The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-08-17


his lands Impoverished.
lie did not organize banditti 10
steal and murder, but he turned his
face toward the rising sun. it may
be with a saddened heard, but one
OF resolve. He did the work his
slaves had done without repining,
and looked in the face Of the future
with the same courage and lofty
purpose which had inspired him on
the field of battle.
There were no Soldiers Home or
charitable institutions TO take care
of his manned and wounded. When
the load of a heavy tax was laid by
his conquerer upon the product of
his toll, he only appealed to the con-
science of his country for redress.
If the government paid out $40,
600, 600 to the Union soldiers and
their dependents, he shouldered his
part of the burden, though 1t was
great, and bore it honorably, if not
patiently.
If there were more pensioners up
on the payrolls of the government
after a quarter of century had
elapsed, than .here were soldiers IN
all the armies of the Confederacy,
he looked back at his record, and
thanked heaven that when he stacked
his arms, he had given the best pos
sible account of himself.
In the school of adversely the
Confederate soldier learned the les
son of self-reliance. And now when
the scars of war are still visible,
after time short indeed by which
the life of a nation is measured, he
is, man for man, more independent,
and has more property than the
average Union soldier, because the
man who fought with Grant has de-
pended upon the government, while
the Confederate soldier has depended
on himself.
But there was another trial for the
Confederate soldier, which only his
strength of purpose, and his uncon-
querable spirit could withstand.
1t came when the franchise was
given to the bondsman, in order to
hold in the power of the cOnquerer
the domestic affairs and the represen-
tation of the conquered. All other
difficulties dwarfed into insigniti-
canoe in comparison with this new
and most perplexing problem.
If, at this time, the Confederate
soldier had faltered, the result
would have been the ruin of both
races, and we could never have be-
come a reunited people.
1t was seemingly forgotten by
those, who in the flush and fullness
of victory, sought to put this de.
graduation upon US, that we belonged
to race that ought to rule, because
it has the intelligence and is doml.
nant, that has ruled wherever it has
gone, and will rule until the end of
time.
The Confederate soldier has never
made war upon the black man. He
remembers his loyalty to the help
less and unprotected family, when
be was absent on the march or in
the field, and would live with him
on terms of peace and amity. lie
wants to encourage him in all the
arts of peaceful industry, and abhors
the spirit Of violence or unreasonlng
prejudice that would unjustIy de-
prive him of either life or property.
But when the question of who shall
rule presents itself, the answer
must be, that there is but one sup
remacy, and that is the supremacy
of the white race.
1t is one of the anomalies Of his
tory that in this scheme which was
devised to hold the South in per-
petual bondage, it was forgotten
that we were Of the same blood as
the men who fought at CowPens
and New Orleans, and that the Con
federate soldier might surrender his
arms, but never the right to rule
the land of his birth. He had
sprung from race that wrung the
great charter of human rights from
the hands of an unwilling king, and
who had met and destroyed the
armada of Phillip in the English
channel at the Roads of Colais.
1t met the old guard of Napoleon
at Waterloo and the mighty captain
died a prisoner on bleak Helena.
1t has carried the commerce of the
world; and its ships have ridden the
waves of every sea.
Commingling with the best blood
of the Old World, it revolted against
the tyranny of the mother country,
and produced the American citizen,
the highest type of mankind. And
now, in the New World, the fires
are built on the tallest peaks TO light
the feet of mankind in the paths of
liberty and of law.
1t found the painted savage with
his poisoned arrow and tomahawk,
lurking in the coverts of the primeval
forests, and left the white man with
his church and schoolhouse.
1t extended the confines of the re-
public from ocean to ocean.
1t started the wave of civilization
westward until it climbed the bar
riers of the great Rockies and met
the tides of the Pacific on the golden
shore of California. 1t plowed the
soil, delved in the mines, built cities,
stranded the continent with the rails
of commerce and startled the world
with inventions.