Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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/ 0 Thursday, October 9, 1930 McCORMICK MESSENGBR, AlctJGRAffCK, :? McCORMICK MESSENGER Published Every Thursday ’ Established June 5, 1902 EDMOND J. McCRACKEN, Editor and Owner Entered at the Post Office at Mc Cormick, S. C M as mail matter of the second olass. DISPLAY ADVERTISING— 25 cents per inch for each inser tion; nothing less than 4 inches accepted for double column dis play, nor less than 2 inches for single column display. Positions given at ONE-THIRD extra charge. BUSINESS READING NOTICES: € per cent per line for each inser tion, average of 6 words to line. WANT ADVS., 6 cents per line for $ach insertion, average of 6 words to line. TRIBUTES OF RESPECT, 6 cents per line, 6 words to line. All advs, set in body type, 6 cents per single column line; extra charges for big type on all single column advs., except head and signature. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: — Strictly Cash In Advance One Year. $1.00 Six Months .75 Three Months.50 HOME TOWN BOOSTING A Boston capitalist once met a man from a small city some miles away and soon found that he was so thoroughly convinced that his home town was the fbest on earth, that the capitalist investigated. The capitalist wired the home town newspaper: “Just met one of your boosters; he is a wonder, and if your city is anything like him, I want to know more about it.’ This led to an arrangement that was of mutual benefit to the cap italist and the city as well. It merely shows that a commun ity will advance only when it is composed of boosters instead of those who pull back in the harness. Every resident of McCormick'can be a real asset by saying something good about McCormick every time he is away from home. You never know when your words may fall on fertile soil. If you are not enthusiastic about the ad vantages here, you can not expect one living elsewhere to be. We must have a wholesome en thusiasm for the whole community and the opportunities it offers oth ers who may be induced to locate here, before we can hope for healthful growth and industrial development. « txt Honest Men Pay Their Bills Promptly (B. W. Crouch in Saluda Standard) Some people make debts or bor- tow money to aid them in their business., Probably all, when they make debts or borrow money, mean to be honest and pay in full. Sometimes our plans miscarry or hard luck befalls us and makes it Impossible to be prompt in the pay ment of what we owe. But no hon est man ever becomes indifferent to what he owes. If he is really honest he will never stop doing his best, (and that means a great deal) to wipe out every honest and just obligation. Framing excuses does not satisfy an honest man. No excuse ever pays the debts of such a man. On ly the coin of the realm, and one hundred cents on the dollar, will satisfy him. Others may be satis fied with an excuse, or with dodg ing, or grow indifferent, but no Tionest man will ever be found in, that category. j And then, too, can a man count himself honest who owes money and is not willing to work harder, live on less, sacrifice and cut to the bone, and do without, even until it xeally hurts, in drder that he may meet his obligations? Some people are facing the test of their lives. They owe money and are trying to smother their consci ences with some excuse. They are unwilling to ride less, to spend less on themselves, to quit burning gas, to do on less in the way of clothing or for pleasure. And then again, the statutes of limitations never run against the debt of an honest man. Such a man’s debts are nev- or outlawed. He may have to make sacrifices, many and for a long time, in order to pay what he owes, but he is wil ling to do it, and will do it, rather than go through life with a con science lashing him and accusing of being dishonest! That there has been a “slump” in recent years in regard to debt-pav ing by a large class of our people, is one of the terrible revelations of the present day. There are those who owe for their groceries, their shoes, their clothing now worn by the members of their families, their obligations to some bank, wljo are spending what they make buying gas and oil and keeping up an automobile, running about the countrv, and are apparently utterly indiferent to these obligations. Are such honest men? Can they claim to be honest? X Few people realize that recrea tion and re-creation are one and «sahe same thing. THE HUGUENOTSS ' 4 Address of Judge C. J. Perry man, of Lincolnton, Ga., at the Reunion of the Descendants of the Guillebeaus and Bouchill- ons, at Bordeaux, S. C., on Au gust 1st, 1930. We have met here today to mix and mingle in social intercourse, and to honor the name of Andre Guillebeau, a Huguenot, whom many of us have as our common ancestor, and to whom many oth ers are united by olood through collateral lines of kinship. The ravages of time have destroyed his old home, but it is fitting that this reunion of his descendants and rel atives should be held at the old home of his son, Pierre Guillebeau, and near where his remains lie buried. It is easier to think of the awful scenes through