The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-11-30
sou I'HER;'Q LIFE
WAS HER THEME.
Mrs. James R. Branch Addressed
Eclectic Club in New York,
HIGH TRIBUTE TO The SOUTH.
The Part Taken by Its People 10 the Social,
Political and Economic Cons
ditions of the
Country.

Mrs. James r. Branch, of New York,
formerly of Richmond. and who has
many friends in this city, Delivered an
exceedingly interesting address before the
Electric Club at Delmonico's, in New
York city, last Wednesday on Southern
Life" The Electric Club is we'll
known organization of women, which
meets during the winter twice a month
at Delmonico's. The programmes at Its
meetings consist principally of music
and short essays.
Following is copy of Mrs. Branchs
address:
Madame President and Members Of the
Eclectric Club:
You have charged me with a large
themc-"Southern Lfe''-and four phases
or eras of this life.
AS 1 stand here before you declare
most solemnly that its sacredness, its
.heroism, it's dauntless valor, Its patient
suffering, render the Southern character
a theme fit for an Had.
1 confess myself candidly unfit, except
in sympathy. and perhaps comprehen-
sion, to deal with so vast and SO tender
a subject.
But by your gracious leave, will en-
deavor to give you, as briefly as may
be. mere suggestion of what con-
ceive to be the object you had in view
in assigning me the subject.
ANGLO-SAXON AND AMERICAN.
Let it first of all be understood that
Southern life, in all its phases and all
it's eras is essentially and empllaticatN
Anglo-Saxon life and American life UNI
der given conditions. ; The Southern
people are not strangers and foreigners.
They were among the first to come to
this land of the free and home OF the
brave, and you will find that, whether
on Northern plain or Southern hammock,
no battle has yet been fought in which
their guns have not spoken and their
blood has not flowed. SO that, whether
by right Of discovery and settlement or
occupancy and cultivation or valor and
courage or service in the Cabinet or
the Senate, or virtue and patience. or
devotion to the country and Its instltu-
tons. the Southerner has fairly earned
q front seat in the assembly OF the ma
ton.
But it is of the social life
of the South = judge you would
have me speak. That life falls naturally
into the Colonial, the Revolutionary, the
Ante-Bellum and tho Post-Bcllum pc
RODS
Of the first. it is only necessary to say
that the many books published in the
last few years on colonial life, Child
life in the colonies" and colonial times"
and colonial statesmen give. most OF
them. a VerYr[accurate view of the col
onal period. both North and South. The
colonist in the South differed only from
his Northeril- brother in having from ma
turc d richer soil, more salubrious cIl-
mate and greater incentives and OPP
portunities for social life. These he
used and enjoyed to the limit. OF his en-
vronment. Slavery, was then as tmuch
an institution Of Massachusetts as OF
North Carolina. It was. many years az
ter this period that the peculiar insti-
tution'' had become peculiar to the
Sout alone. All that has been written
about colonial life you are familiar with.
and l shall not dwell further upon this
era than to say that the colonial dame,
like her colonial lord and master, must
ever remain an object of :affectionate
and respectful interest
THE REVOLUTIONARY. PERIOD.
or the Revolutionary period. / must
also be very brief, for the reason that.
so far as it had or has a distinctive
character, the South at the time OF the
American Revolution. had not developed
that character and was,5inz deed and in
fact a perfectly homogeneous element
in the aggregated strength of the thlr-
teen colonies. To put my thought &C
cura tely, l think that, in composite
photograph of the thirteen colonies at
the close of the American Revolution,
Virginia would have come nearer. the
composite than any other of the thirteen,
which is about the same as saying that
which l have already sad-that the Rev
dictionary period of the South. with its
common dangers and common defense.
wrought out a character common in all
essential particulars TO the then repub-
lie of the United States OF America. Inc
foOt-sore patriot. when Washington re-
ceivcd the sword of CORVALLIS at York
town, whether he came from Massachu-
sets or New Hampshire or Georgia or
South Carolina, looked alike, dressed
alike and was alike, in form. manners,
habias, dress, Education and religion
Hence the Revolutionary Southerner
was an American Fer Sc.
TIL, ANTE-BELLUM.
1t is around this period. extending from
the close of the American Revolution
to the emancipation proclamation Of
Mr.. Lincoln, that the interest of the
world centers. And it is natural that it
should There is so much that is unique
in the situation itself. such sharp de-
lineaton of racial characteristics such
facing and fighting of ever new condi-
tons and constantly changing phases
of national and cosmopolitan thought
and standards of ethics, as renders the
drama absorbingly interesting.
New England and the Middle States
had abandoned slavery as an institution.
not from ethical. but from purely bust
ness reasons The, South, for the same
business reasons, adopted it. Slavery
was the fashion the world over. Whit
ney's cotton gin and the cotton lands
of the South We're the opposite poles,
the Joining OF Which determined the
rolicy of slave labor. When that policy
was adopted it was officially as souna
the manufacture Of rum IN Massa-
chusetts or the sale Of wives in New
york or Pennsylvania or Canada once
adopted, under such conditions. the inn
mediate success it attained in business
way wound it with the social, political
and economic life OF the South Wealth
and luxury increased by leaps and
,>an,,ae HnSnitalitY vas, unbOunG ieQ.