Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1866-06-13


Must they leave forever, the hallowed ground
whore the ashes of their children repose, to which
they repair daily to deposit flowers ed tokens OF
innocence, upon the grave, and to oftf'1p prayers
to God for the peace Of their own souls, and the
soulgof their dear departed off spring? Yet they
;npstIoser their crcsts-they must depart, in sor-
:row annd;in shame, unless the Legislature afford
:;hem saecor md relief, and that speedily and ef-
SrsctuallS: When they are deprived Of their lands
and reduced to naught here, they can not brook
To live amid the scenes of their former affiuence,
and they will seek kinder sky, and more gene
rous soil for tho struggles of their declining age.
That they shall bc.drven away under color of
law, and that the lawyer and the sheriff shall
divide with the creditor, their little possessions,
will not palliaie their distress, or staunch the
wounds of "the broken soldier" I confess, that
am frequently oppressed with sadness, in tho
contemplated of this subject and can realize, in
Imagination. the vivid picture drawn in Gold
smiths Desert.d Village" -:
"Down where yon ncluring vessel spreads the sail,
That idly waiting aaps with every gale,
Downwarl they move, q Dlelnncb boly hand,
Pass from tho: shore and darken all the. strand.
Contcnted toll, and ho:piiable care,
And kind cpnnubiai tcnderhess, are there;
And pisty, with wishes placed above,
And steady loyalty, and faithful love-"
T have already seen, in Charleston, the wives
and daughters Of planters, who had previously
owned from one to seven plantations, and also Of
those WHO were formerly merchant princes, (for
merchandise shares the fate of agriculture and
lives upon it,) SO reduced in means, as to be COM
pccd to live at ordinary boarding houses, on the
precarious earnings of their husbands, sons, and
brothers behind the counters, and in the public
Offices of the city, while courtcsuns and the wives
of advcnturers were faunting in their faces all
the fucry of Paris, and London and Now York.
These husbands and SOILS, and brothers are the
men who stood so bravely to our Flag atHoney-
Till, who fought, shoulder to shoulder, with
Elliot and Walker .at atPocotaligo, with Ghlliard
aud Lamar at ssceastopSsille, with simkins and
Ramsay at. battery erAwho eOnssctated the
ruins of Fort Sumter, with their blood, and il
lusiratcd by their valor, the cnsanguined fields of
Walthall Junction, Drury's Bluff, and The Weldon
Road. No knights of the age Of chivalry ever
displayed more self-s.criGcing courage, or dero-
ton to honor. Must these men too be driven
away? IT cannot be so. The State cannot af-
fordit. We could part with SOC or n brother,
with fond regrets, indeed, who had perished, like
q hero, battling for righteous cause, but We
cannot afford to lose whole rirtuous. and mag
unanimous population.
(" Princes and lords may flourish or may fade;
A breath can make them, as breath has made:
But bold yeomanry, their country's pride,
When. once destroyed, can never bo supplied"
Iwould even oxtcnd the benefits Of the,law to
tho widows "f our glorious doads so as to retain,
| if possible, within the bosom of South Carolina,
all of her sons, and all OF her previous jewels.
JOSEPH ABNEY.