which the Huguenots passed for their belief in religious and political freedom, when reviewed amid surroundings associated with a kinsman, who was himself a witness to and a vic tim of some of their enactments. And today we may feel his invisible presence among us as a silent tri bute to the triumph of the faith of the Huguenot Fathers. The life of Andre Guillebeau is so closely interwoven with the lives jf the Huguenots who settled here that in honoring his name we just ly honor theirs, and in honoring theirs we honor every predecessor who bore the name of Huguenot, for they were all a part of the same though oft impeded, movement. Therefore, I have chosen as the subject of my remarks “The Huguenots,” and shall speak of them in general, and of those who settled here in particular. The origin of this term :ls uncer tain, but it is synonymous with, or means the same as, our word Prot estant. It was first used by the Catholics as a term of reproach and contempt, but with pardonable pride may we cherish the distinc tion of this noble name, for it has teen purified in the fires of perse cution and glorified with the blood of martyrs. While associated with the move ment, and as a part thereof, was the belief in political liberty, yet its impelling purpose, and the one which gave it glory, was religious— the right to worship God as the conscience dictates. In order to view the tragic scenes through which the Huguenots pass ed for their unyielding fidelity to their purpose, it is necessary to roll back the curtain of history for more than two centuries before our forefathers settled here in the Province of Carolina. The story begins in France, and at a time when Roman Catholicism was the religion of State, held undisputed sway over servile monarchs and royal courts, fettered the minds and souls of men, women and chil dren, and bound them to its tyrannical system. But in the plan of God, the mind and soul cannot always be enslaved, they long for freedom, and moved by an uncon trollable passion for its attainment, will eventually break their bonds and burst forth into boldness of expression; they may be temporar ily subdued by force, but cannot be conquered. Even several centuries before the rise of the Huguenots, the Albigenses, of Southern France, threw off the shackles of Catholic- •sm and asserted the freedom of mind and of worship, only to be put down by a ruthless military force and the tortures of the In quisition. This was a symptom of the restlessness of mind and soul under compulsory restraints, and was one of the forerunners of that general revolt, known as the Re formation, which was to sweep over most of the countries of Europe and give rise to some of the blood iest and most cruel events recorded in history. The great Huguenot movement was a part of the Refor mation. The Reformation Proper began in Germany in 1517, when Martin Luther, a cultured Monk, question ing some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church, defiantly nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the church at Wittenburg, and proclaimed that “the just shall live by faith,” and not by the mutter ing and corrupt practices of crafty priesthood. It swept into Switzer land where its work was chiefly carried on by Ulric Swingli, ’till his death in battle in 1531, and then into other countries ’till the Con tinent of Europe was shaken with protests against religious and po litical tyranny; but time would not permit and the occasion forbids a review of its progress elsewhere than in France. When we speak of the Reforma- ing. They went in person to Ms bed-chamber and, in well concealed hypocrisy, assured him of their tion in that country, our minds in- ! sorrow and indignation at the out- stinctly turn to the learned Frenchman, John Calvin, who, .driven from his own country for his allegiance to the reformed ideas, made his residence in Gen eva, in 1536, and became the suc cessor of Zwingli. It was here he matured his religious beliefs, rage done to his person. Under the pretense of fearing a Catholic uprising “they closed the gates of the city, and procured a list of th^ names and places of aoode of all Protestants in Paris with a view to their protecticn.” With the avenues of escape shut off, their homes broader in their opposition to marked, woe to the Huguenot in- Catholicism than those of Luther, on which he founded the Presby terian Church, and in which the Huguenot movement had its origin. His ideas percolated into France, gripped the minds and hearts of nobles, gentry and peasants, and spread with such rapidity as to challenge the dominance of the Catholic Church. A clash was in evitable. Such beliefs incurred the habitants! During the early hours of that fateful day, while Paris was still shrouded in darkness, and as an example to be followed, the guard of the palace burst into the room of Admiral Coligny, stabbed him in the bosom and threw the still liv ing body from the window to be insulted by the mob, and whose honored head, after the lace was wrath and hitter hatred of papal j stamped by the heel of the Duke authority, and, in a short while,; of Guise, was to be sent as a pleas- the two religious