The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-28

fensiveiy boastful. That sort OF thing
Is contemplate and ~despicable. Bat
we would have them to be as pround OF
North Carolina because OF her real
and distinctive worth. none h less
real and distinctive because modestly
asserted. as are the sons of other states
of their homes and people. In all that
makes a virtuous. honest, just, kind.
and heroic people, North
Carolina is not behind any state, be-
hind those who claim more-not behind
the very foremost in the south. Know
ing much of the history Of North Car
DINA for some three hundred years;
knowing how devoted to both civil and
religious freedom her people have been
from the time when they first too up
their abode in the great wilderness
that stretched out before thenn until
this year OF grace in the new century;
knowing how careful they have been
through all the years Of her history to
respect law and authority when worthy
of respect; knowing how frugal, how
plain, how prudent, how honest, how
scrupulously observant they nave been
of all contracts made in her name un-
.pendence came with all Of it's convul-
sions and rongs and upheavals-know-
ing these things, why should We not be
as glad and proud to say that We are
North Carolinians as vas any Athenian
lin the time of Pericles to boast he was
a native OF that chief centre of all the
world, ~unrivalled in all ages, Of the
gifts; OF as any aggressive Roman in
the time of the great Caesar to pros
claim. as did the noble, inspired Apostle
PAUL. am a Roman citizen" or as
the self-centred and self-aSserted Eng
lishman of King Edward, the Seventies
day, to acknowledge and boast and
glory in his nationality? We are indeed
proud of North Carolina-"my own my
native land"-land Of the leal; we are
proud Of her glorious record through
out the past, for the first baptism in
blood in behalf of civil and religious
liberty; from the first bold, open, out
door declaration of independence-that
powerful cry for Hberty-at Charlotte
by the daring men Of Mecklenburg, in
the name of the rights of freemen from
the battle fields of the first War for
independence, when her sons asserted
their true manhood,
And bravely dared the danger that
nature shinks from"
until the tremendous War of the States
fu,hon che conf from hor oo,nfoinc onI
valleys, from her homes of the rich as
from the homes of the poor, her best
noblest, boldest men to the tented fields
land indicated their right to stand in
1.-THE presence of kingly Death beside
the most daring and -
Through all this time. through ali these
years we may rejoice in the clear and
grand and unsullied record Of our
honored and loved Old State, so simple.
so firm, so conservative, so glorious.
May Gods blessings rest upon dear old
North Carolina and her people, now
and forever. Amen!
Let us then cultivate and embrace
a proper state pride. Let us love our
plain, pure homes better tina all the
tkinOdoms and principalities Of this
earth upon which we %sojourn. Let us
as voters. as taxpayers, as educators,
las citizens, as legislators, as jurists.
strive to create a high sentiment of
loyalty and affection in the hearts of
Jail the people. Let us unite to do what
we a for the material, the social, the
intellectual, the moral, the religious
Elevation of all the people.