The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-07-15
Gen. Preston's Grafton.

The Grafton delivered Dy Vell. ooHu ~. L 100
ton, at the University Of Virginia. last Thurs
day, demands some notice in his native State,
lest silence shall be construed to give consent
to the monstrous propositions he advances and
attempts to demonstrate. For example, ne
saws "Not space, or time, or the convenience
of any human law, or the power OF any human
arm can reconcile institutions for che turbu-
lent fanatic of Plymouth Rock and the God
praying Christian of jamestown" The peo-
Die of New England, according to Gen. Pres
ton. are rotten in root and branch. "Thc
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 ITO obtain a
more perfect law of liberty" The robes of
Washington were "Stolen and misftted" on the
shoulders Of the elder Adams The people Of
New England are adverse to the principles OF
English constitutional liberty and of English
religious freedom" And for Southerners 1s. to
visit the North ''is to crawl on our bellies to
negro and New England temples, and at the
outer gates pray them, not to give US back our
happy homes, not to give US back our slaugh-
tered children, rot to give us back our perfect
liberty. but to let us be of them, that we, too
NAV celebrate their altar with warbled hymns
and forced hallelujahs, and breathe for them
ambrosial odors, our base and servile offerings"
This is the strain in which one South Carroll
nian speaks at time when the patriotic heart
beats high at the approach Of true, generous
and lasting peace-a peace as thorough and
complete in the forests and savannahs OF the
South as in the mines and marts of the West
and North.
Than Gen. Preston's invectives nothing could
be more out of keeping with the spirit of the
day or with the temper of the people of Vir-
ginia. One of the most influential newspapers
in the Old Dominion says: ''The day is too
full of living issues to make dead ones accep-
table, and the people of Virginia are too anx-
ious for peace and prosperity under the Repub-
lie which their fathers assisted to establish to
welcome the revival of old causes of quarrel.
Their University is peculiar institution which
they can cherish without any feeling of dis
trust; but they have no desire of advancing
backward as to other institutions, and no dis
position to mistake parade of intolerance for
sacrament of intellect. The address of Gen.
Preston is alike unjust to his own admitted
ability, and to the people and the institution
on whose behalf it was made. While the
college commencements elsewhere throughout
the country are instinct with peace, tolerance
and good will, it is shame that our leading
Southern University should even for a day be
prostituted to uses which every sensible Vlr-
ginian condemns" This is the feeling in Vir-
ginia, and it is the feeling of the vast majority
of the people of South Carolina.
Gen. Preston is no longer q 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 Carroll
ma, 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 untitled
and the much larger class who were first in
war-and first out of it. For those who were
really unable to do more than they did, there
is the most kindly consideration. Their errors
are not treated as crimes. For those who
promised more than they performed, there is
indulgence and repose-as long as they remain
in the rear. Neither class can mould public
opinion in this State or in any Southern 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 hundred fields, and they see and
know for themselves that there are just as good
Christians, just as gallant gentlemen, in the
North as in the South, and they cannot doubt
that there are fanatics in the South as in the
North. Wendell Phillips, in Massachusetts, is
the complement of John S. Preston in South
Carolina 1t is best for the old leaders that
they remain in honorable privacy. Their
words, the words of 1860, are out of time and
tune This is one country, this is one people.
We know it, and feel it. Surely, then, we
should pity those who closed their eyes in the
darkness before the dawn, and waken not,
though the light of the new day makes beau
tiful the land.
Only a few years ago the Grafton of Gen.
Preston would have been accepted everywhere
as proof conclusive that the South was unre-
conciled and irreconcilable 1t would have
served as an excuse for vexatious legislation,
and as pretext for insults and wrongs without
number. But we have changed all that The
oration will cause gentle surprise and mild
amusement, but will do no HARM Charleston
Neaos and Courier.
Nut GRAss.-The Union Times says it is