Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-02-26


their memories poets have embalmed their
names in song but that mountain height will
monument their deeds when eloquence is mute
in death, and the harp hangs tuneless and un-
strung on the willows of time. Patriots of
Seventeen Hundred and Eighty, down the
corridors of a century comes the story of your
heroism-your conflicts and your victory
and for centuries more the muse of history
will fling across the burning strings of the
harp the stirring drama of your deeds, which
will sound on and on in unbroken harmony
as long as freedom has an altar or patriotism
votary.
1t is not that you were shaken by the
storms of revolution it is not that you barred
your bosoms to the ravages of war and death ;
it is not that you snatched liberty as brand
from the furnace of tyranny, that have given
your deeds to history and your name to fame.
1t was your devotion to principle that gold
could not corrupt, nor power weaken; it was
your unfaltering fidelity to the cause of
freedom and representative government. 1t
was your resolution; amid disheartening dis
asters, to maintain the institutions you had
founded, Of civil and religious liberty, and
transmit them as legaces to posterity that
has immortalized your deeds and engraven
your names upon the tablet of Nations
heart. Appreciating your hardships, CRATE
full for your sacrifices, enjoying the Liberties
you bequeathed us, we have assembled on this
consecrated spot, SC intimately ly associated with
your memories, to evidence our veneration
for your deeds and our devotion to those civil
and religious privileges your heroism secured
for US. And in the performance of this duty,
there should be but one sentiment in this as
sembly-a sentiment Of fraternal union; but
one feeling-that of Americanism for there
is not an American heart in this presence,
that is true to its patriotic instincts, that does
not throb with delight in contemplating the
character of those who achieved our indepen-
dence and laid the foundations of Govern
ment which should command "the overflow
ings" of patriotic gratitude and the fealty of
patriotic devotion.
Great results flow from great achieve
ments but no event in the worlds history,
since the day of the Reformation, has had
more direct and controlling influence in the
advancement of civilization, in the develop
ment of science, in the enlargement of COM
merce, and in the encouragement of passion
for civil liberty and religious tolerance, than
the successful termination of the American
Revolution and the formatiJn of Govern
ment that relieved its citizens from the op'
pressions of thrones and from the tyranny OF
religious despotism-a government based up.
on the consent of the governed, and founded
upon the principles of an elevated civilization
and pure Christianity.
In accomplishing these results, in securing
these inestimable rights, history has accorded
prominent part to the heroes OF Kings
Mountain. They were not numbered by le.
gions as were the armies of Napoleon and
Wellington; nor was this field of Auster-
litz or Waterloo, but an humble spot in the
wild wood Of America, where few hundred
undisciplined troops struck for home and
country, and never did the Old Guard OF
Napoleon or the reserves of Wellington
strike with more heroism, with more daring,
and with more successful results
At that time the country's history was
gloomy and discouraging. Her armies had
been vanquished; her States overrun her
resources exhausted, and the band Of patriots
that here and there supported her sinking
fortunes were almost powerless for want OF
resources and munitions of war to carry on
their struggle for independence. But Injured
to dangers and baptized with the spirit OF
Liberty, they clung to that country's destiny
with tenacity that reverses could not shake,
that promises could not weaken, or dangers
pervert. The dust of hundred years has
not obscured their bright record; the chilling
frosts of century have not blighted the
green glory of their deeds; nor has the tide
of forgetfulness obliterated their footprints
from the sands of time" The sun of their
existence has set; but his power is still felt
in the warmth Of example, calling from the
wintry bed of selfsatisfed Indifference the
vegetation of pure devotion. The fountain
from which flowed the waters of their being
is dried up, but the course of the stream it
supplied is still fringed with the flowers of an
exemplary patriotism, and fragrant with the
perfume of an unpurchasable loyalty. The
light of their lives has gone down in dark
ness and in blood but It's "relict radiance" is
as soft and as cheering as the last glance of
the day king as he retires to rest in his bed
of stars.
Their entire history is one of romantic in
terest. For FIVE years the States had been
struggling for independence for five years
their affairs had been desecrated and their
temples destroyed; for FIVE years the heavens
of their nationality had been darkened by
tempest and cloud, and at no previous time in
their history had Hope sunga more cherries
song, or Anticipation painted gloomier pic
ture. Campbell had invested and captured
Savannah; Augusta and Sunbury had fallen
into the hands Of the enemy; Portsmouth
and Gosport, with all their vessels, had been
captured Charleston, after an unsuccessful
defence, had been Surrendered to Sir Henry
Clinton Gates had been defeated at Camden,
where fell the brave German, Baron DeKalb,
in making his last charge for the cause he had
espoused; Sumter had been surprised and his
furces scattered and captured by Tarleton, at
Fishing Creek; British gold and promise of
British protection had filled the country with
tories and deserters Ferguson was muster
ing into service the loyalists of North Carroll
ma Cornwallis had advanced to Charlotte on
his march of subjugation. Clarke, of Georgia,
having failed to recapture Augusta, was COM
PEELED to beat hasty retreat. Ferguson
sought to intercept him. The mountaineers
of Virginia and North Carolina thwarted his
designs, and he sought junction with Corn:
wallis. Camping at Gilbert Town, he issued
his proclamation to the people Of Watauga
and Nollchuky, threatening them with the
halter if they did not espouse the royal cause.
Vain were his boastings harmless his threats.
Liberty had peoped those mountains with
men who defed power and ridiculed menace.
Patriot refugees from Georgia and the Carroll
mas were there. The descendants Of men
were there. who like Eneas and his father