The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-08-06
Wade Hampton's speech.


Wade Hampton, who led the rebel
hosts against the Union army with
demoniac ferocity, to which thou
sands of graves, and thousands more
of manned soldiers, all over the land,
too will testify, and who should have
been hung so high, that. his rotten
carcass in it's descent, would have
evaporated to the regions of the
damned, long before it could have
reached the soil of the United
States, was the chosen orator Of the
occasion, the bulk of whose speech
we publish below, which we trust
will receive careful perusal -
When you are done with it, reader,
please hand it to your neighbor,
accompanied with the request that
he do the same. After some pre-
liminary remarks he said
More than four years-years
which have been a nations death,
which have brought to us sorrow,
humiliation and ruin have passed
since / last stood in your noble and
battle-scarred old city. Then
proudly erect, flushed with victory
and devotion in her patriotism, she
held in her heroic hands the kew of
our State, defying, with indomitable
courage, the assaults of her enimies.
While portion of her sons here
guarded so bravely the portals of
the state, Others were following the
glorious Southern Cross wherever
it was waving in triumph, or were
sleeping their last sleep on the fields
which their valor had contributed
to win. All were doing their duty
as Carolinians, and the great historic
names Of the revolution were eilded
with new lustre as the descend
ants of Moultrie, of Rut.edee, of
Lowndes, of Hayne, of Pickney and
Huger, fought as did their fathers
for this deer old Carolina of ours.
Well, then, might she be proud Of
the immortal record she was making
for herself; and as one Of her sons
my heart used to swell with JOY and
pride as day after day ti'lings came
to our far distant camp-fires in Vir-
ginia that the brave old city ravaged
| by fire, torn by shot and battered
by shell, still stood unconquered
and unconquerable. Thank God!
she stood so to the last. She heard
the first gun of the war, and through
all of those four years of blood and
deadly strife that followed, our flag
tioated triumphantly from her be
leagured walls; and not until that
flag was folded forever, to
be buried with the Lost Cause, did
hostile feet press her soil. Nobly,
then, did she fulfill her arduous trust
during those stirring years of war.
Come what may, her past is beyond
repro&ch. So long as patriotism,
constancy and valor are esteemed,
the wondro US story of her defense
will stir the hearts of brave men,
and noble WON en- will teach their
children to lisp the name of Beaure-
gard. So long as old Ocean dashes
its waves against the ruiics OF Sump-
ter. her sons will tell witt, pride how
those ruins were held-e1-en after
they had ceased to afford shelter to
their garrison amid the incessant
storm of shot and shelby the he
role Elliott @Af
Here comes the cream of the
speech,
yield to none in devotion to that
"Lost Cause for which we fought |
Never shall admit that the cause
itself failed, and that the principles
which gave it life were therefore
wrong. Never shall brand the |
men who upheld it so nobly as 'sreb-
els" or ''traitors,". Never shall I
ignominiously seek safety or base
promotion by dastardly or treach-
erous betrayal of it; but still I can
accord to those who eonscientiously
differ with me what I claim for nv
self-perfect and entire sincerely in |
following the dictates Of duty My
recent intercourse with many Fed
eral soldiers has convinced me that |
there are thousands and tens of
thousands of them who occupy this
ground are fully determined that
the rights of all the States shall be
preserved inviolate, and who are
prepared to defend the Constitution
and its guarantees at all hazards
They will not allow unconstitu
tional legislation to fix, by means of
military tyranny, negro dominion
in the South. They will not con
sent to see ten States, in time Of pro
found peace, kept under the rule of
the bayonet, and they will demand,
as the Southern States have in good
faith accepted and kept the terms
offered them, that they shall take
their place in the Union as equal
partners in the great family of States.
1t is due to those soldiers who met
us in New York to declare-and /
do so with great pleasure--that while
all classes received us Of the South
with the greatest kindness and cor
diality, our greeting by them who
had lately been arrayed In battle
against US was marked by the ut
most consideration and delicacy; ).
and think I express the unanimous
feeling of the Southern delegates
when say we were not only graft
fed, but profoundly touched by the
reception we met with from the
Northern Democracy, and I know
that for this they deserve and re-
ceive the grateful thanks not only
of our delegates, but of the whole
mania of tho South And lot 4ho