Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-19
Hampton and HigginsOn at COwpens.
Washington Post.

Wade Hampton, of South Carolina,
and Thomas Wentworth Hlgginson, of
Massachusetts, were the principal orators
of the day at the recent centennial cele-
bration of the battle of Cowpens.
Two more pronounced types of the
old civilizations that met in the deadly
embraces of civil war, and merged at last
into One-a new and better civilization
are seldom brought together upon pub
lie occasion.
These distinguished representatives of
past antagonisms stood face to face and
heart to heart at the foot of the Morgan
statue. and laid the votiye offerings of
altar of reconciliation.
1twas hand-shaking indeed-memo-
rable and auspicious-across the bloody
chasm.
Under an earlier regime, Hampton
was accounted a ''fire-eater," Higginson
was of those who believed the Constitu-
tion league with hell and covenant
with death" but the South Carolina
Senator now feeds upon the Inspiration
of a restored Union, and the Massachu-
sets orator has made his everlasting
peace with the amended Constitution.
Like errant children, they have re-
turned to their first love, and, by the
pains of the Continental mother who
bore them, by the memory of her heroic
virtues, by the blood of her noble sons
who fell in fratrieidal strife, have gath
cred to their protecting arms that heri-
tage of glory which Is the property of
one people and symbolized by one flag.
Said Mr.. Hampton:
cat this shrine dedicated to liberty no
fires save those of patriotism should be
allowed to burn. The spirit of section
alism should stand rebuked, and frater-
nifty should inspire every American
heart. Here, at least, under the shadow
of yonder stately monument, sacred for
all time to come to the valor and patriot
ism of our common ancestors, we
should bury all animosities aud
dedicate ourselves to the noble
work of promoting the pros
perlty, the happiness and the peace of
our whole country. The ''Old Thirteen"
call upon their bright and glorious
daughters to join in this holy work. Let
this grand sisterhood of free and equal
States hand IN hand press forward in the
great race of freedom and human pro-
gress, teaching to mankind the great les
son of liberty and equality and building
up on this continent mighty republic
whose States shall be
co Distinct as the billows.
Yet one as the sea-
Looking back to the past only to gain
experience from its errors, or to draw
inspiration from its patriotic teaching,
let us turn our faces Tesolutely and
a f,,fx, rstk,
Gods help, to make that future bright
with all the blessings that religion, e0u-
cation, peace and liberty can bestow."
Said Mr.. Higginson:
GLOW far away seem now the contests
of the revolutionary timel Between
those days and these has rolled the smoke
of later strife, now happily passed by.
To heal the terrible wounds of the later
contest; to Criticise each other nobly and
generously, as friends, not vind1etively,
as enemies to encounter side by side the
new social problems of the new age
this should be the generous rivalry of
the descendants of the old Thir-
teen. There are sins enough for
all to repent, errors enough
for all to correct. 1t is useless now
to distribute the award of praise or
blame There is not State of the Union
which has not its own hard problems to
work out its own ordeals to go through.
But each generation learns its own les
sons, and Time is the great healer.
have seen for myself, since the war, upon
Southern soil, the spectacle of two races
whose whole relations were utterly
wrenched apart, and who are yet learn
ing, year by year, TO adapt themselves to
the new and changed condition. NopeO-
pie ever had to face a harder problem.
We of the North, believe me, are not
ignorant of the difficulties, the tempta-
tions, the mutual pIovOcations; nor can
we forget that the greater responsibility
must rest upon the more educated and
enlightened race. N06lesSe 06Iige: In the
noble words of President Lincoln at
Gettysburg: With malice towards none,
with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are
in, to bind up the nations wounds.
In the spirit of these sentiments-of
this nationalized charity for mutual
wrongs-how easy it would seem to heal
the resentments and dull the sharp re-
membranes of sectional war; and how
misguided or reckless of the lessons of
the past are they who still persist in fan
ming the smouldering ashes of discord,
and building their hopes of preferment
upon the hateful lines of demarkation
that every true patriot is seeking to blot