parties were in a ing trophy to the Cardinal of Lor- state bordering on to civil war. All of the elements of such a conflict were present, with only the absence of an exciting cause, and this was soon supplied. A body of soldiers under the Duke of Guise, a rabid Catholic, insulted a company of Huguenots at worship in a barn, near Vassy, and when the insult was resented slew several of their number. This event was regarded by the Huguenots as the beginning of hostilities and they rushed to arms for their protection. And then began a series of Catholic persecu tions and brutalities, covering at intervals a period of over two hundred years, that staggers the mind and sickens the heart. We next see their bloody work at Tours, where three hundred Hugue nots were tied together two by two, led out and slaughtered like beasts, and then at Sens, where their atrocities were* committed to the music of the cathedral bell. But the Huguenots were oot with- raine. The bells of St. Germain sounded; and then the Demon of Murder sprang from his lair to glut his appetite in the innocent blood of helpless men, women and chil dren. Armed companies, with white badges of identity, fell upon the unsuspecting and defenseless Hu guenots with the ferocity of sav ages. On every side could be heard the crack of rifles and the swish cf swords, mingled with the shrieks of the dying and the oaths of the raging crowd. Neither age nor infancy excited pity. The voice cf humanity had been silenced in a consuming hate. The city became like a slaughter pen. The dead and dying were trampled by the mad dened mobs in their rush to butch er others. The very streets were slippery with blood. Then came the dawn. “When morning came” says an intelligent eye witness, “Paris exhibited a most appalling- spectacle of slaughter; the head less bodies were falling from the out brave and gallant leaders. Ad- windows; the gateways were block- miral Coligny, the Prince of Conde, led with the dead and dying; and and young Henry of Navarre, who were destined to play such an im portant part in the reform move ment, and become King of France, appear as champions of their cause, and the conflict was on. We shall not take the time to tell of the siege of Ruen, where the Hu guenots forces were defeated and the city turned over to the brutal and incentious soldiers to wreak vengenance upon the inhabitants; nor of the ba ttle of Dreux, in which Conde was wounded, and Coligny fought so bravely; nor of the Siege of Orleans, where the Duke of Guise was assassinated by a fan atic; nor of St. Denis, where Mont morency, the Catholic leader, lost his life; nor of Jarnac, where the gallant Conde fell; nor of Mont- contour, where the noble Coligny was badly wounded—in all of which the Huguenots suffered re verses, but with an unbroken spirit; nor of the successful campaign of the streets were filled with car casses which were drawn on the pavement to the river.” Yet for two days longer the horrible mas sacre continued in Paris, and throughout the provinces of France, with few exceptions, the terrible carnage raged for seven days, ’till from 70,000 to 100,000 ghastly corpses bore silent testi mony to this act of perfidy, and condemned to eternal infancy the names of Catharine de Medici and Charles IX. In Paris nearly all of the Hugue nots were killed. Henry of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were spar ed their lives, because of their roy al blood and a pretended accept- ence of the Catholic faith. As to Charles IX, it is stated by Ridpath, the historian, that “after the tragedy of St. Bartholemew he became nervous, excitable, des pondent. He was haunted with specters by day, and still more hor- Coligny into Burgunday later, j rible phantoms by night. In his which brought a temporary peace; |sleep the vision of the massacre but we shall pass to speak of the perpetually recurred and he would foulest and bloodiest crime record ed in the history of France—the massacre on St. Bartholemew’s Day, August 24, 1572, by which the Catholics hoped to exterminate the Huguenots at a single blow. The diabolical plot was conceived by Catharine de Medici, the mother of King Charles the IX, that brilliant but wicked woman, with a burning hatred of Protestants, the real rul er of France, who has been des cribed as a counterpart of Queen Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, who hounded and persecuted all who did not worship the image of Baal. awake dripping with perspiration. At intervals he was seized with a mortal shudder which shook his frame and left him prostrate. He tried to banish the memory of it in the chase, in music, in the ex citement cf gay companionship and in many other ways, but all in vain. On the way to the fron tier with his brother two years later, he was seized with a fatal illness. It was evident the grave yawned before him. It is declared by creditable historians that his sufferings, both bodily and mental, | were so great that the blood oozed For perfection of treachery and ac- from the pores of his skin.” As he curacy of execution it stands with- ! had caused the shedding of inno- out a parallel. The occasion \vasj cent blood . hi s