Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-10-22
THE Loyal SOUTH.
Evidences of Enthusiastic Patriotism In
All the Southern states.

Evidences of Enthusiastic Patriotism In
| ALI the Southern States.
But now may be met BY some in
credulous nearer, who says: ..Why
call upon us to help people who are
| not yet in that condition of reconcilia-
ton to the North and the Nation which
can alone give assurance that our gifts
viii not be perverted to the future
arrangement of the SECTIONS and the
imperiling the peace of the Uniona''
reply: / do not here discuss the
points at issue between political parties.
as they bear on the present attitude of
the Southern people. But l am pre-
pared to say, after careful observa-
ton of political and other tendencies. in
all the States east of the Rocky Mount
aims, within the past five years, that,
whatever of the old unfriendliness to
American institutions or dangerous
political methods may exist IN the
South, there are several causes of peril
to the Republic in our own Northern
States of equal magnitude, requiring
equal patriotism and wisdom for their
| management Within the life of my
children our proudest Northern States
may call for sympathy and aid on Vir-
ginia and the Carohnas in emergencies
that appeal to the solid conservative
American habit of thought and public
administration. Indeed. III the swift COM
ing issues of the future every State and
section may be called, in truth, to come
to the front and save the Union, as the
North so grandly did generation ago.
Now my faith has never been shaken
hot fht.f plx- yxrox To
ton of this Union to meet such peril or
to perform its ordinary duties is to give
its children and youth the full benefit
of our American system of universal
education-that training of the heart,
the head and the hand. through our
varied national agencies. which shall
send forth every new generation COM
petent to meet the demands of common
life or rise to the emergency of any
perilous hour.
And | urge our people of the North
to their duty in this momentous ques-
ton of Southern education, because
know the Southern people have well
begun this work for themselves, and
only need our thorough sympathy and
aid for its fair advancement / could
ill pages and volumes with incidents of
personal experience to confirm what l
say. Let me close this paper by one
true story of what 1 saw in the very
heart of the old Southland:
More than twenty years ago one of
the bravest of the young commanders
in the National army, Colonel Shaw, of
the city OF New York, fell at the head
of his brigade of colored soldiers, in a
desperate assault on Fort Wagner, dur
inc the siege of Charleston. He was
buried with his men, and his BODY was
never found After the close of the war
the families. in New York and Boston.
connected with the fallen soldier. built
scnool-house in Charleston for col
ored children, established the Shaw
school. and for several years sup
ported it as a private benefcence. Some
five years since the use of the building
was granted to the public school au-
thorltes of the city on condition of
the support of the school as part of
the general system of instruction. Lat
er still the building was virtually given
| to the city. and ali the funds of the cor
poratlon passed over for its enlarge
| ment; and now one of the public schools
of Charleston bears the name of the New
| York Colonel who died at the head of
his black brigade forcing the entrance
| to that beleaguered city.
Last April, for the third time, / Wis
tied the city. the guest of its govern
ment; this time for the sole purpose of
speaking to and advising with colored
people. And | saw that nowhere in
| this country is there now a more thor
ough and honest purpose to give these
people fair elementary education
than in the city that first threw out
the dag of revolt and shotted the first
gun turned against the Union in 1861
There are several large schools. sup
ported from the North, which were WIS.,
tied. But the most interesting of all
were the two great free schools, con-
tanning two thousand colored children,
many of their teachers representing the
old respectable families of the city. No
portion of the public-school system re-
ceiyes more cordial and careful atten-
ton than this from the able Superin-
tendent, the patriotic and energetic
Mayor, and the School Board. whose
President is the former Secretary of the
Treasury of thee onfederateGovernm
Ny last visit was to the Shaw school,
now collection of several hundred
children, with white and colored
teachers; the Principal, like the City
Superintendent, an officer in the Con-
federate army. After suitable inspec-
ton | was invited to the great hall to
listen to some exercises by the higher
classes, prepared, as [ understood, for
their coming commencement exhibit
ton. The first was recitation, by a
hundred of the older pupils. from Long
fellows building of the Ship" Then
boy as black as night, George Wash
inpt0n hY name was summoned from
his seat to recite pathetic poem: ''The
Dying Soldier" 1t didn't need COM
ment to show for what cause that sol
der died; for the poem was most
touching story of peril and suffering,
even unto death, for the saving of the
Union. As the soldier neared his end
he called to his companions for one
more of the old songs of the village
Sunday-school; and the whole body of
. children took up the theme and sung
with pathos only heard in the tones of
the freedmen, the dying refrain. The
soldier breathed his last with a prayer
for his country, when the entire crowd
sprang to their feet and, led by their
teachers, pealed forth:
The star spangled banner O long may it wave
Ger the land Of the free and the home of the
brave.
Two weeks later stood at the other
end of South Carolina, in the thriving
town of Chester, in another colored
school. supported by Northern funds,
for the higher and Industrial education
of colored youth. Beside me was the
excellent State Superintendent of Pub
lie Instruction. We stood in the halls
of a great plantation house and over
looked q broad estate on a heaufiful