Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-04-28
z S S E S
MISCELLANEO Gus.
" The Banner of the South"

" The Banner Of the South"
This is the title of weekly paper just
started in Augusta, Ga, by Father A. J.
RYAN, Mt So year. 1t is needless for us to
say anything of the man, the priest,poet aud
Christian patriot of the South, whose name
is household word, and whose tongue like
Isaiah's seems touched with living coal from
the altar of Divine inspiration. We copy be-
low that portion of his salutatory in which
he defines the politics of his paper To say
a word in its praise would be gliding refined
gold" He says:
In politics, we shall be independent. We
belong to no party. Mere partizans we shall
never be, but holding ourselves aloof from
party and prejudices, we shall take the .liber-
ty to discuss all public questions, public meas
ures and public men-not in their relations
to party, but in their relation with principles
and the welfare of society. By birth and SEN
tment we are of the South. Dcarer than all
other interests Of this world to us, are those
of our own land. Over these interests we
shall watch. Firmly and faithfully we shall
defend them, and more so now than ever
when those interests are in such need of
brave defence and true defenders. Believ-
ing as we do, that the South had right, and
reason, and principle, on her side in the late
war, VIC feel that we should not let the tradi-
tons and memories and glores of the strug-
gle pass into oblivion. We must keep them
alive and aglow-we must pass them down
VIC must make our children proud of them.
There is not day nor deed of the struggle
Of which we may feel ashamed. We owe it
to the past to preserve the story Of our strug-
gle, and the future will not forgive us if we
fail to record it. And in recording it VIC
must not use words Of apology, as though we
doubted Of the righteousness of our cause;
but, plainly and fcarlessly, true to ourselves,
to our cause, to our country-true to the dust
at our feet-true to the spirits of those who
were true to us-true to the Future which
is coming down to ask of US the vindication
Of our course and the story of our past-we
must declare and still declare, and never cease
declaring. in words as brave as our warriors
were, that in the dread struggle in which our
Flag went down with not stain of dishonor
on the virgin purity of its folds. Justice
stood on the side of the men who wore the
Grey. And Justice has not changed sides
because we have been defeated Uncon-
quered and unconquerable, Justice is still
with the conquered. The success of our
cause has been lost-not its right; for fail
ure can never make right wrong, nor can sue
cess transform the iniquity of wrong into the
sacrcdness of right, Brute force goes down
into the battle fields not to test the rightful-
ness Of causes but to try the strength of com
batents. The success of the sword is no ar
gument in favor of the cause for which it
has been unsheathed. The surrender of the
sword is no argument against the cause which
drew it from the scabbard. Shot and shell do
not reason-they are slaughter-and slaugh-
ter, be it more or less, is only slaughtcr-it
is no argument for or against the rights of
those who kill or are killed. Bullets may
mangle fesh-spill blood-slay men-but
they can never reach the vital principles for
which men coutended. These principles are
beyond the range of muskets and cannon.
Battle>felds may be the burial places Of men
never of rights. Above the smoke and
storm and shock Of battles unaffected by vic
tory or defeat, calm, and immovable, Justice
sits on her eternal throne, and in her eyes
right is right for ever-wrong is eternally
wrong-and trampled right is grander than
triumphant wrong. From the decisions Civ
en- against US in the court of battle, we there
for appeal and these decisions we carry up
to the high tribunal of Justice for reversal.
This, and this alone. was settled By battle
that we were the weaker party. We had less
brute force on OR side and we were obliged
to yield to the superior strength Of our assail-
ants. The armies and government of the
Confederacy were but the mortal flesh and
blood OF an immortal cause.
They are gone-it is living. Nor steel,
nor lead, could touch its life, nor take it
away. 1t is living in the loves of Southern
hearts-it is living in the memories Of the
Southern dead-it is living in the stories
which Southern mothers are telling their ht-
tie children-it is living in the sorrovs and
tears of our widows and orphans. And we
shall keep it alive. The right of our cause
did not fall with Richmond Itexists to-day
as clearly as it did when the first boom of our
guns sounded across the Carolina waters, and
when the Palmetto fag-mid the ringing of
bells. and the rapture of gladdened hearts
and the sounding of cheers which the shore
sent over to the sea, waved in triumph over
Sumpter. And on that April day when Lee
gave up his sword, bright and unblemished
as when he first girded it on, he yielded
merely, and only, the policy of further re-
sistancs-uot the principle which had lifted
that resistance into into right and sancti-