The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-10-14
. A DISTINCTIVE Literature.

bic monument upon which their histor,
y is written. Blocks of chiseled marbl
- and monuments of everlasting granit
may, rise up like the pyramids in Egypt
j. SO may the glittering armor of trium
/ plant conquorors flash and blaze like
: the lightning of the elements, but these
can never make people great, nor viii
they last to tell their history. Nor car
vast empire accomplish, it, Many nations
great in conquest, great in the resources
of wealth have passed away from the re-
membrance of posterity, simply because
they have left no distinctive literature to
tell of their existence.
Many nations, on the other hand, have
been crushed by the heel of the conquer
or, ruined, almost blotted from existence,
and yet their literature remains, the un-
crumbled monument, TO tell the story of
their life and glory.
Greece, under the crush of the Mace
donian phalanx, and the charge ofthe
Praetorian cobort, has been shattered TO
pieces, the fragments OF, her glory have
become 6 the playthings Of the Mosem and
Turk. The Colossus of Rome has
toppled from its>dizzyc height. But the
voice of Athenian sand Roman elo9uence
fingers and is heard in the classic shades
of learning. Their poetry and ,philoso-
ply Will Kind1e thoughts that burn with
enthusiasm in the heart Of man, latter the
story of their overthrow has been forgot
| ten.
The Jews are scattered, nation OF
wanderers over the broad earth, no holy
city, no temple, no home; but Hebrew
literature, a part even of Holy Writ, will
tell their grand history, despite the
sweeping whirlwind of time itself
So, too, of us must it be written and
told by our own distinctive literature.
The Anathema-Uos uictis-can have no
power to blot our, existence, if we have a
literature rich and rare,e replete with
those principles and ideas that glow upon
the page Of history. 2a'''i
Without this; the Southern people will
be as complete and hopeless ruin as was
Carthage.
The reaction after the stunning and
stupendous reality of our defeat passed
away was to repair, like men, our rains,
to restore our material wealth. A fur
ther and deeper reaction must be to re-
store the cause of letters, which were
silent amid the clash of arms, to recall
the voice of ofliterature, which was hushed
amid the roaring reverberations of war.
war. is that of the shrine of TIE -Mhses
the cause that has suffered. most is that
of education. The memory of that'loved
homestead will serve as the model to rear
new one, dearer for being erected near
the graves OF the loved and fallen; piety
will CO lsecrate new shrines, and retracc
their. obIterated Inscriptions.
Commerce, with its own reactive ener-
gy, will rebuild its ruined marts, and
people them again with busy life. Labor
upon basis more in accordance with the
voice of civilization, shall again cause
our fields to grow for green-coming har-
vests, and future industry restore the
heathful currency Of trado. These ruins
have already, to a great degree; been re
stored. In their material restoration
there is danger of. our forgetting the 9th
er. sadder ruin. The requiem wailing
over our land for the countless slain be-
meath her bosom acquires its saddest tre-
BILE of despair, as it echoes mournfully
within the deserted halls of letters.
| The eagor desire to repair our lost
wealth is apt to render us too material,
too utiitarian, too torgetful OF our intel
lectuaI and moral necessities. .5l..4
Let us be warned, lest it!happens to US
that we restore all. the other ruins Of the
war, and leave the. caase of education, of
literature, neglected and uneared-for.
Our defeat then, will have become utter
and:complete:
The Southern people are not kno,on,
not understood now, because they have
no literature of their own; let US beware
lest our "Lost Cause" perish utterly from
the face of the earth, and we ourselves
become merged in the rapid progress Of
events, and no memorial remain of either.
The reaction from despair was action,
industry, energy; now the reaction must
be from the running this economy into
an extreme of materiaity.
This must be done, but the other not
lett undone and neglected. Let this re-
action be as deep and thorough as the
first has been, and methinks q grand and
glorious literature arise among our
people, pure and lofty as some towering
monument of Parian marble, beauteous
ornament to the nation, an unfading me-
mortal of our history. Ard ssss Sc its gleam-
ing summit seems to rest among the
clouds, upon its sides will be emblazonod
in characters of immortal lte-and light,
the record of our past!
'ris in the cause of education at last,
that we are speaking again. 'Tis now
the duty of patriotism to give mighty
impetus to this always holy cause: The
Genius of the South must bo aroused.
] fTbe State has need of her sons to vindi-
cate her past, to act her future; to re;
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