The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-12

virtues of both the Virginia Cavalier and
the New England Puritan, and in the
depths of his great soul the faults of
both were lost"
The North applauded these words and
the South re-echoed and adopted them
as her own. From that day to this,
together and stronger has grown the
tie Of union, weaker and weaker the
bar of separation, until in our common
grief around McKinleys bier the last
trace of the imaginary line that sepa-
rated US was wiped out forever, and we
became one and indissoluble--a reunited
country What God hath joined togeth-
er, let no man put asunder. Then, il all
these things are true if the South, after
bravely fighting for what she conceived
to be her rights, laid down her arms in
submission to her stronger foe; if then
instead of sulking in her tent she raised
the stars and stripes" above her head,
and proclaimed to the world that these
were her colorsl if when her country
called to arms, she sent her bravest and
best, giving the first blood through
Worth Bagley, and unsurpassed in
stances of courage and bravery in her
Hobson and her Blue and her Shipp, ana
in those grand old veterans, Joe Wheeler
and Fitzhugh Lee; if her sons and
daughters have now turned their hands
to lines of industry and are building up
the material interests Of the country; If
she has sent her Hendrix and her Car
Isle, her Duke and her Rushton to man
age the great financial Institutions of the
METROPOLITAN cities; if she has sent her
sons to direct the great railway systems
that are building up the waste places; if
she has given her lawyers to interpret
the law. her editors to teach the people,
and her ministers to point out the way
of life; if in all these things she has
proven her loyalty, and her worthiness,
and has been received as an equal, is it
not time that she should be given, too,
political equality, and that we hear no
more the cry that this or thai man,
worthy though ne may be of the very
highest honors, must be ignored because
forsooth he is a Southern man? Away
with such inconsistency Away with
sectionalism forever! Let our topic be
no more the North or the South, but for
ever The Union We are brethren, let
us live as such And henceforth in this
glad land of the free let men be recog-
nized for fitness only, and not because Of
their local habitation.
I have now tried to tell you what the
South was, and what she is today. ]
would that 1 might lift the veil that
hides the future and reveal to you what
she shall be. If from the depths and
desoation of such abject poverty she
has risen with such vigor and strength,
and. with such scant resources, has ac-
compIished so much during the past
twenty years, what may We not expect
from the record of the next decade,
starting as it does from the vantage
ground of present prosperity, with our
vast accumulations, and our unlimited
credit, with our countless mills and fac
tories. and with the easier access, which
the Isthmian Canal will give us, to the
markets of the Orient whose teeming
| millions are in need of the very supplies
| that we can most readily furnish? 1t
| has not entered into the mind Of man to
conceive what the coming years shall
| bring. The future is bright with hope
| Let us so forward then, realizing that
| to whom much is given, Of them shall
much DE required.
Relying upon the Divine Leader, and
upon Cne strong arm of the American
| people, let us take our place at the
| head Of the nations CT the earth and put
forth every effort to make this country
| Of ours a beacon lght-an object lesson
| illustrating the grandeur of Republic
| spreading the light of American civiliza-
| ton and irxoiring men everywhere with
! love of freedom and of right.