Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-11-28

eAAAAS " - ~
Pagan. Your speaker takes the hint,
and stands instructed by this exam
pie. Would that the power OF the
superb oratory with which these
thoughts were first presented in a re-
mote antiquity had likewise been
transmitted.
Who e at is cOnYeTsant with Ameri-
can history will deny that the people
Of the South had long before the civil
war established for themselves a char
acter well defined and altogether indi-
vidual, distinguishing them from the
populations OF their associate States?
This distinctiveness was political, so
ciaI and intellectual. II IS now, per-
haps, the fashion to question their su-
p~eriority, and rather insist on their
inferiority; yet, for nearly eighty
years, predOminance in public affairs
was conceded to them by those who
now disparage them and their ances-
tors. This argument does not neces-
sarily involve any question as to the
present relative position OF peO-
pie in these regards. 1t may be that
the population of the Southern
States was intended to rule in a GER
tain era Of the Republic. The age Of
iron may have been onlyintended for
them, and they are, perhaps, not
adapted to the age OF gold. But it
must be admitted that the genius of
the South presided over the birth Of
the Republic, shaped and guided its
deStinieS for over three-quarters
Of a century. By IL vas
founded American liberty. What,
on the plains of Lexington, was the
resistance Of d selfish patriotism, was
in Virginia the assertion of a Princi-
pie Of British freedom. To the South
was entrusted the great Captaincy
that led to the final victory of the
Colonial arms. The soldiers of the
South cheerfully served beyond the
borders of their States, and wherever
on the continent the foe could be met.
To the craftsmanship of the South
was entrusted mainly the adaptation
of new forms of government to the
doctrine Of British liberty. Our pc
litical foundations are mainly Its work.
Washington, Jefferson, Madison,
Henry Clay and Marshall stand out
in history the representative men of
the early heroic age of the Republic.
They promulgated the policies at the
Inauguration Of Dur system, which
controlled it up to 1861. 1t is worse
than idle to shrink from historic truth
for fear Ofill-tempered criticism. En-
ViOus malice would alone as
sumo the responsibility of de-
NAL at this point. Whatever
our late foes mag hold a great and
glorious in the career OF the American
States for eighty years, they must at
tribute to Southern craftsmanship. Ii
their pride centers in any Oue pas
sage of this brilliant epOch-or if they
boast over the grand total of these
years, it is'a tribute, voluntary or in
voluntary to the genius of the South.
l fshe withdrew from competition in
material enterpri5eS-if she shrUnk
from the struggle of the market-place
it was to study free government and
mature for freemen wise policies. All
were the beneficiaries of her political
ascendancy, and a rational, well or
dered constitutional liberty was the
result. This b%eneficeut and vigorous
predOminence furnishes the brightest
page to American annals. What En-
glish history would be without the
Norman era American history
would be without the Southern era.
If the Southern has been q great po-
litical power in the land his suprem-
acy has not been the less noted for
the rarest social and personal
virtues. What his quiet but agrees
sive intellect might possibly have
failed entirely to command was yield
ed to his stern personal integrity and
attractive manners. He was a Demo-
crat with the breeding of a prince,
and taught modern times thai filth,
c-oarseness, cruelty and infidelity were
not the necessary conComitants of
popular liberty. He converted the
JacObin into a Christian gentleman,
not only without injury but with i'm
advantage 10 popular rights.
The purity and grace of Southern
wives and daughters have passed into
a prOVeTb. So profound has become
the conviction, with even our enemies,
of the great excellence of Our people
in these regards, by reason of the eX-
periences manifest since their exclu-
sion from participation in the Federal
Government, that many of them la
ment ostraeism and loudly de-
mand the return of truly Southern
representative to the Federal Capitol.
presence there is now actually
deemed necessary to the restoration,
not only Offree government, but to an
honest administration.
We might, however, close the book
on the history of the South that pre-
cedeS 1861, and commence with the
first cannOn-shOt that, sweeping on
the waters of Charleston harbOr, woke
to life that wOndrOus martial proves
Of our people at which the world
stood amazed. and still there is more
than enough in that heroic struggle Of
four years to exhaust monumental
marble Gnd commemorative brass.
The records Of that brief time exhibit
a national life that will never be for
The deeds, achievements aud
sutferings of those days viii yet fill the
storied page, and move in accord with
the majestic periods Of sober history.
Fronting a huge and ever-deepening
~battle-line Of foes stretched across a
continent the thin columns Of " gray "
rushed to the conflict, undismayed by
the fearful odds, winning victory after
victory until, impoverished by their
own excess of valOr, human endurance
had been taxed beyond its utmost
limit. To-day, We may meet among
the enVirOns OF these stricken fields a
LeonidaS at every str~eet-cOrner, and
.ostle Spartans in our market-places.
20 have served in the Confederate ar
mics Is ct least to be the equal of one
Of &enophOn'S ten thousand, with all
the shortcomings hiatt the o~Ver-fastidi-
Gus may in the bitterness of disap-
DOintment ascribe either to the civic
Or military administration of the
South during the war, the annals of
nankind viii be searched in vain for
resistance against such numbers
md such resources, so long aHd 50 /
we'll neutrality-suspicious. amid
such suffering and borne with such
enduring heroism. Though unsuc-
we accomplished that which
if ever before, has been
achieved. She attained a military
prestige far t~ranscending that of her
yictors, and with the world her sol
IieFs have more than Roman eelebri-
". She has obtained far herself, without
independence, distinct indi-
giduality, a nationality Of fame, il not
IF government. 1t is an episode of
lcts and endurance which has leaped,
Is it were, across the track Gf time, but
n light immOrtal-more luminous
han the pathway Of the stars.
Then why shall not a people thus
ledged around by so much OF glorious
circumstance, and so borne aIoft be-
ore the eyes OF men by such conspic-
lous events, preserve memorials as
IS magnificent as their means will ad-
nit of those who died at their sum
mons in defense Of this land, and to
maintain that place among men trans
to them from q pQble ances-
ry? On the contrary, TO neglect this
sacred duty would be either to admit
hat there is nothing in III history