The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-01

SUCu meu COulU uUC TGdu1ly Nc ~ P"AA w.
Just here I trust / may be permitted
to turn aside for moment from the
line Of thought which I am pursuing.
I have always believed that he de-
served tribute to the yalor OF the prl-
vate soldier. I have always believed
that he deserved more credit for cour-
age and endurance than the officer.
For, to say nothing Of the pride of
position which melted the officer to
the performance Of duty, he always
had this additional advantage: When
going into battle his mind was, in
some measure, diverted from the dan
ger to be encountered by his attention
to the duties Of his position, while
the private soldier had nothing before
him but the dangers to which he was
exposed. All honor, therefore, to the
private soldier.
But another and still more striking
and peculiar difference in the results
of our war from that Of any other war
Of which we read is the fact tnat when,
ordinarily, war terminates, the labor
system of the country in which it is
waged is the same as it was when the
war began. Here, however, when our
war terminated the labor system of
our country, dependent SO largely as
it was on the Institution Of slavery,
was for time. at least, utterly de-
stroyed, and continued for years more
or less in disorganized condition.
Now, when it is considered how large
ly the material prosperity Of a coun-
try depends upon its labor system, it
is easy to perceive how great and un-
usual were the difficulties which the
Southern people had to encounter, not
only in repairing the waste and de-
struction caused by the war, but also
in obtaining the bare means Of SUBJ
sistence. And when it is remembered
how sool the objects were, in meas
ure, attained. we should not withhold
our tribute of admiration for the energy
Of character displayed by the Southern
people-a feature of character in which
our people had been supposed by some
to be conspicuously lacking. A single
illustration will be sufficient to prove
this. When the war ended every rail-
road in the State was so broken down
and impaired that there was not a
single one capable Of being operated
throughout its entire length, and yet
in an incredibly short time all were in
operation. This was rot due to the
aid Of foreign capital, which had not
then began to flow into the State, but
was due entirely to the energies OF
our own people, for, Of course, the
railroad companies could not have OBJ
tained the means necessary to repair
their waste places except by the tran
sportation of the products Of the
country through which they passed,
and those products were dug out OF
the ground by our own people. But |
cannot dilate further upon the evl-
dences of the energy Of character OF
the Southern people, brought out by
the result of the war, and must pro-
ceed to speak in brief terms of another
phase of Southern character brought
out in the boldest relief by one OF the
more remote results of the war.
In the dark days Of Reconstruction,
when the best people Of this grand old
State were disfranchised, and the en-
tire Government was in the hands of
the barbarian, the alien and the few
native traitors who joined with them
in expressing and plundering the peo-
pie, it was really wonderful to see how
few of our native population degraded
themselves by such an association
with the vilest Of the vile. Perhaps
this was cot so remarkable in those OF
us who were old enough to have i'm
bibed the principles Of our forefathers,
and who could not, therefore, so easily
wrench ourselves loose from the senti-
ments in which We had been reared
and educated. But for the younger
men, who were just then coming upon
the stage of life, and had not yet be-
come so thoroughly imbued with the
sentiments of the past, with exhausted
means, with the necessity staring
them in the face to dc something to
make bread, and with every avenue to
access apparently closed, except
through the ranks Of the Radical
party, be it said to their lasting honor
that the renegades in any community
could be counted on the fingers of one
hand. In this community We should
be proud to say that all the fingers of
even one hand would not be needed to