The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1875-11-17
South Carolina and the Centennial

South Carolina and the Centennial.
A correspondent of the Nea0s and
Courier enters plea against any partlci-
patton by the States in the Philadelphia
Centennial, on the ground that by so
doing she will compromise her dignity
and independence, and tarnish her good
name. His conclusion is based on the
assumption that she will he called upon
to rejoice at the continuance of union
which, at least since 1865, has been the
source of numberless evils, and will thus
give tacit endorsement to the oppres-
sive policy which has prevailed since
the war.
This, however, seems to be mistaken
view of the whole matter. The Centen-
NAL is designed to commemorate the
great work of '76, in which no State bore
a more distinguished part than South
Carolina, and as one of the original
thirteen, she is now called upon to meet
her sisters upon platform of cordial
union and perfect equality, and renew
and re-atfirm those great principles OF
sound government and human liberty,
for which our fathers pledged their
"lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
honor" She is called upon to make no
unworthy concession or unseemly en-
dorsement; to renounce nothing of her
dignity or independence; but, as SOW
ereign State, the peer and equal of any,
to bear an equal share in grand ma
tional celebration, which, ignoring re-
cent troubles and past differences, is
designed to revive those historical rec
objections of the early days of the re-
public, when South Carolina made
common cause against the common
enemy in defence of the great princi-
piles Of human liberty.
Certainly there is nothing wrong in
such participation, whatever may have
beer the arrangements and dissensions
of intervening years. Indeed, it is to
heal the wounds of the recent great
struggle, to restore amity and fraternity
between the sections, and to re-assert
the great principles for which our faith.
ers bled, that the Philadelphia Centen-
nial is now urged upon the attention Of
the whole American people, and their
cordial cooperation is invoked. AS one
of the best means of healing these
wounds, restoring this fraternity and
re-asserting and re-establishing the
principles of Constitutional liberty, as
expounded by the sages of the Revolu-
ton, the whole South, and South Caro-
lima among the other States of her Sec
ton, should bear their part in the great
celebration.
We owe it to our sister States of the
North who have sympathized with us
amid all the evils Of reconstruction, and
who are now waiting to extend to us the
hand Of fellowship and fraternity.
| We owe it to our sister States of the
South, who will all be represented, and
who q re entitled to the sympathy and
co-operation of South Carolina in all
measures which are designed, by an
earnest effort at conciliation, to promote
the general good. We owe it to oui-
selves to leave no measure untried to
show our brethren of the North that
we cherish no.hostlity to the Union of
our fathers, but are willing TO meet them
on the proposed basis of equality and
fraternity.
TO be absent would provoke ungener-
Gus comment, and be the source of end
lGSS thS pdi va thO'S
whose policy it is to keep alive still the
smouldering fires of discord, and per-
petuate the memories of fratricidn. strife.
TO such she will give no copntenance,
as she is bound to be represented.
To use the words of theNea0s and
Courier: "South Carolina will take
part in the Centennial Exposition.
That is certain. AS much as this is re.
quired by her material interests, and as
a matter of commercial advantage.
But we hope that the most ardent Caro-
linians will see that there is mo shame
or dishonor in what is asked of us and
is proposed to be done; SO that South
Carolina shall do her part, not for dol
lars and cents, to secure profit and avoid
loss, but because it is good for her 70 be
there, Joined with the States of the
North and the South and the West, the
old States and the new, taking her posi-
tion as the equal Of the proudest of
them, and in the name of the days of
'76, demanding always that South CAR
olina's work for the Union be remem-
bered, as we'll as her work against the
Union, and, in the name of American
liberty, demanding the aid and sympa-
thy of the whole country IN the effort to
throw off the load of ignorance and
vice which weighs her down, and is the
only barrier in the way of her freedom,
her prosperity and her perfect peace