The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1899-06-29
4 STATESMAN SOMEWHAT corr .

! MT. McLauTln, UHe junior rep
resentative of South Carolina IN
! the United States senate, recently
delivered an address before the
| Calhoun and Preston societies OF
Wofford college, South Carolina,
published in the Atlanta Consti-
| tution) which contains some very
erroneous statements as to facts,
and, in our opinion, some very
unsound conclusions drawn there
from. Some Of these we shall
notice.
Speaking of the settlement of
America, Mr.. McLaurin said, "a
few religious refugees seek an
asylum upon inhospitable shores
and undertake to people vast
continent. These were Huguenots,
PuritaEs and Cavaliers from the
old world; humble but
courageous etc" In point of
fact, the only religious immigrants
to America were the Pilgrims,
Puritans and Huguenots and they
constituted but a small proportion
of those who came over for other
motives, the Cavaliers, for politi-
cal reasons, and other English,
Scotch, Irish, as we'll as Germans,
Dutch, Swedes, etc. for financial
considerations. 1t cannot be
truthfully said of the Cavaliers,
who settled almost exclusively in
the South, that they were of hum
BILE origin; for Lord Clarendon
and other contemporaneous writ
ers, followed by. Hume) allege
that they were of the best blood
of Britain.
Abiding to the theory upon
which the government of the
United States rests, the speaker
said, "Our republican government
is founded on the principle of
popular sovereignty. Each citi-
zen is a sovereign and the aggre-
gate of the citizens constitutes
the sovereignty of the nation. "
This is strange doctrine comm g
from a Senator of the United
States, who should be familiar
with the scope and powers of q
government of which he is part.
The federal government does not
! derive It's authority from, or in
any wise or any case act through
the mass of the people of the
United States, no regard being
had to state lines; but is founded
directly upon, and proceeds in.
variably by, the action of each
state in it's organized or corporate
capacity. The Calhoun society OF
Wofford college should at this
proposition, revere the memory OF
its great namesake and repudiatt
this part of Mr.. McLaurin's ad.
| dress.
In regard to the loss of the
Maine the senator said: enc
other nation Oh the face of the
earth could wickedly have plotted
the destruction of the battleshir
! Maine, and in sullen rage and
hatred sprung the fatal mine. .
We believe that it is now univer.
sally conceded that Spain, as a
nation, is guiltless of this crime
as charged. 1t is our recollection
that the court of inquiry so found.
Gen. Lees testimony was certain.
ly to that effect, he declaring
that the Captain General was as
truly grieved at the occurrence as
he { Lee) was; and if the act was
done by Spaniards at all it was by
individuals upon their own re.
sponsibility. Don't kick a fallen
foe, Senator. 1t is not "chival.
rous.
Again the senator made the fol-
lowing assertion: sit is fact
that the general educational level
of the United States is above that
of any other nation. \ Ac-
cording to her SPANS own cen
sus, IS per cent. of the population
of Spain cannot read or write
while of the white population of
the United States, only Z pei
cent are illiterate, and in the
northern states, it is as low as
B per cent. In these figures lie
the true and hopeless cause of
Spain's defeat and humiliation.
Our success was not in the greater
bravery of our men, for a Drawer
people than the Spaniards never
lived it was not in the number
of our ships or weight of our guns,
out, as some one has put it, it
was the man behind the gun and
| add the public schools of the
United States behind the man. ,"
In regard to the first part of this
assertion. statistics Drova thot tho