The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-08-25
THE OLD NORTH STATE.
SPEECH OF f. f. HILLIARD. EDIT.
OR SCOTLAND NECK DEMOCRAT,
In Responding to the Above Toast at
the Press Banquet in Charlotte.
July 18th, 1892.

editors by the Charlotte Chamber {
Commerce, Thursday night, July 28tf
Mr.. +. f. Hilliard, editor Of the SEQ,
land Neck Democrat, pronounced tn
following eloquent tribute:
The hands Of the clock point to
late hour, and assure this presenc
that | speak from sense of dut
only.
Were not the phrase 50 common
would say that this is a great country
Assuming it, then, on the oft-repeatec
emphasis that has been given by speak
ers and writers of the past, | remarl
that one of the most pleasing charac
teristics of its grandeur and its great
ness, is the common interest that bind:
it firmly together. The interest thai
binds together every State and Terri
tory within its broad boundaries from
the faraway lakes on the north to the
sweeping gults on the south, the
placid Pacific on the west to the
stormy Atlantic on the east; whether
we stand on the farthest cape OF
. AlaSka'S soil and look out towards
ASla's neighborng shores; whether we
wander towards the everglades and
through the orange groves in "The
Land of Flowers" whether we journey
over hill and dell and mountain and
prairie and plain to the city Of the
| Golden Gate; or whether we stand by
the Nlogara's laundering waters;
where ever we stand on the soil of our
country, or in whatever State we
| dwell, every national pulse-beat and
neartthrob are part of us as citizens
of common land.
Speaking on this occasion and at
his hour, could not be expected to
10 justice to a theme that interests
more than a million North Carolinians
1t home, perhaps thousands native
born but who dwell tonight else
where, and still three score millions
more whose interest Clings to the Old
North State because of the common tie
hat binds together all whose protec-
ION rests under the Stars and Stripes
If Columbia's floating flag.
10 tell what might be told; to tell
What should be told for this proud Old
North State, whose seal of independ-
cnce has been stamped upon the life
II her people for more than hundred
ears, were a task all too great for a
line and an hour like this. Through
he slow tread of the century, the his
;Orlan's pen has done its part in re-
Cording our grand and noble history;
poets song has filled our hearts with
he praises of our heroes and their
lives; painters brush has made the
canvas throb with the portraits of her
noble sons; eloquent orators have eX-
lausted the power of rhetoric and the
heauty OF dlction in their efforts to tell
the story OF her greatness as a State
; nd the nobility and character of her
good and virtuous people.
In contemplating all the attributes
Ct greatness that belong to the Old |
->orth State, for US whose eyes first |
saw the light under her beautiful skies,
whose first breath of life was drawn
f i-om her pure and sweet and whole
some atmosphere, and whose lives
Lave been guided by the heroic ex
ample and patriotic impulses of our
fathers and the holy Christian infu
encc of our Queenly mothers-for us, |
5 ~, at time and an hour like this,
there's nothing to do but rest on our
ears and fold our arms, and with a
5 nile of gratitude and a beam of joy,
speak out to the world and say:
1--WE are proud that we are North
Carolinians! We are proud of the
Old North State -
We are proud OF her past, proud of
her present, and we joy in our fond
for her promising fu
ture
One of the thirteen States, her his
tory is Co-eXtensive with the whole
history of this. the grandest common
wealth of earth.
We are proud OF the heroic struggles
Ct our fathers in that bloody conflict
which wrought out our independence
and vouched safe liberty to all.
Our hearts swell with pride when we
remember that the surrender of Corn
Y alliS at Yorktown was but the final
of the blow of defeat
which he received in the sting from
the 'Hornets' Nest' here in Char
lotte, and which was followed by the
sally at Kings Mountain, and the
crushing disaster TO the British forces
st the memorable battle at Guilford
Court House. And while we still
weep over the sutferlngs and privations
and hardships and death of the heroes
of the Revolution, we are proud of the
memory of their noble daring and
t leir conservation to the cause of lib
erty as an inheritance of our own that
s1all never be taken from US.
And there's another part which
a Sakens tender emotions in the breast
C. every son in the Old North State,
whether he had reached his majority
and answered to the reveille of war
in 'o1. or whether he knows the story
tom the lips of living witnesses, or
learns it from the printed page.
1t would i'll become me to speak
here of the strife that waged from
oamter to Appomattox; but we are as
+ oud of the Old North States never
!. liling flag and the heroism OF her
sons in that terrible, awful strife as we