The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-07-26

arouse ourselves to manly, vigorous action.
Never in so short time, have people
endured more, suffered more, lost more
At the close of five years of war, we find
the South wreck in material prosperity;
the arch genius of desolation could desire
nothing more complete. The farms and
homesteads, villages, towns and cities OF
our land, have been sacked and burned
by the invader; our lines of railroads and
telegraphs destroyed, our States and peo-
pie utterly impoverished, our factories
and mills, our School-houses and sanctu-
aries given to the torch, our slaves freed,
and our social system utterly upheaved,
robbery and murder holding high carnival
over law and order prostrate-our most
distinguished citizens in imprisonment or
exile, or debarred the privilege ofdevoting
their talents and experience to the public
good, by legislative or military edict, and
a half million of the most gifted and
chivalric of our population either disabled
by casualties of war, or filing soldiers
grave This great grief has invaded al
most every household, and everywhere
Jacob and Rachel are heard bewailing
some noble Benjamin, who went forth
and returned not again; his ghost shall
come before them in the twilight of sum-
mer, and rekindle their grief as they gaze
upon the vacant chair by the winters
fireside. We may not erect fitting
monument to the memories of the great
host of patriot unknown dead, but they
will live forever in the affections of
grateful, though unsuccessful people, and
be heralded on the pages Of impartial
history as the compeers of Leonidas in
courage and devotion to country and
principle. Amid charging corps and
trampling squadrons, plunging shot and
screaming shell, they sunk to rest, some
by the bright waters Of the Potomac
some by the mountain-born Shenandoah (;
some by the historic Chickahominy
some by the majestic James; some amid
the Magnolia bowers, by the ever sound
ing ocean; some amid the jungles Of the
far West; some hardly the towering
mountains of Tennessee, while some rest
beneath the green sod of Kentucky; and
others beneath the spires of our village
Churches. Noble men "the ground is
holy where they fought, and holy where
they fell" While we cherish their mem
ories, let us not give way to an unmanly
grief. 1t was doubtless merciful Provi-
dence which spared them the mortifca-
tion of tasting the bitter cup which is
pressed to the lips of the living. Their
work is done-the contest is ended-and
they, with their surviving comrades, have
given to the world the noblest example
Of heroic devotion to principle, and writ
ten in characters of blood, the most bril-
liant chapter in the military history OF
the world.
Our achievements in the past are safe;
our laurcls unfading. For over three
quarters of century, Southern states
manship shaped the policy of the govern
ment, and Southern diplomacy controlled
it's foreign relations, in the better days of
the republic-all along its history, South
ern generalship and Southern valor have
added to it's lustre and we are called
upon now, to display in defeat, the same
lofty courage and conscious virtue, which
led us so often to victory. We may turn
to the future from the gloomy present,
with proud consciousness, that through
the principles for which we contended
have been borne down by mere brute
force, their eternity is undeniable, and our
manhood and sincerity have been amply
vindicated. Looking to the present char
acter of party politics and party leaders,
our people may cheerfully submit to the
denial of all participation in political at
fairs, for time; nothing doubling, that
the scum which has foated 10 the surface
upon the food-tide of popular madness,
will disappear with the ebbing wave ; and
ever hopeful, that the wise policy and in
flexible firmness of the executive, sus-
tanned by the conservative element of tho
country, will enable us to preserve and
to enjoy, if not exactly the government
of our choice, still, the freest form OF gov
ernment under the sun.
We should determinedly bend our ener-
gies to developing the material prosperity
of the State rebuilding her houses OF
worship, and re-opening her institutions
of learning. If we but resolutely pursue
this course, virtue and religion will beau
tify and adorn our stricken State, as the
clinring-ivy does the storm-riven oak.
We shall challenge the respect and ad-
miration of the world, and render her as
memorable in peace as she has ever been
in war. We should bear in mind, what
constitutes State.
"Not high-raiscd battlements, of flabcrcd mound,
Thick wall, or moated gate;
Not cities proud with spires and -turrets crowned
Not bays and broad armed ports,
Where laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Nor starred and spangled courts,
Where low Drowned baseness watts perfume to
pride.
No men, high-minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
In forest, brake, or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;
Men, who their duties know,
But know their rights and knowing dare maintain,
Prevent the long aimed blow,
And crush The tyrant while they rend the chain