Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-07-15
GEN. PRESTON,S GRAFTON.

The oration of Gen. Preston at the Univer-
sity of Virginia on Thursday of last week, fell
like wet blanket upon the auditory. His
effort resulted in disappointment, not only to
his hearers, but the sentiments embodied in
his address have been coldly received through
out the country-meeting only dersion or
condemnation from all parties. The burden
of Gen. Preston's address was abusive invec-
tives of the North, the Northern people and
their institutions, which may be gathered from
the following extracts:
"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
praying Christian of Jamestown" The peo-
pie of New England, according to Gen. Pres.
ton, are rotten in root and branch. "The
MayAower freight, under the laws of England,
was heresy and crime; the jamestown emf
grant was an English freeman, loyal to his
country and his God, with England's honor
in his heart and English piety in his soul"
The Pilgrim Fathers left England for "the
lucre of traffic :" the Southern colonists "to
obtain more perfect law of liberty" The
robes of Washington we're "stolen and mitt-
ted' on the shoulders of the elder Adams
The people of New Eng gland are "adverse to
the principles of English constitutional liberty
and of English religious freedom" And for
Southerners to visit the North "is to crawl on
our bellies to negro and New England tenn
Piles, and at the outer gates pray them, not to
give us back our happy homes, not to give us
back our slaughtered children, not to give us
hack our perfect liberty, but to let us be of
them, that we, too, may celebrate at their altar
with warbled hymns and forced hallelujahs,
and breathe for them ambrosal odors, our
base and servile offerings"
In this strain General Preston spoke to the
youth of the South at a time when nearly
every heart was beating high at the approach
of true peace and fraternal feeling between
the people of every section of the Union; and
it is not surprising, therefore, that even those
at whose invitation the address was delivered
regarded it as out of time and place. TO such
an extent did this feeling prevail that the
more Objectionable points were replied to by
Governor Kemper, of Virginia, and Senator
Bayard, of Delaware, who took ground dla-
metrically opposed to Gen. Preston's position,
and the "Star Spangled Banner" was af-
terward played by the band for the first time
since 1860, and received with tremendous en-
thusiasm. The Charleston Ne,us and Courier
comments upon the address quite severely,
closing with the following remarks:
Gen. Preston is no longer spokesman for
the people of this State. With a small class
of equally sincere and equally unreasonable
men his words will have some weight, because
they express stubbornly cherished opinion;
but he, and such as he, however venerable or
respectable, are no longer leaders in this land
of active purpose, high emprise and liberal
opinion. The men who control South Caro-
lima, although their strength has never been
! fully felt, are the men who were young when
the war began, and went into the army and
stayed there. Of the older men there were
two classes those who were physically unfit
ted for the marching and fasting of active ser
vice, and the much larger class who were first
in war-and first out oft For those who were
really unable to do more than they did, there
is the most kindly consideration. Their er-
rors are not treated as crimes. For those who
promised more than they performed, there is
indulgence and repose-as long as they re,
main in the rear. Neither class can mould
public opinion in this State, or in any South
ern State. Early in Virginia, Toombs in
Georgia, Preston in South CAROLINA, cannot
arrest the march of events. The men who
fought through the war, and have grown up
since the war, are not blinded by prejudice.
They love the South devotedly; they honor
the Confederate dead. But they respect the
brave men whom they met in battle on hun
dred fields, and they see and know for them
selves that there are just as good Christians,
just as gallant gentlemen in the North as the
South, and they cannot doubt that there are
fanatics in the South nc in the North Wen