blood was shed by the marriage of her daughter, dur- \ an avenging God. ing an interval of peace, to Henry; The purpose of the massacre of Navarre, the dashing reform'failed. The Protestant party, leader. A great concourse of Hu- : though its loss was frightful, was guenots had been enticed to Paris exterminated. The remaining to celebrate the event, including ' flew to arms and sustained their the great Coligny and the second! cause with such valor, that Charles Prince of Conde. The plan was to was glad to grant them a favorable begin the massacre at the sound peace. But this peace was of short of the matin bell in the church of ! duration. Henry III, who succeed- St. Germain, on St. Bartholemew’s ;ed Charles, respected the terms of Day, and to continue throughout the treaty, but the powerful Cath- the kingdom ’till none were left to , D i ic party, under the second Duke trouble /the peace of Catholic : Df Guise, formed the Holy League, France. It is said King Charles | Me purpose of which was to re-es- hesitated to sign the order, bu j tablish and maintain the Catholic yielded to the influence of his mo ther and the Duke of Guise. Nov an incident occurred which workee religion and to suppress Protestant ism, with the secret design on the uart of the duke to secure the to the advantage of the conspira- ; threne for himself. There was an- tors. Coligny was waylaid anal ether outbreak known as the war wounded by an assassin, a servant | of the three Henry’s—King Henry,. of the Duke. The excitement of J Henry Duke of Guise and Henry of ’ the Huguenots was intense as they Navarre. For some time this war, gathered around their stricken continued without any material chief, but Catharine and the King advantage to either the Catholic spared no pains to allay this feel er Huguenot parties. At last, King Henry, realizing the designs of the duke, induced him to attend a council at the palace, where he was assassinaU'd by the king’s body guard. As the king kicked his body, he said, “Now I am king of ^vance, the king of Paris is dead.” 3c perished the man who sixteen years before had insulted the body of the nc.o:e Coligny. The king now formed an alliance with Henry of Navnrre and at the head of 40,000 men inarched on Paris, where, in an interview with a fanatical monk, he was stabbed to death. Henry of Navarre, of the house cf Bourbon, was next in line for the kingship. Before expiring the monarch embraced Henry, pro claimed him as his successor, and said, “You will never become king of France, unless you become a Catholic. Henry cf Navarre became Henry IV. The Catholics opposed him on account of his religion, and proclaimed the old Cardinal of Lor raine as king under the title of Charles X, but, in the battle of Ivry, Henry administered a crush ing defeat to his enemies and es- tatlished his seat on the throne. As a means of securing domestic peace for his kingdom, and under the advice of his trusted friends, Henry renounced Protestantism and accepted the Catholic faith. This was a bitter disappointment to the Huguenots, but he did not leave them without protecting their rights. He issued the famous Edict cf Nantes, which secured the rights they had so long demanded. Free dom of worship was guaranteed; their marriages, which the law had refused to sanction, were declared legal; the schools, which had beer closed to them, were opened tc their children; the right to hold public office and to be represented in parliament or courts was grant ed; and several fortified citiei were placed in their possession as a pledge and means of safety. For some years all went well, but the fires of hatred in the Catholics were merely Suppressed and not extinguished. Henry IV was killed by an assassin’s dagger. The moth er of Louis XIII, Marie de Medici, a Catholic, became queen regent and was largely under the influ ence of the radical leaders of that faith. Persecutions and hostilities broke out afresh, and ended in the nine months siege of La Rochelle, where fifteen thousand Huguenots died of starvation and disease be fore surrendering the city. But it was the hand of Louis XIV which struck the Huguenots their hardest blow. An intense bigot, his hatred of Protestantism was as great as his egotism. It is said he “glorified in the thought of con verting or destroying all the prot- estants,” and faithfully did he try to carry out his purpose. With their rights under the Edict of Nantes treated with contempt and violated at pleasure, with no re dress, and with their sovereign as an implacable enemy, encouraging persecution, the Huguenots began to emigrate to other countries. But even this privilege was taken away, for in 1669, Louis issued his Edict forbidding emigration. Yet, in spite of this, the emigration continued ffrnn year to year. To compel them to abandon their faith, he insti tuted that infamous system, known in history as the Dragonnades. Dragoons—the most brutal soldiers of France—were quartered upon the people, and, says an eminent scholar, “They persecuted; they pillaged; they tortured; and they murdered the peole. Every sort o. cruelty was used. They beat and whipped and bayoneted men, wo men and children. They dragged