The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-09-22

which have alluded, may be viewed Wnethei
as evidences of good or evil-of progress or re-
tropression-your duty remains the same. II
requires that you should take your stand 6y the
principles of truth, right, and justice, and thai
YOU should labor necessarily and earnestly fol
their final triumph.
| "You will also see much IN the present con-
dition of public morals to discourage, Inc
war from which we have lately emerged has
left its marks not only upon all our material
interests and our political situation, but also
upon Che morals Of the people, 1t has exerted
a most powerfully dem0ralizing influence upon
society. The blood shed in it, like The drops
that fell from Madusa's head on Lybian sands,
has produced monsters of horrid shape. 70
litical corruption prevails on all sides with
shameless face it stalks at MONDAY through the
land. Public virtue has degenerated almost
into crime, and patriotism is scoffed at as a
bye-yord of reproach. In promoting the aims
of the ambitious, the arts of the demagogue are
more potent than the virtues of the statesman.
Office and place, instead of being the reward
of merit, are bought and sold as things in the
market. These are melancholy truths-facts to
be lamented, but they should not cause you to
despair of the future. This condition OF things
cannot last-it has none of the elements of
permanency, or long life. 1t depends for its
existence upon causes which of themselves will
work change and the change may come when
we are least expecting it-while we are strain
ing our eyes to see its approach In the distant
future. History is not without examples to
gives us confidence in this result. Politlcal
corruption in its most disgusting forms, prohl-
gacy in morals and manners want OF integrity
and virtue in public men, characterized the
times Immediately preceding the revolution In
ENGLAND which expelled the Stuarts from the
throne. and established the liberty of the citi-
zen and the sanctity of the laws upon firmer
foundation than they had ever been before.
The carnival of blood, which towards the close
of the last century, maddened the people OF
France, and sapped the very foundations of So
cietv, was followed by the most brilliant era OF
her history. It was during these troublous
times that the seeds were sown which at a later
day. have been developed into more vigorous
growth of the principles of well-regulated lib
erty than that country has ever before enjoyed:
1t is also truth of history, that the authors OF
evils which necessitate these great reactions In
human affairs, those who fatter the people only
to betray them, who seek to promote their lg
noble ambition and selfish ends by means OF
fraud corruption, are sure to be overtaken by
terrible etribution-unrelcnting popular ven
peancc. They are doomed to realize the fate OF
the Thracian king who fed his horses on human
flesh. and afterwards himself became victim
of the unnatural appetite he had stimulated.
From these lessons of history VIC should take
courage, and look forward with confidence to
the delivery of our country from the evil iniiu-
ences which now seem to control its destlnies.
In the struggle to attain this end, may we not
count something, too, upon the lineage of which
our people may boast? They have descended
from race whose toughness and elasticity of
spirit have been tested by many trials; whose
love of liberty has been bred in the bone and
will never run out. 1t may be smothered for a
while by the mailed hand of oppression, but it
cannot be extinguished. When the occasion
comes its fires will blaze out with still brighter
and more glorious efulgence.
"Remember, young men, this is your coun-
try it was the country of your fathers. make
it the country of your posterity: This is your
Georgia, it belongs to you by right OF lnheri-
tsnce, with all its, glorious traditions make 1t
the Georgia of those who are to come after you.
Methinks that the genius of the proud old State
still stirs within you; that by the efforts OF her
sons she will rise again to honor and glory
that with pions hands they will gather together
the broken fragments of the temple their
fathers erected, and from these sacred relics,
rebuild its columns and arches, and again raise
its proud dome towering to the skies, to stand
in all coming time fitting memorial of their
skill and patriotism, and an enduring monu-
ment to the virtues of the illustrious dead"