The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-03
Address by Senator Depew.

Mr. PRESIDENT, LadleS and gentlemen.
This exhibition is the triumph of revo-
luton and evolution. There has been no
period since the Colony of South Caro-
lima adopted the theoretical but imprac-
ticable charter prepared by the great
philosopher, John Locke, in 1874, down
to the Treaty Of Paris with Spain in
1899, when this happily conceived enter
prise was possible until now. 1t is an
omen of future development and pros
perity for Charleston that the moment it's
citizens saw the time had come they
entered upon this benefcent work with
patriotism, courage and confidence. 1t
required nearly century and a half
of struggle and preparation before there
existed an industrial and manufacturing
South in the United States and Spanish
Islands in the caribbean Sea free and
Independent to meet upon the common
ground of united welfare and reciprocal
benefits.
"The Huguenot settlement was of in
calculable influence upon the destiny of
this State and it's sister commonwealths.
They differed from all the Colonists of
the seventeenth century. At a time when
people were not safe except under the pro-
ton of strong government these exiles
had neither home nor country. They could
not return to their own, and their King
denied them protection in foreign lands.
With all past ties severed they became
loyal part OF every community in which
they settled. They brought to their new
homes an intense love for religious lib
erty, education, refinement, domestic vir-
tues, skill in all the handicraft of the
age and lofty spirit and chivalric cour-
age. They gave in larger measure than
existed elsewhere sentiment and imagina-
tion to the character and characteristics
of these settlements. With this strain
in the vigorous and aggressive Saxon and
Celtic stock, South Carolina became nat
urally leader IN the stirring movements
of the century, in those political battles
which were fraught with such momentous
consequences and in the decisive action
which risked everything on the hazards
of war. So, now when opportunity offers,
she Games again to the front in this superb
effort for the industrial and commercial
prosperity of the South.
Before the Civil War the South was
purely agricultural and had none of that
varied production necessary to the ex-
panding interchanges of commerce, but
now she is rapidly developing her un-
equalled natural resources and entering
with vigor and success the field of do
mestic and foreign competition. The
founders of the Republic failed to make
clear in their Constitution the fundamen-
tai principles of our government, and
left for posterity the solution of the
crucial problems of our national existence
Until these questions were settled the
Tr,,;t Iod xuitb in, itc,
borders and no place or power in the fam
lily of nations. Environments and indus
tries created the hostile schools of GEN.
tralization and State sovereignty, which,
after seventy-three years of high debate,
submitted their differences to the ar0itra-
ment of arms.
To-day we can all calmly, without pre-
judice and without passion, philosophi-
cally review the past, and in the glorious
fruition of the present devoutly thank
God that we are one people, under one
government. and following one flag.
The Ssu hsrn States in 1866 were facing
series of disasters and calamities uL
paralleled in modern times. Their wealth
was destroyed, their working capital lost
their farms devastated, their cities aud
villages in ruins, and they we're without
manufactures or industries. The problem
OF adjusting to their political social and
economic conditions suddenly cmanci-
pated slave population of nearly equal
numbers, which had been granted every
civil right, including suffrage, demanded
immediate attention. The unconquerable
and invincible grit and pluck of the Amer
ican were never more splendidly illustra-
ted. Orderly government has been es-
tablished education fostered, agriculture
revived, railroads constructed, mines
opened, new industries builded and the
riches and resources of the land brought
out. The farm wealth has grown from
nominal to real value of three thou
sand millions of dollars. In the place of
no manufacturing industries, thousand
millions of dollars have built and equip
ped mills, factories and furnaces, whose
annual output is one thousand five hun
dred millions, and rapidly increasing. The