The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-08-03
SOUTHERN BLOQUGNCE.
SPEECH OF JUDGE EDGAR e.
BRYANT,

! 0FEECd OF JODdG GO1AIs Gs
BRYANT,
Before the Travellers Protective
Association in Chicago---After
a Brief Welcome to the Path
finders OF Commerce the Elo-
quent Arkansan Delivers an
Grafton Unsurpassed by Gra-
dy's New South
The following is from the Chicago
Tribune of Sunday, June II, and
while several weeks have passed since
the Grafton was delivered, the words
have lost nothing by the delay:
Judge Edgar E Bryant, of Fort
Smith, Ark, was assigned the subject
of GA Message from the South" at
the Travellers Protective Association
meeting yesterday. Since the memor-
able utterances of Henry w. Grady
no such Grafton has come out of the
South in friendly greeting to the
North. From the first he held the
audience in profound attention. He
was frequently interrupted by applause,
long continued, and when he had
taken his seat the people crowded to
the platform to shake his hand, while
women in the audience pressed forward
to hand him flowers. For fully ten
minutes the proceedings were inter
rupted to permit those in the audience
to offer congratulations for the mas
terly effort. Judge Bryant, after
conveying message of friendly feel
ing from the South to the members of
the association, said:
But from my State and from the
South bear to you deeper and truer
message still-a message of love and
fraternity, not inappropriate, trust,
at this time and upon this occasion. 1
am bid to tell you that the stars that
glitter in the spangled banner of our
Union to the names of the Southern
States glow to-day with an undimmed
loyalty to this great Union of ours. So
far as the South is concerned, she has
no desire "to garner the scars and
disjointed columns" of her mighty
battle for lost cause. She has ac-
cepted the arbitrament of the sword,
and her children have turned to study
dispassionately the lessons it has taught.
| am conscious that | voice the senti-
ment Of my people when standing
here in this presence, before nv
country aid my God, as son of the
South, born on Southern soil, and
drawing my humble lineage from
Southern sires, with no tie of kinship
or personal interests north of Mason
and Dlxon's line-loving the land of
my birth, its memories, its traditions.
and its history; cherishing the sad
story of the =" lost cause" as sacred
and priceless heritage, and clinging
as though unto the horns of an altar
to firm faith and belief in the sin
cerity and patriotic purpose of its
great leaders-when in this presence,
measuring my words and knowing
their full purport and extent, l
declare that do not regret that in
the great strife of the sections the
victorious fnger-touch of God rested
at last upon the banner of the Union.
I do regret the many evils the mighty
issue of battle brought to my land with
the dark sweep of its wing, the widows
and orphans it made, and the homes
and fresides it desolated nor do
forget the sting and bitterness OF
defeat, that weeping of Rachel for her
children, those ashes of sorrow, that
sad return of the defeated soldier to
find his lonely chimney standing as a
silent sentinel over the blackened
ruins of his home, pointing with its
solemn finger to his God, his last
refuge and his strength. Nor do ]
forget the long succeeding night Of
disaster, the heritage Of a defeated
people, the dark days of reconstruc.
tion, when strangers and aliens were
armed with the symbols of authority
over us, when the victory which had
been wrested from us by noble hand:
was unwittingly con6ded to other and
meaner keeping, to those who furnished
with the arrogance of ga little brie
authority" sowed my country dowr
in the salt of humiliation and despair
t And yet despite all this, viewing ths
, whole question calmly and dispas
t sionately and in the light of the grea
, future that is dawning ahead for thi
!. great and free Government, as Sol
of the South l can truthfully say that
am glad that out of the wreck of wal
out of the charring hand of fame, thi
e American Union has come to us un
! broken, one and entire. For | believ
y that it has been the best for the Soutl
and her people, and for the grea
worldwide cause of freedom, for tina
American liberty, which in this in
separable Union flames aloft in on
k unkroken column for the enlighten
ment OF the peoples of the world.
J, l even believe that an inscrutibl
e Providence ordained the stern struggl
e and lost battle as blessing in DISCUS
! to the people of the South and for he
best and truest future prosperity. W
must remember that the South W:
n cursed with an institution antagonist
a to the high sense of humanity, and
y that lofty ideal and spirit of liber'
It that was Illuminated in our first thund'
t. of independence, and was afterwart
n lifted as the palladium of our frs
Government The primary effect
d slavery on people is to make
'e wealthy and great, prosperous an
E. powerful but its secondary effect is
W corrupt, degenerate, and destroy. I
e, the South, as she was at the beginnir
% of the war, had been granted Il
Of greatness and strength of its prima
= effect, but its corruptive influence W
Just beginning to SOW its seed