The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-07-19
OUR PAST AND FUTURE.
A Grand Speech by tho President OF Glenn
sdn College.

OUk PASI AMI FUlUhEs
A Gsand Speech by tho President OF Glenn
sdn College.
The following is the address Of
President Craighead on the occasion,
Of the formal opening of Clemson Col
lege, and we bespeak for it careful
reading:
There is no more interesting specta
Gle on earth than that of life wrestling
with its foes. The bird rebuilding its
storm-shattered nest, the spider re.
constructing its broken web, and even
the unfeeling, tempest.torn oak driv-
ing deeper into the earth it's uptorn
roots elicit our admiration and ihsul=
cate lessons worthy of imitation. sipe-
cially do human beings, struggling to
free themselves and to walk out into
the broad light of liberty, deserve the
sympathy and admiration of the brave
and magnanimous. It is not simply
in the hour of supreme and glorious
triumph that nations or individuals
deserve our admiration, but it is slso
in the hour of darkness and defeat,
when the proud spirit, refusing to
COVER or whine, takes up once more
the load Of life. No laurel-eruwnea
victor Of the Olympic games, no chief
tain home#ard turning from victorious
battle ever deserved the homage Cue
to him, who, though defeated, re-col-
lects his latent strength and marches
once more into the conflict. Germany
was great when William I led his VIC
torious legions Under the triumphal
arch of Napoleon I, but far greater
was the Germany Of Fichte, which,
though conquered by the Corsican,
began to ponder the problem of trans
forming, by the reconstruction OF her
schools, that defeat into grand and
glorious victory. Ere the last Frenuh-
man had deserted the German capital,
her statesmen and educators had on
foot plan for the foundation Of a
great national university, q university
which was to permeate all German life
and thought, and which is to-day
in fame and influence.
This was heroism, this was statesman
ship.
Three hundred years ago the city Of
Leyden was besieged by the Spaniards.
For long and weary months the Dutch
refused to yield, although starvation
stared them in the. face. So brave
and heroic was the defence Of Leyden
that when the Spaniards were at last
repulsed the States Of Holland granted
to the city immunity from taxation.
Her citizens refused the offer, asking
instead for great school, univer-
sity, which for two hundred years was
the most famous in Europe. That
was heroism, that was craftsmanship!
For a thousand years France has
been land rich in heroic deeds, in
song and story but in all her mar
vellous history her fame has never
shown more resplendent than in that
hour of degradation and defeat, when
the whole nation arose as one man ard
rolled off the incubus of her war debt
Ia debt amounting to a Thousand
million dollars. It was then that her
statesmen and educators, realizing
that it was the schools of Germany
that conquered at Sedan, that France
had been defeated by Kant and FIGHT,
by Goethe and Schiller, by Humboldt
and Helmbolt, and by Gauss as we'll
as by Moltke and Williams began tie
work Of national regeneration by or
ganizing complete system of public
instruction, beginning with the hum
blest district school and running up to
her great national, university. That
was heroism, that was craftsmanship
and France of to-dax greater than
was France under tie Empire. But
to return home.
The Northern army marching home
ward amid the beating of drums >and
the waving Of victorious banners was
a spectacle less grand than that Of the
ragged and starving veterans Of Lee,
who with sad and aching hearts re-
turned to their desolated fresides and
disdaining to pine or whine rebuilt
their ruined homes, transformed blooG
stained battle grounds into waving
fields Of golden grain. This was here
ism; that heroism that has ever dis
the people Of South Care
lima; that heroism which Hayne de-
clared invincible; that heroism which
shone resplendent upon every page Of
the first seventy years of Cardinals
history that heroism that never
paled during all the darkness and des-
olation of four long years of civil war ;
that heroism which, when the war was
over, ''made bricks out Of straw" and
"spread splendor amid the ruins of
blackened homesteads; that heroisrl
that flashed out again in rs, when i
band of Carolinians, as brave as the
Spartans who guarded the gates oil
Thermopyl@, planted themselves i'll
our State Capitol and drove from hes
legislative halls greedy herd Of con.
temptible carpet-baggers and besotted
slaves.
That was heroism, and Carolina
after 1876 was greater and grandef
than the Carolina of antebellum days.
But the work of reconstruction and OF
has not yet ended. Be-
gin anew; ever anew should be the
watchword of great people. AS long
as we but sleep and eat, content with
our fathers solution of the great prob
lens of life, so long is all progress
Human life is as barren
as Sahara of fruit. The generations
of men~are, as old Homer puts it, like
the leaves of the trees which fall and
renew themselves without ameliora'
tion or change. Hector returning
home from the tumult of battle to bid
a last farewell to. Andromache, is tc'
me the most touching and inspiring
picture in ancient literature. Laying
aside the lofty plume that grimly nod
ded from its horse hair crest, Hector,
the knightliest soul of all the Greeks,
took up his infant boy and dangling
him in his arms, prayed thus to Jove
and all the Gods: "Jove and all ye
Gods, grant thas this, my son, may be
better than his father was. May