The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-07-12
chief the visible makeup of the gen.
tleman was complete,

The invisible sign was generally a
mortgage on his farm for few hun
dred dollars, but he has rich man s
ways, even though he was financially
embarrassed,
;. His name was in tie grand jury
box-never in the petit jury box.
That would have been an indignity
that he would have resented. There
was no line Of demarcation between
the common people and the aristocracy
that was more figidly drawn than the
one that separated the grand jury from
the petit.jury.
The aristocrats held all The Tromi.
nent Offices, and they were the Gener.
ais. Uolonels and Majors Of the mill.
tia. Most Of the professional gentle
men came from this aristocratic stocks
They were generally Whigsih politics
and We're the patrons Of the high
schools and colleges, and stocked the
learned professions with an annual
crop of graduates who were loyal to
Henry Clay and Fillmore and Stephens
and Toombs and John Bell and the
code Of honor. They had wealth and
dignity and abundant leisure; and sol=
ONION says that in leisure there is wis
dom, and SO these men became our
lawmakers and jurists and statesmen
and they were the shining lights III
tie councils Of the nation.
: Of course, they were not all Wings
There were many distinguished ex-
ceptions such as the Jacksons and
Cobbs and Colquits and Lumpkins
who were Democrats; though Of aristo-
cratic birth. Governor Brown was,
perhaps, the first illustrious Georgia
statesman to come up from among the
common people and stay with them
and lead them as Moses led the chill:
dren Of Israel. His whole political
life has been a fight against the power
and oppression that comes from wealth
and monopoly.
The results of the war was fearful
fall to the aristocracy Of Georgia.
They lost many of their noble sons in
the army. They lost their property
soon after. The extent Of their mis-
fortunes no one will ever know, for
the heart only knoweth it's own bitter
ness. Many of them suffered and
were strong, but the majority gave up
to dependency and their children
were left to scufle for themselves.
The collapse to them was awful. They
had not been raised.to exercise self
denial or economy and it was 'humili-
ating in the extreme for them to have
to descend to the level Of the common
people. But they did it and did it
heroically. And SO in course Of time
this line Of demarcation between the
common people and the old aristocracy
began to fade, and finally it passed
away just as the old aristocracy passed
away. A new and harder stock came
to the front, that class which, before
the war, was under a cloud. The re-
suits of the war made an opening for
them and developed their latent ener-
gies. With no degree Of culture they
nevertheless proved equal to the strug-
gle up the rough hill of life and began
to build up what the war had pulled
down. They began at'the bottom just
where the war found them and where
it.left them. They had been raised to
work and then practical energy was
soon followed by thrift and general
recovery of wasted fields and fenceless
farms. These men now constitute in
the main the solid men of the State
and have contributed largely to the
building up of the schools and
churches and factories and railroads.
They are modern self-made Southern
ers, class that forms a. striking con-
trast to the dignity and the repose Of
the old patriarchs whose beautiful
homes adorned the hills and groves Of
the South before the war.
But the children of those old patri-
archs had to come down some and the
children Of the common people came
up some, and they have met upon a
common plain and are now working
happily together both in social and in
business life. Spirit and blood have
united with energy and muscle, and it
makes splendid team-the best all
round team the South has ever had.
BILL ARP.