The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1869-01-30

66em 10 Ue heaven oecIeeu. ~ ~
Ia cna word then ! bare chosen .he iassess,
and ''ourv political position q explained. Now
sinoethe shock of 81 rsssrbslasiqns are sslllea,
and the aLoss Cause Hes COINED s,sia the
mighty dead, we may moralias upon its sls..
uents, and its tendencies, with dispassioned
eaipaaess, that vas impossible amid tho war of
its battles and the heat of its excitement. Might
there not have been in the conservatism and
seclusion Of our effete civilization, an element
of stagnation, which was autagonistie to the
development of those germs Of progressive
change, which constitute Cosmopolitan ad
vancement?
Might not a present interest have blinded us
to what may have been social evil-and TO
our own true and ultimate prosperity? f.. ~,
4 Might there not have been in the very fact
6f our laboring class being our slaves, and Of
an inferior race-a tendency to degrade labor
and make it dishonorable2
These things may have BEEN, and perhaps
the great ideas of liberty, humanity and pro.
gress have been promoted by the failure of our
cherished Confederaoy. ''.' ''7..@
The feudal system of the middle ages, was
the foundation upon which tho social compact
of its time was superstructed it was replete
with romantic associations, prolific with in
stances of the most touching relations, existent
between the lord and the vassal-but its So
cages, its services and tenures ore disrupted,
and the entire fabric of its civilization has dis
appeared-mergcd in new systems, as the des-
tiny of humanity advances with resistless
tread.
And SO, too, perhaps, Of our own peculiar
institutions" knit and woven together as were
the social relations of which it was the basis !;
Chyistianizing as it was to heathen race;
autochthon, spontaneous and normal as was Its
character, perhaps it too had accomplished its
mission, and must fade in the "misty dusk CT
the twilight past" a ~
Certain it is that the annihilation Of our
system-as result of the war--is fact, and
it is an instinct of piety to discern in these
mighty changes 19.
IA divinity that shapes our ends
Rough hew them how we may" j.
Despite our prejudices hug them as VIC may,
the Republican Party" of the country seems
to be the fate-,the destiny which shall govern
this contihent--and it is at least no impiety to
discern the Hand of God, as the identity of
fate.
e One may, by such train of thought oppose
himself to the violent prejudiccs of his own hab-
its--a secondary nature land tothe prejudiees of
associates, who, not having realized the meta-
morphosis of the entire cirilisation, still hug
TO themselves, dclnsions as anachronic as those
of Don Quixote de Ia Mancha, and as ridiculous;
but he certainly puts himself in the rapid, re.
sistless, and onward march Of events, and the
development Of the idea of humanity, which
march shall advance, and which idea shall
evolve itself over the ruinr Of systems and So
cieties until it shall have achieved its perfec-
tion, ~ t. .
Gentlemen of Orapgeburg, to whom am
introduced to-day, and whom 1 greet in the
sympathy Of common disappointment and com
mon hopes, in pointing to our past, SO lighted
with glory,so prolific in great names, the
names of Carclina's great men, whose motto
acted out in their own lives was that the du.
tics Of life are greater than life itself, /
would say that my heart thrills with you at
these memories-and in pointing TO the future,
1 would but remind you that it is in your
keeping. Man is to great degree, the crea-
ture of circumstance, but political results and
national destinies ore in his own hands.
The lazy lazzaroni who gapes about the
streets of modern Rome has forgotten the
glory of his country's past.