Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1875-02-25
GORDON.

The whole South look with pride
upon General Gordon. During the
war he did his duty gallantly as an.
officer of the lost cause, and Stree the.
war he has beer faithful champion
of the South. in Congress. Even the.
Northern press cannot conceal their
high opinion of him. Although tits
not much Of compliment to say that
he is one of the ablcst men IN Cow
GREss, VIC believe it will be so admit
ted. He is fluent, graceful, handsome,
sensible and eloquent; and, to crown it
all, man of high-toned christian
principles. None of the intense ha-
tired of the South which is belched
forth in the vulgar harangues ofBut-
Ter and his crew cause him for mo-
ment 70 lose his equilibrium. He
answers their slanderous epithets with
calm and dignified argument, eloquent
on account of truth. He is no time
serving politician, but broad-mfnded
and broader-hearted statesman, who
will be marked in history rs a great
man This generation. five had space
we would give the whole of his recent
speech, but we must suffice with only
few short extracts. He says in one
place:
Do the Southern people. differ 40 widely
from tire rest of mankind that the laws If
action which apply TO others are inapplicable
to them? They have the same instincts of
eelf-defence; the same love of selfgovern-
ment, of justice, Of humanity, of peace and
rorion to liberty and detestation of tyranny
which have marked tho Anglo-Saxon race
and crowned it with honor at every step of.
IT'S progreaa and in every quarter Of the
globe. Sir, what does reason teach us? Are
she Southern people so blinded that they
would seek 70 make an enemy, of the negro,
upon whose labor and good will oil their
prosperity depends Are they so lost to
every impulse of humanity that they would
seek 10 destry race to whose fidelity during
the war, when an army VAS in their midst
with freedom written upon its banners, they
entrusted with perfect confidence their wives,
their homes and their children--a race
-whish faithfnl, decile and law.abiding by
nature, has only been made arrogant, ,l,;-e-
gressive and lawless under tie tutelagc Of
bad men in their midst? Such assumptions
are neither suggested by reason nor sup
ported by fact"
And again i'll concluding:
But, sir, we have one hope left. Talley-
rand said that he knew one who was wiser
than foltairc, had more understanding than
Napoleon and all his ministers, and that one
was public opinion.''
Sir, there is great public opinion in
thcso United States an American sentiment
which is the hope of Louisiana and the tails
man of the South. And in the name of
Louisiana and of common inheritance of
self-government, appeal from the bar of
the Senate to the bar of that American ser,-
timent: 1t is higher than senates, more
powerful than parties. 1t will not permit
us longer to hold out hope to Louisiana only
to doom her to death. 1t will not permit
us longer to whisper in her ear the high
sounding words of sclfgovernment and of
constitutional law, while these words mean
to her but the pompous trappings which
cover the dead body Of PROSTATE Common
wealth. 1t will not permit us to longer
hold i'll vassalage large body of our fellow
countrymcn who are vindicatcd by their
own words and by your republican commit
tee, and who, when their trials and pelsecu-
tions and wrongs are known, whatever may
have been their mistakes, their foilies or
their crimes, wilt stand vindicatcd before
the bar of all the future, and Of Him who
shall judge us all, as furnishing an ex-
ample Of heroic endurance and Of patient
iorbearancc under wrong unparalleled in
history and lusirous in despair"
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