The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-03-07
THE sunny SOUTH.
Gov, Lees Speech Before the Southern
Society in New York,

0oV,Lee>S speech Before the Southern
Society in New York,
The following is a stenographic re-
port made for the Baltimore Sun of
portion of the speech delivered by
Gov. Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia, at the
banquet of the Southern Society, in
New York, in response to the toast,
"The South Since the Revolution :"
Growing up under those teachings,
(of Jefferson, Mason, Madison, Mon
roe, Tyler the South cannot admit
to-day that there is single line in
that instrument called the federal con-
stitution which prevents State from
Withdrawing from the Union and
she points with pride-she would be
recreant to the memory of her brave
men who fought upon so many fields
and died, if she did not feel grateful
for the heroism and devotion of her
sons in defending her position on this
question. Applause. She submit
ted all these questions to the sword,
and she acknowledges that by the
sword they have been settled. Ap-
plause.
John Randolph, brilliant and &C.
centric, was listening to the debates of
this (the Virginia) convention, and he
said: see the poison under the wing
OF the American eagle, and it should
be extracted lest it shed pestilence and
death over the country it is his duty
to overshadow and protect" That poi
son under the wing of the American
eagle was the failure of the conven
tion to stipulate in express terms that
State once ratifying that instrument
was forever member of the American
Union. But any careful student of
the history of those times can tell us
that had that question been brought
to decided issue at that time the
requisite. number of States would not
have ratified the constitution. And
so they left it for the future to decide,
and in the future it has been decided.
That question is behind us. We are
once more part and parcel of this great
American Union, Interested in pro
noting its growth, its grandeur and its
progress. [Applause.] All those
troublesome questions decided, the
South again enters into the great
march of improvement and civiliza-
ton, and in my own State to day she
has no other thought, no other aspira
| ton, but that she shall be an equal
| member of the American Union, and
that the star that represents her 10 the
star-spangled banner shall be upon
perfect equality with the star that
represents Massachusetts, or Ohio.
LIQUID applause.] 1t is her business
to make that star a bright, shining,
brilliant jewel in the crown that
binds the brow of the American Union.
My friends, with the settlement of
that question by the sword problem,
as you said here to night, Mr. Chair
man, was still left to be settled. 1t is
this problem that you see every day
referred to as the race question. God,
for his own wise purposes, made those
two races as different in habit and
character and the attainment of men,
tai faculty as he did in color, and l
want you gentlemen here tonight to
ask the great North to assist us in de-
Gliding this question. 1t will not be
many years before the American peg
pie are called upon to decide whether
it is best for the prosperity of this
country, stretching from the frozen
lakes of the North to where the great
father of waters rolls to the gulf, and
from where the waves break upon the
Atlantic coast to the golden sands Of
the Pacific, whether the progress and
prosperity of this great country can
bes. be promoted by a Union of white
American States, or by Union of
white and African States 4 +
But the South, confiding in the des-
tiny of the American republic, will
appeal confidently to all sections; we
will appeal to the North by our COM
mon success in taking the land Of the
red man, with no thought of ever be-
slowing it upon the black man; we
will appeal to them by our common
suftrings when the upraised toma
hawk of the Indian was above us
we will appeal to them by our com.
mon sufferings, privations and losses
in resisting British tyranny, by those
blood stained tracks of North and
South, made amid the SHOWS of this
very section; by the common glory ot
the American soldier in the revolu
tion; by the common courage and
valor displayed under the great Wash
ington, in the war of 1872, or upon
the burning sands of Mexico under
Winfield Scott; by all the common
ties of brother hood we will appeal t.
; the North to come down and help u:
to decide this question in the interests
Of the whole Union, so that the Soutf
shall rise once more and be in a posi-
ton to do her full share towards pro
noting the interests of all sections, ane
be enabled once more with the NORTH
to promote the common glory of the
. American Union. [Applause. Ane
the prosperous South shall hold ou
her hands to the great North, and il
the ringing tones of good fellowship
ask them to help her to decide thi
troublesome question. Loud applause
Mother at Sixty-Eight.