National Republican., 1875-07-12

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upon them municipal forms of mere superb
cial restraint and fiimsy systems of education
al training, calculated to perpetuate Ignorance
and substitute individual craft for public viz
tue. Their descendants, therefore, who were
contemporary with our royal priesthood OF
Washington, jefferson, Henry, Mason, Madi-
son, Marshall, the Rutleges and Pinckneys,
could have no Unborn reverence for such pro-
genitors, and thereby became, and must con-
tinue, the representatives of s merely individ-
ual present and selfish interest A people who
can have no truthful reverence for the past
can never provide worthiy, not to say nobly
and honorably, for the future. The Msyhower
freight, under the laws of England, was heresy
and e."-Ibid.
Washington was dead. His robes of un-
smirched purple, stolen and misfitted for
time, were again worthily on the shoulders of
jefferson; and here white-handed hope waved
her sceptre of faith, and liberty sat smiling be-
meath the bright enchantment, or serenely and
and grandly seemed to move onward to the
amounting and the coronation. Ibid.
"Not space, or time, or the convenience of
any human law, or the power Of any human
arm can reconcile institutions for the turbu-
lent fanatic of Plymouth Rock and the God
fearing Christians of jamestown. You may
assign them to the closest territorial prox-
unity, with all the forms, modes and shows OF
civilization, but you can never cement them
INTO the bOnQS OF DrOLnernOOQ. UreaL NdLurt
in her supremest law forbids it."-Ibid.
"Let your historians tell this TO posterity,
and your poets sing of it in funeral chant. But
let them with 1t say we were not subdued
when Lee surrendered his starvelings at Apo
mattox; that we were not all subdued when
they sent their satraps to plunder and degrade
us. Let them say this in truth. But, broth
ers, comrades, may not stand here to-day in
these holy places, at our baptismal font, and
60 SON hr ma
truth of our cause-by all that is sacred in
human hope and faith-by your trust in the
promises of the immutsble God, that your his
torians shall not record for our children's
children, we are subdued, when with humble
and abject spirit we swallow the lie that
God and humanity demand that our re-
ligion, our liberty shall be judged by
the emancipated negro and his New
England master. Is that the civilization to be
recorded by the legatees of Jefferson for the
veneration of posuerity-that with bended
knees and humbled hearts we PROSTATE our
souls, and thank our God that our liberties are
judged by other mems consciences-that we
have the bastard heritage from Washington
and Lee, to crawl on our bellies to negro and
New England temples and at the outer gate
pray them, not to give US back our happy
homes, not to give us back our slaughtered
children, not to give us back our perfect lib
erty but to let us be of them, that we, too,
may celebrate their altar with warbled hymns
and forced hallelujahs, and breathe for them
ambrosial odors, our base and seryile offer
ings!" Ibid.
az do not see it in the sublime spectacle of
Washington's labor and prophecy, nor in the
still grdnder sacrifices Of Manassas and Ap-
pondttor. Amid all these wander, darkling,
for nv faith in the immutable promise of Al
mighty God. do not know it in all these.
But, my brothers, my comrades, feel 1t
aye, 1 feel it here, in my heart of hearts, that
our children must be free, and that the groans
of our oppression will be silenced by the shouts
of their liberty. hear the
hymns Of praise and thanksgiving and the
| songs Of triumph from the battlefield we have
| fought, and then / know that our blood has
| gone up as incense and will descend as dew
| of heaven to water our land and ripen our
! fruit, the fruit of our fathers libGrty.'-IHi.
"The public hall " as flied with distinguished
| company, who listened to an address so extra
I ordinary in its character that it will never be
forgotten by those who had the good foStune
| to be present. Southern enthusiasm was
aroused to it's highest attitudes, and General
| Preston's appeals to Southern patriotism fell
on susceptible minds, and touched the hearts
| of those who were familiar with the memories
of the past. Southern Correspondence.
"The children Of this university have cele-
brated, in becoming manner, its iftieth ami
versary. Never In the, history of our State
was there such a splendid college celebration.
Space and language would fail US in describing
the magnifcence of that occasion, when the
winter of discomfort was made the glorious
summer of joy. Those whose high privilege
1t was TO attend will not soon forget the
grandeur of the scene. Rarely, If ever again
in the history of Virginia, will there be seen so
numerous and yet SO wise and learned a body
of men as the alumni assembled at the uni
versity last week. From Massachusetts to the
Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pa
cifc, her sons returned once more to bring
their offerings and pay their vows in the same
temple and at the same affairs around VIII ah
| they worshiped in earlier years, while her
children in the Old World sent her their heart
| lest greetings and assurances of affection and
nurture. The orations delivered on the occa-
sion are living monuments to the fame Of the
| university and to the distinguished orators who
| constructed them. The names of Preston and
Hunter are household words in every South
eTn home, and are destined 70 live as long as
alt is a consolation for us to know that JEFF
ferson's spirit still lives in this university, his
fayorite legacy to his people. Not even the
| ruthless vandal of the North, whose progress
was marked by black desolstion and ruin,
| dared inirude upon the sacred precincts of this
| temple of knowledge, whose doors have never
| been closed since its foundation. The North
| ern invader was kept away by q stronger power
than that which hurled the huge stones down
| the heights of Parnassus to frighten the Per-
| slams from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
/ 1t was the awe and reverence which 8 nation
| feels for the memory of Thomas Jefferson,
who accounted it the greatest glory Of life to
| be the Father of the University of Virginia
| We say 1t is a great consolation to our people
| to know that the spirit Of Jefferson still lives,
and that, too, as the presiding genius in the
Parthenon of American learning, in whose
classic halls the youthful manhood of our
Southern land may assemble annually to learn
lessons of the serenest wisdom."-LyHehburg
Repubtiean, July7.
We make confession at once that It re-
quires the highest form of courage and the
grandest exercise of charity to approach the
| discussion of General Preston's address,
aid the comments thereanent, with any
thing like calmness. As history, it is
base falsehood; as philosophy, mere mad
ness; and as eloquence, it is loose and con-
temptible. There is not q word in it, from
beginning to end, that relieves it from the
charge of treason, nor single sentence
that is not clothed with the most wicked
malignity and the grossest ignorance. Aver
nus would be searched in vain for q spirit
80 hateful as this South Carolinian has dis
played, and Folly will ever regard his
speech as her most distinguished laurel.
From himself to himself, simply for his own
delectation as an Grafton at the funeral of
his wisdom, it is harmless; but most abun-
dant proof exists that it embodies the actual
sentiment and belief of large and inhuen-
tial portion of the South, and as such it
portends, like comet, the danger of an
other dreadful plague. We are for peace.
We re-echo the prayer over and over again,
"Let US have peace" We desire to see
every portion of the fair South rejoicing in
prosperity, and to see, ambition every
where equally potent in con-
trolling. the devotion of Americans
to America. For this, If for no other rea-
son, the duty Of every true lover Of his
country is plain in premises like these. as
plain as it was on the morning Of the 18th
of April, 1861, when the secession "2riest-
hood" OF South Carolina traitors COM
menced the baptism of American history
with fraternal blood. The University of