women by the hair through the streets and through the mud and mire. Such was the persecution of the dragonnades—a persecution that parallelled, and even surpass ed the persecutions of the preced ing centuries.” But still the peo ple remained true to the faith, and thousands, defying the vigilance of the government, escaped to Ger many, Holland, Switzerland, Eng land and America, among whom was the colony that settled at Charleston. Then, as his crowning ?xt of infamy, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, by which every /estige of their previous rights was taken away, and they were reduced almost to the level of beasts! To exercise, or attempt to exercise these rights, or an attempt to es cape from France, was penalized bv death, imprisonment, or that wors mmishment consignment to th galleys as slaves under the lash ol Catholic taskmasters. After the re vocation of the Edict, the work o' the dragonnades was renewed with increased ardor. Throughout the provinces of France went Page Number Ttto scourges, spreading terror, destroy ing Huguenot churches and schools, confiscating property, murdering ministers, slaying innocent men,, women and children, and committ ing other outrages that beggar description, \vithout churches, and wiih the penalty of death hanging over them, they assembled in the* deserts and in secret places to wor ship God, and to die, if need be. rather than forsake the faith.. Noble fortitude, heroic endurance, sublime consecration! It is said that both before and affer the ievocation of the Edict of Nantes, more than half a million people left the country—people cul tured in art, science and literature,, and those that form the backbone of a nation, and give it strength and prosperity, the laboring peo ple. • Not all of the Huguenots, how ever, submitted to these outrages. The Camisards, or white shirts, in the mountains of Cevenne. and other portions of the south, rose in revolt, and were not put down, till more than 100,000 people had perished in the seven years’ civil war. But wc cannot take the time to trace the persecutions against these faithful people through the vari ous periods. At the time our ancestors left France, in 1763, Louis XV had as cended the throne, and was no less bitter against Protestants than his grandfather had been. Ever since the revocation cf the Edict of Nantes, the Huguenots were con sidered the 1 egitimate prey of a. tyrannical government and a re lentless Catholic Hierarchy, and our ancestors were not an excep tion. It would be largely a repeti tion to describe the persecutions and brutalities inflicted upon them, for they drank of the same bitter cup. Driven to the deserts and for ests for shelter; with their property confiscated; with their marriages declared illegal and their children illegitimate; with their form of worship outlawed; with their min isters being put to death; with their political privileges taken away; with the right to pursue any of the honorable callings of life de nied; with no schools for their chil dren; with the means of common livelihood for themselves and fam ilies scantily granted; and with ihe “men, women and children hunted ’ike wild beasts and brutally mur dered while engaged in their re ligious rights”—with the weight of all these pressing on their souls the cup of suffering overflowed, and our forefathers resolved to leave <heir native land. Blessed be their memories for their unconquerable faith* which forbade an ignoble surrender! At*this time Rev. Jean Louis Gil bert, who had escaped from France to England, opened a correspond ence with families in the various provinces. “Their party of two hundred twelve was formed, and then they received from their be loved minister the pleasing infor mation that the King of England favored their emigration, and of fered them an asylum in his Prov ince^ South .Carolina.” The lit- tle^jpersonal property they possess ed was hastily converted into money; and now may be seen little groups of people, ranging from hoary age to the tender infant in its mother’s arms, dodging the vig ilance of government spies, and coming by secret ways, and often by night, to the port where their ship lies at anchor.” On August 9, 1763, they began that voyage which was to separate them forever from their native land. We may imagine the emo tion^ that swelled in their bosoms, as with tear-filled eyes, they look ed for the last time on the land they loved so well. Fond memories of all that was dear and sacred—~ childhood days and childhood’s home; the vine-clad hills and pleasant valleyes; the tender bonds of friendship and the hallowed as sociations of loved ones; their places of worship and the graves of their dead—crowd their minds and fill their hearts to overflowing. A !and that had been cruel and un- hist. it is true, but their native land. Of this company was Andre Guillebeau. We have dwelt somewhat at length upon this movement in or der that you might know what it meant to be a Huguenot, and that you might see the dark back ground of their history, against which they, with an indomitable spirit, held the torch of religious and civil liberty with unfailing hands. (Continued on Page Three)