the inherent conservatism and patr otism of the South will again assc. itself, as in the days of old, when he voice was the voice of the nation, an her statesmanship its guiding han< 'The nain wil soon need t a wisdom and conservatism of south e ern leadership, its loyalty to the con g stitution. its devotion to old time prin e ciples. Each day gives birth to new d tendencies not in keeping with re I- publican ideas, and the nation is en it tering upon an era which must test is to the utmost her strength, and de Y termine for always her existence as i at present constituted. She must It soon face a foe more menacing to n her national entity than approaching r armies and navies. For more than a hundred years, her flag has floated 1e in trumph; but in none of the trials of r, the past has she dealt with an enemy of so strong, so dangerous, and at the le same time, so subtle as the one which d now threatens an assault at the very vital reasons for her existence-the ye most complete freedom of the individ in ual in thought and action consistent id with the enforcement with such regu ie lations in the form of law as look to the best protection of life, liberty and :r, property. It is to be a battle in . which the forces of the constitution n and law shall find themselves arrayed ar in hostile attitude -against the forces er of absolute disintegration, combined with the forces of the idea of abso lute centralization. It is to be a ;t. struggle between a well regulated is democracy, mindful of the law and conscious of no pulblic motives save d the good, and a mobocracy, whose d' ardent love for unlicensed liberty verges close upon the brink of con n_ tempt for individual rights, and often id acts in open disregard of law. It is d, to be a contest between a progressive conservatism,, and an aggressive radi calism-a conservatism filled with or deep reverence for the. traditions of is the mighty past, and an unshaken s- faith in the correctness and edequacy e- of those principles, which have ,n brought prosperity with honor to the k nation; and a radicalism which would ie tear down the pillars of the govern ment, substituting for the broad lib is erial ideas of Jefferson, the narrow, th selfish fanaticism of socialism and pa r- ternalism. Unorg: nized individual id ism must of necessity defend its rights to exist by insisting that it , shall be protected against the obsti nate disregard shown for it by organ ized labor and capital in the ever in creasing frequency of their unfortu ae nate, and, at times, unreasonable war fare. It is to be a contest in which ig the law must stand agairlst lawless ness, honesty against corruption, civic virtue against civic vice. SThat'such a contest is upon us and in growing in strength and danger can d hardly be doubted. Countless ten r-dencies point to its coming and fore warn us. m Property rights are becoming more .and more insecure, life is held cheap Sly, and the statutes are made only to .be broken, as the breaking of them -seems to serve an interest better than n their observance. We are drifting id further away from the teaching of For it iOSS, Bowlb ls~ $|Siuer War Knives and Forks, Vases, Chafing Di * GILDER, the fathers. Wholesome precedents are now as never before laughed at and spat upon. Corruption raises its brazen forehead here, there, and everywhere in bold defiance of public opinion, and goes unwhipped of jus tice. Bride giving and taking fill the columns of the press, and state and national scandals have become an every day occurrence. The land is illing with an element unaccustomed to liberty under law. an element with strange ideas, and an inherent destruction and contempt for constituted authorities. Great social and economical changes are taking place. The home itself, the purity and sanctity of which have been the proud 'boast of our civili zation, has not escaped the dread con tamination. The most casual observer of every day events is blind if he fails to. see in the various currents of thought, in the solutions suggested for indus trial and social evils and abuses, in the changing complexion of public opinion in its attitude to the functions of government, a growing tendency to socialism, as a result of one school of thought and paternalism as the end sought by the other. Materialism is rampant. The na tion is living too fast; the law is of ten left behind. The pace is the swift est, fiercest, the human family has ever been set to go. Her commer cial and industrial achievement have been the first of 'all tongues and peo ples. To pile up wealth has become a national mania; to get money, an individual disease. The finer in stincts and higher aspirations are for gotten, ignored, brushd aside, in the mad rush of commercialism. To get there, to fill'the coffers, to startle the world with material accomplishments, seems to be the purpose of the na ition and the individaul. The sacri fice in national and individual con science is not a consideration. In the very rapidity of our growth lies the nation's chief element of dan ger. Out of it has sprung the na tion's most formidable foe. In at taining the material, the spiritual wel fare of the nation has been neglected. Hydra-headed greed and selfishness stalk through the land, destroying na tional idealism, assassinating national sensibilities, sowing the seed of dan gerous discontent, and lowering the standard of patriotism' and loyalty. Courts, legislatures, and executives stand stunned into inaction at the growth of the spirit. And out of this apparent dominancy of the radicalism of wealth, comes the other radicalism which perme'ates and colors the en tire body politic. The socialist is the legitimate child of the plutocrat; the mob-tyrant is the unquestioned off spring of the greed-tyrant. The one could not exist and would not, but for the other. They are twin evils, and neither augurs good for the na tion. The increasing rapidity of their growth is appalling. A vertiable wave Line We Tumblers, OIix Spoons, Servers of All Kinds, Wa hes, Clocks, at e Right Drug Stc WEEKS & I of radicalism sweeps over the coun try. The courts respond to the the ory in questionable decisions, party platforms suffer its duress and states manship sinks into despicable dema gogy before it. Impatient, restive, al most fanatical. it would cure an cvil with a greater evil. It w'ould check the greed of paternalism with the deadly peril of socialism; it would purify the law making power by de stroying it, and criticize the courts by disobedience to their decrees. It threatens a revolution in our national character, a destruction of individual initiative, the fettering of the hands of progress, and death to liberty it self. Conservatism is coming to be regarded as a fad of fogyism, and in dividualism, an impractical theory which has no place in modern life. When we have reached this point of belief, when the government cuts loose from the safe anchorings of progressive conservatism an launches upon the sea of radicalism, when she forgets and disregards the splendid idealism of her past, the hour of her destiny is struck. With the coming of that hour, when frenzied selfishness and greed attack the ramparts of our Anglo-Saxon civilization, and this experiment in free government trembles in the bal ance; I think I see the South again taking her place in the counsel of the nation. I think I see her lost leader ship regained. In.an hour of such peril, when pre judice and sectional hate are lost in a common effort to save legalized lib erty, that section of the nation which affords in greatest abundance the best element of national strength and character must take the leadership in the struggle. i The north cannot furnish these elements. Her great cities are vol canoes seething with infidelity and the rankc.s. radicalism. She is urban and filled with a deep . discontent. Rere are crowd ed together the dangerous elements of the country, each drawing strength from contact with the other, and the whole viewing with impatient discon tent the institutions of the country. Here is the home of the strike and the lockout, and here is 'the home, of the greed tyrant and his oppression. Though the west is agricultural, and to some extent may be depended -up on, yet . her population is largely tainted with . a class who know not the history of the country, and love not its traditions. It is in the, south alone that we find the pure American that must be the sheet-anchor of the nation's safety. Here is found that ingrained progressive conservatism which comes of a close attachment to the soil. Here is found the ark of the covenant of local self govern ment. Here is found the ardent love A for the t.rue constitution, the deep reverence for the true traditions of the country, and a loyal faith in, and adherence to the true principles of ddings! ~ e Dishes, etc. iters, Pitchers, etc. ire. lOITER.