Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-06-03
GOV. CHAMBERLAIN AT CHARLOTTE.

s1.25 per bushel meal, s1.4O, and flour. SAC
S4.75. QUI.
GOV. CHAMBERLAIN AT CHARLOTTE.
Among the various orators at the Mecklen-
burg centennial, none acquitted themselves
more handsomely than Governor Chamber
lain, of South Carolina. Not only was his
speech in good taste and highly complimented,
but the Governor favorably impressed all
whom he personally met. The following is
full report Of his speech on the occasion:
FELLOW. C1TIzENs-I rise to offer to you
and this assemblage the cordial response Of
the people of South Carolina to the sentiment
which has just been announced, and to all the
fadeless memories, the high inspirations and
the exalcing hopes which this occasion COM
memorates and suggests. l know full we'll
that speak to-day for South Carolina, chiefly
because it is my fortune to be her official rep
resentative Older, abler, better voices than
mine will, l cannot doubt, speak for her
voices of those who have sprung from this
soil, who know. as household words, the ira
ditions of the Carolinas, who will represent
more adequately than I can hope to do, the
genius loci which has inspired, which still in
spires, and which / know will continue to in
spire and direct, the eager, jealous, fervid and
constant patriotism Of the men Of Mecklen.
burg and Carolina.
But what heart, if it bean American heart,
whether it sprung to life beneath these sunny
skies, or where nature presents herself in more
rugged and repellant forms-what heart,
touched with one spark of the divine flame of
e fo
greet and welcome this day and this occasion ?
If Marathon and Plataca, after two thou
and years, still speak the lesson of devoted
and valorous patriotism if Runnymede, after
six centuries, is still name for English pa
trots to conjure by; if Marston Moor, though
the heather and the daisy have covered the
last traces of the shock and carnage of her
battle for more than two hundred years, is
still marked by reverent pilgrims as the spot
where the long night of kingly prerogative
was ended by the gray dawn of the new and
glorious day of the peoples rights ; with what
measure Of gratitude to God, of honor to our
ancestors, Of patriotic gratuations and glad
ness, should we, Americans, Carolinians, greet
this spot where, as we firmly and advisedly
believe, only one hundred years ago, the first
formal utterance Of the great idea Of Ameri-
can independence was heard.
To man who believes in human progress,
to one who sees and reverences the divine hand
in human affairs, care not in what section
or country his sympathies may have been
in Meckenburg county, May 20, 1775, will
stand at once as monument and an inspira-
ton, a trophy and prophecy, of the sure
and pre.ordained coming of the day when
the feeble light famed forth here hundred
years ago shall fill the whole world.
The declaration of Mecklenburg! It was
but a spoken word-an articulated breath Of
this universal air-yet it was deed, battle,
a victory No cannon thundered it; no tele-
graph flashed it; yet it was "heard round the
world
"That death-shot shook the fcudal tower,
And shattered slavery's chain as well;
On the sky dome, as on a bell,
It's echo struck the worlds great hour
The men of Mecklenburg! They we're the
plain farmers, physicians, lawyers and minis
ters of this secluded canton, unamhtious of
fame, seeking nothing but their accustomed
rights, the moral as we'll as lineal children of
John Knox, resolute before men as they were
reverent before God. Colonel Thomas Polk,
a heart as pure and brave as Richard Cour
de Lion Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the gentle
scholar and physician, the flame Of whose de-
votion to liberty never fickered till it was
quenched by the damps of a British prison
ship FIVE years later-these, and such as they,
were the men who alone, selfinspired, in ad-
vance of all others, at the time when Thomas
Jefferson was writing to John Randol phi: 81
would rather be in dependence on Great
Britain, properly limited, than on any nation
on earth, or than on no nation" sounded the
first signal note of absolute revolt and indie
pendence.
We tear no leaf to-day from the brow of
any revolutionary patriot, who elsewhere, by
pen or sword, upheld the same great cause.
We seek only with the jealousy of 6lial rever-
ence and love to guard the fame, the honor
the memory, to proclaim the early, abound
ing and impetuous patriotism of the men of
Mecklenburg.
a few simple virtues constitute the sum and
perfection of human greatness. Simplicity of
character, singleness of aim, constancy of pur-
pose, readiness to do or dare whatsoever is
commanded by the inward voice of native
manhood" such qualities in due combination
have made the true heroes of all ages. Of
such stuff the heroes of Mecklenburg were
made. do not for moment conjecture that
they foresaw the vast consequences of their
acts here hundred years ago. The gift of
prophecy was long since withdrawn from
mortal men. These men caught no glimpses,
I venture to say, of the America of thirty
seven States of 4O,0OO,0OO of people, stretching
from ocean to ocean, covering every sea with
her commerce, and reaching every land with
her influences. They loved their homes and
their families they valued their home-born
rights and privileges, the dear gifts Of honor
ed sires they reverenced the grand structure
of English law:
"A land of settled government,
A land of just and old renOwn,
Where freedom slowly broadens down
From precedent to precedent
These were their heritage. their wealth,
their life. For these they were ready to live
or die. And so they became heroes.
Napoleon has been thought to have uttered
a great word. When standing within the
shadows of the pyramids he exclaimed "Sol-
diers. from yonder heights forty centuries con-
template your actions" Vain and empty
words! The pyramids themselves were but
the visible monuments of a slavery blacker
than Egyptian darkness, and the voice which
spoke from them was but voice that Knocked
the unhallowed ambition of him who invoked
it. The grand army long since melted away /;
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