Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1865-10-19

them the consolation OF my own hopes, that
if the States aetedin good faith there could
be no dispositions to detain them beyond the
period Of restoration, if 80 long. However.
much we may always deplore the fact that
so many of these lovers ofthe Union, yield.
ed to the storm and lent to the destructiyes
the weight of their names and services, yet
no one can regard them as the more guilty
agents. They are entitled to clemeuey,
and will doubtless receive all that they
merit I partook Of their simple dinner,
which was not extravagant, although they
are not wanting for means.
In the afternoon We walked upon the par
apet and reviewed the mighty modern I'M
provements for defence, which I will not
undertake to describe, lest should fall short
Of truthful account. Judge Reagan said
I was the first Texan who had visited him
since his confinement. :.
intwilight of evening bade these hope.
full men adieu, and was soon steamed back
to Boston. My mind now grew melancholy
and reviewed the past history Of these men
SO far separated from, their friends and fam.
ilies Neither was born to fortune or afiu.
enoe, but sprung from obscure paren.age.
They were pbor and self taught, They we're
reared in slave country, about which the
great lie still lives, that the SONS Of the poor
are always degraded outcasts from society |
Wicked mendacity! These men are only
two amongthe thousands Of living and dead
proofs that nearly all the moral aud intel.
lectual worth in the South sprung from toe
middle and poorer classes. Stephens en-
tered the House of Representatives Of the
United States early I; and he won q national
reputation which placed him among the
very first minds who have distinguished that
body Reagan was younger, less polished,
but little less intellectual and promising-
They were both struck down in the day Of
their usefulness by the fell spirit Of destruc.
ton. Gould not their constituency, and
the constituency of hundreds of others of
like histories, be satisfied with q govern.
mens where genius was SO well rewarded, or
Stephens had before him the example Of
Georgia's great pride, William q. Crawford,
whose unaided march to fame inspired 80
many Of the humble youths Of that State
to hew their way to the widest fields Of am
bition? I might name q thousand whose
distinguished records would put to shame
the assertion that the poor could not rise in
Southern country.
Reagan was born and grew up in the
land where the present illustrious Chief
Magistrate of the nation was then working
his way from the tailor's bench to the Pres
idency of the United States. Andrew
johnson stood not alone among native and
adopted Tennesseeans who had thus risen.
East Tennessee first raised Sam Houston,
Hugh Z. White and Justice Catron. The
same State was the nursing mother of An.
drew jackson, the Joneses, F. W. Stanton,
Archibald Yell, John Williams, Judge
Sharkey and hundreds of others-noble
men, who were not favored by wealth, early
advantages or education, nor euervated nor
demoraliaed by slave nursing and the hope
of inheriting slave plantations.
Could not the South pc satiafed'with the
houors which these, her self.made sonss had
won? VIII not such examples convince
the world that neither manual labor nor
poverty degraded the poor Southern boy
nor chained his intellectf For such as
Reagan and Stephens / always feel deep
sympathy. They were my co.equals in the
beginning of life. Their ambition took a
different road and they outstripped me. l
envy them not; they studied politics more
and Law less than I. Let their constituents,
who are the nation, .sympathize with them.
GEO. W. PASCHAI.