The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-03-09
SONS OF DIXIE.
PATRIOTIC SOUTHERNERS CELE.
BRATE WASHINGTON'S BIRTH
DAY.
Senator Vance Speaks at the Annual
Banquet of the Southern Society in
New York City, Feb. 22nd.

From the New York World, Of Feb.
23rd, we take the following:
There was grave and gay aspect
to the seventh annual dinner of the
Southern Society, which was held at
the banquet hall of the Madison Square
Garden last night.
The gay and joyful aspect of the
dinner was in the beautifully dressed
gallery filed with Southern bellies and
in the excellent and witty addresses OF
such men as Joseph H. Choate, who
did himself proud in responding for
"Washington, by gift of heaven, by
law Of nature and Of nations, the
theme of honor's tongue
1t was early in the morning and very
nearly the break of the daylight Of the
day after Washington's birthday when
the last word was spoken, the last song
sung and the last cheer cheered.
Senator Zebulon B. Vance, of North
Carolina, spoke eloquently of ''Patri-
otsm,' with the notices : "a Digni-
fed Sentiment is the Handmade of
Honor" A Nations Character is the
Sun of Its Splendid Deeds.''
The full text Of Seuator Vance's adj
dress was as follows:
MIR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLE
MEN II approve Of and heartily en-
dorse the Southern Society of New
York. l am glad to be in your midst.
Your existence in this city-the metro
politan city of the Western worlds
an object lesson Of true patriotism
seen at once in the tender love which
you cherish for the land Of your birth,
your sorrow for it's misfortunes and
your jealous care for it's good name an
earnest Of your fidelity to the new
duties and obligations which you as
sumo under the mandate of the inevi-
table. They see that you approach
them without fawing upon power, of
unmanly foul-bred imputations upon
the cause which failed or upon your
associates who failed with it. They
see that you do not deem it necessary
to prove that you are sincere today by
protesting that you were lying yester-
day, or to show your devotion to the
Union of the present by the readiness
with which you deserted the Con-
federacy Of the past, and you invite
them to believe that the same love
and fidelity which you so richly
lavished on that section in which you
were born can, and if it need be will,
be poured out in equal affluence upon
our whole mighty land.
True patriotism in fact, is based
upon the love of home, and cannot
exist without it. In the valley is
you were born. In youth it is all the
world you see and your affections fasten
upon the objects it presents-the peo-
pie by whom you are surrounded, the
stream which rushes by the door, the
roof-tree, the fields and the inclOsing
hills rising to the mountains. AS life
advances you climb those hills and the
horison enlarges as you go. You still
love the scene, but with a different
affection. Finally, when you stand
upon the mountains summit and see
the narrow valley widen into the
illimitable plain of a great country,
watered by the mighty river pouring
its floods into the sea which the stream
of the narrow valleys has become, and
other valleys and other streams melt
into still other plains, then as the
glorious conception breaks upon you
the contrasted local love of home is
broadened and diffused over the whole
into the love Of country Or patriotism,
a sentiment for which men pledge life,
fortune and sacred honor and gladly
die in redemption of that pledge. But
the seminal germ is the love of home,
birthplace, kindred. friends. which sup
port and Eliminates the whole. It is
pure gold indefinitely beaten out.
Like all other good things, patri-
otism has also its shams. Since the
close of the war the tendency in this