The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-04-29
Gov. Chamberlain at the Lexington Centen-
nial.

Gov. Chamberlain was present at the Lex
ington Centennial, and to the toast "The State
of South Carolina" responded as follows:
To stand upon the spot where our fathers
gave the last test of their devotion to civil
freedom, is high and sacred privilege. If
our hearts respond to the highest influences
which human example and endeavor can af-
ford if personal gratitude for blessings Sc
cured; G if honor for self-forgetting, single;eyed
fidelity to duty; if sense of the far-reaching,
limitless consequences which are sometimes
wrapped up in the actions of few men; if
any or all of these considerations have power
to affect us, this place and this day must call
up the tenderest and proudest emotions. Such
emotions are too strong and deep to be ex-
pressed in words. The full inspiration of this
occasion must be felt in the heart. The lips
cannot utter it. confess, therefore, that am
10th to attempt to add to the tribute of words
which this occasion has already called forth.
The outward scenes which were presented here
100 years ago; the sequence of causes and
events which led up to that supreme hour
which witnessed the opening in blood of this
great chapter of American history something,
too, of the physical and moral lineaments of
the actors in those scenes the vast results al
ready attained, and the boundless future still
waiting-these have been presented before US
with all the power which eloquence and poetry
can lend. What remains except that re should
fill our hearts with the lessons and sentiments
and principles which this day has taught US,
and again take our places in the ranks of that
great army which on all days and on all fields
must still carry forward the unending warfare
of freedom against oppression, of justice against
wrong, of human progress against all efforts to
circumscribe the thoughts OF fetter the actions
of men except by the eternal laws of truth
itself?
come, first of all, as devout pilgrim at
this shrine of freedom. I come to refresh my.
self for coming duties by calling up in vivid
recollection the images of that night of alarm,
that morning of blood, the uEdaunted courage,
the pure simplicity, the high and resolute dar-
ing, which will forever embalm the name of
Lexington among the most princeless memories
and Inspirations of human history. But come,
also, in another character and for another pur-
pose. come to bring to this past of patriot
ism the greetings of the descendants of colo
ny which, from the hour when Samuel Adams,
speaking in the name of the town of Boston
to its representatives, bade them, "Use your
endeavors that the weight of the other North
American colonies may be added to that of
this province, that by united application all
may happily obtain redress" till the long
struggle was crowned with final success, never
faltered in her devotion to the cause on whose
first battlefield we now stand.
On the 30th of May, 1854, Virginia, under
the impulse of Patrick Henry's eloquence, de-
clared that "the people of Virginia are not
bound to yield obedience to any laws designed
to impose taxation upon them other than the
laws of their own General Assembly," On the
9Th of June, 1854, the Legislature of Massa
chusetts, on the advice of James Otis, sugges-
ted the calling of an American Congress, to be
composed of delegates from each of the thir-
teen colonies On the 25th of June, 1854, the
suggestion of Massachusetts was debated in the
Assembly of South Carolina by the then youth
full and eloquent John Rutledge, and adopted
under the leadership of the intrepid and saga
cious Christopher Gadsden. Thus Virginia
sounded the alarm Massachusetts proposed
the Union South Carolina responded with the
pledge of her utmost support
From 17G4 to 1774 throughout the whole of
the first epoch of the American revolution,
while events were fastening forward toward
the final struggle of arms, South Carolina re-
sponded with earnest and unhesitating fidelity
to the call of Massachusetts The aggressions
of Great Britain were hardly felt by her. Her
commercial relations were almost wholly with
England. but her proud and unconquerable
spirit drew her to the side ofher sister colonies.
"Don't pay for an ounce of the damned tea"
was the message of Christopher Gadsden to the
people of Boston on the 14th of June, 1774.
When the Port Act fell with all its rigor on
Boston, South Carolina was the first to testify
her sympathy by substantial contribution of
rice for the support of the poor of that town.
And when the call arose for another Congress,
the planters of South Carolina again responded
with Gadsden, Lynch, John Rutledge, Edward
Rutledge and Middleton as her representatives.
When, in October of the same year, Congress
resolved that if the grievances of the colonists
were not redressed before the September fol-
lowing, no merchandise should be exported to
Great Britain, Christopher Gadsden, against
the protest of his colleagues, declared himself
ready to adopt this measure, though it brought
ruin on his State.
came, fellow-citizens, to remind you on this
great day, of this early, unbroken friendship
between Massachusetts and South Carolina,
throughout the whole revolutionary period.
Differing, however widely in lineage, in habits,
in institutions, they were still bound together
by common love for civil freedom. Together
they watched the beginnings of tyranny, to-
gether they planned resistance, together they
declared their independence from Great Britain,
together, with their lives and fortunes, they
maintained that declaration through the long
war, together they devised the fabric of govern
ment under which the republicans grown to its
present proportions, together tkey have labored
to build up the strength, the prosperity and the
glory of America. Those precious memories of
the past are secure. To-day at least, we may
recall them. At Lexington, surely, South Car
olina may still claim place to do honor to the
common cause of American liberty and inde-
pendence know that I am commissioned
here to-day to say for South Carolina that she
joins with equal gratitude and reverence with
all her sisters of the early days in honoring the
nineteenth of April, I'VE; that she claims her
share in the glory Of the struggle begun at
Lexington that as of old she bade Massachu-
setts cheer in the struggle, so now she unites
with her in these patriotic services.
1t is not for me, it is not for any one, on this
.,.,,:on IN ,oooG of latnr events in which theso