The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-12-17

Judgment bar with such a weight on
my shoulders. Lincoln was right
when he said no man was good
enough to " a slave I believe l
have as much kindness and sympathy
for humanity as any man yet I know
there would be times whenI would
abuse my authority. That there
we're cruel masters is true, just as
there are cruel pareots and husbands.
AS a general rule parents are kind to
their children, husbands to their
wives 50 was the master kind to
the servant. Cruelty in all these re.
lations is the exception to the rule
The abolitionists, instead of looking
at slavery in its true light, paraded
before the world the exception and
said that was the real condition OF
the slave, and thus poisoned the
minds of the people, and engendered
a hostility to the institution of
slavery that illuminated in a bloody
fratricidal war There was but one
way in which slavery could be abol-
ished and that was the way in which
it was done by force and blood. It
could never have been done peaceably
even with full compensation. For
the Southern planter accustomed to
rule on his plantation with an au
thority more absolute than the Feudal
barOns, had q proud chivalrOus
spirit, and a romantic gallantry that
made them arrogant and aristOcratic
in their bearing and d~omineering in
their manners, that would tolerate
no interference with any of their
rights. Animated by such a spirit
they would rather have fought and
lost their slaves, than to have. eman-
cipated them with compe nsation.
In no part of the whole civilized
world, in any age of it's history did
man attain to a higher development,
or society a happier civilization, than
in the slave holding States before
the war. No man ever surpassed
the old time Southern gentleman, in
virtue, in the purity of his private
life, in refined and generous hospi
t4lity, in unstinted charity, in chiv
alric courage, in romantic gallantry,
and in the moral grandeur of his
character. No women ever equaled
the Southern DANES in lofty dignity,
in the stateliness of their bearing OF
their daughters in accomplishments,
in dash, in the grace, base and suav-
ity of their manners, and the exquis-
tie symmetry and matchless beauty
of their figures which renders them
irresistible in their charms and fasci
nation. Nc statesman in any cOun-
try ever surpassed our Southern
statesmen before the war in the IN
sullied purity of their private and
public life.
1t is pitiful now to go through
those large old estates of thousands
of acres, and see the old mansion
house occupied by negroes and white
tenants, and everything going to d."
Jay. l have in Eastern Carolina
seen numerous instances of such
desolation where years ago I en-
jOyed the unstintad hospitality OF
their refined and intelligent wner
| Oh, how sad is the thought. The
necessary effect of the abolition of
| 11orvoru wnG 70 6nd&HOv tho 1oN0Po
shareholders, and to bring forward
the lower and middle classes of so
oiety. It was analogous to the effect
produced by the crusaders upon the
nobility and barons of Europe dur
ing the Middle Ages, who in order to
raise money for those expeditions,
had no other than to sell
their landed possessions. These es
tates passed into the hands of other
proprietors, the necessary eff ct of
which was to bring men n9arer an
equality of properly.
have heard a great deal about
the new South. It may be that the
South of today in manufacturing,
in a general diffusion of education
among the people, is superior to the
old South. The men of education in
the old days were better educated
than the men of this day. Where is
the statesman of this day that will
crmpare with Calhoun, Clay, Davis,
Toombs and Stephens? Where is
the orator that Can thrill an audi
ence like Yancey, Ben Hill and Dob
bin Miller and McRae, of our own