The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-18

of Secession HILL the last formal meet
ing of the confederate cabinet was held,
Jefferson Davis being then on the re-
treat into Georgia. where he was cap
tured few days afterward.
Not only was Ahbeville county the
birthplace of the secessionists of the
South, but it is to-day and has been for
nearly three-quarters of a century the
educational stronghold of the seceders
OF the South, the name applied to the
Scotch, or psalm-singing, Presbyterians
of the Southern country, a stock which
largely settled the Mecklenberg section
of North Carolina and asserted indie
pendence of the mother country in the
famous Mecklenberg declaration nearly
IS months before the declaration of in
dependence at Philadelphia in 1915. For
the last SO years fully 80 per cent. of the
ministers of that denomination in the
South have received both their collegi-
ate and theological training at Due
West, little college town in Abbeville
county, devoted peculiarly to education
and pervaded in its private life by a
strictness very similar to that which is
said to have characterized the cove
nanters of former day. Of whom the
seceders are the religious descendants
in this country.
The constituency of the county, early
impressed with the qualities of both
the Scotch-Irish and the Huguenot by
whom the county was originally set
tied, has ever been noted for it's intelli-
gence and high morality. In 1874 Ben
jamin F. Perry Of Greenville, S. c.,
afterward governor of the state. in an
address before the students of Erskine
college at Due West, spoke by name of
four men then living, sons of Abbevile
county. any one of whom, he said.
would shed luster on the annals of any
state-namely, John c. Calhoun. Lang
don Cheves. George McDuffie and
James l.. Petigru.
when we see such a cluster of
great men, said Mr.. Perry. all
springing from one county, well may
that county claim to be the Athens of
South Carolina"
The Due West commandments, like
the great annual feasts of the olden
time which drew from all parts of the
kingdom to the temple of Jerusalem,
are periods when the gates of the little
town are wide open and men and
women from all parts of secederdom in
the South gather within it's walls and
mingle in it's walks and render tribute
at the temples built there to letters and
to religion for the two colleges at Due
West supplement each other, one edu-
eating young men, the other young
women, and thus it happens that mem
bers of the same family household, sis
tiers as well as brothers, wife and
mother as we'll as husband and father,
often reassemble on these festival oc-
casions in the little town to do honor
to alma mater, the two colleges being
always intertwined in the proceedings
of commencement week.
The Press and Banner, published at
Abbeville for the last so years, says in
reference to these annual gather
ings:
1.-THE commencements in the colleges
at Due West are always notable events
in the history of Abbeville county.
They draw great concourses of people
from all the walks of life, from the
highest and most refined circles to the
humblest planes Of good citizenship,
and good feeling and love for their
fellow men characterize the conduct
of those who assemble in the classic
oves"-Was hington Times.