The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-05-15

$1,000
burning questions upon. but the south
said: 1 have none-only let me alone.
Like Job l am satisfied and self-cen-
tired and only ask to be let alone TO
enjoy what l have Thus the old
south strove to shut her eyes. her
ears and her gates against the great
~throbbing world Of thought and &C.
ttvity that beat against her shores as
distinctly as throbbed the gulf current
around her headlands. BY her self
satisfaction she put herself athwart
the stream Of time and the worlds
! events. The great stream of time at
that epoch had three distinct currents,
liberalism. natiOnalism, industrialism.
Against all of these the self-satisfac-
ton that had arrested progress in the
south was opposed. DR.. S. c. Mitchell
than whom no acuter thinker has spok-
en-, characterized the situation in these
words:
1.-The liberal tendency of tina age
was both the strongest and the most
easily de~scernable. The French Revo-
luton, which ushered in the nineteenth
century, was a frenzy for freedom.
Before the rush of its emancipating
spirit there went down in irretrievabIe
AL4A liz CLOSc4uN4Sl SOHtI L4ILicAlS WHICH,
had held in bondage the continent of
Europe. STEMS memorable edict of
the 9Th of October. 1907. abolishing serf-
dom in Prussia, is not so much an
achievement of individual genius as the
most vivid expression Of the differ
ences between the old and the new
Europe. Other counties followed per-
force, eve Russia freeing her serfs in
1864. The odius distinctions of feud-
alism, with the absOlete privileges Of
the ariStOcrat. were one after another
swept away; equality OF all before
the law was established: liberal con-
stituriOns were wrested from despots:
the press was ~unmuzzled: labor was
unShackled; in a word, every mar was
given a chance. 1t is pleasing TO re-
call that ii was our fathers of l778
who intoned the dominant note of that
great century. Jefferson's Declaration
OF Independence is the prelude to the
French Revolution and its fa~r-reach-
ing liberal influences.
The national tendency in thu nine
teenth century was Hardly less strong
than the liberal. The two tendencies.
the liberal II the national. though
separate, were found usually working
in unison. Nationality is to n race
what personality is to d man. The de-
sire or each race to set up hOuSekeep-
Ing for itself, to live under its own vine
and fig tree. to feel the full force of
Rinship in its unifying effect, to attain
TO complete racial Notwithstanding
intense and spontaneous yearning for
nationality was to transform the nap
OF Europe in the nineteenth century.
We can note Only the results. Heroic
Greece led off in 1929; Belgium succeed
ed in 1880, Holland being in~dividuaiized
at the same time; Italy and Germany
made good their nationality in 1870: and
eight years thereafter Roumauia. Ser
via and Montenegro reached the same
goal. Poland. Ireland and Hungary,
despite heroic struggles to form ma
tons, have failed while at this hour
the BulgarS in the Balkan peninsula
are in arms against the Turk in order
TO win the prize of nationality for them
selves. Who can doubt tina they VIII
attain it. the Berlin treaty of Baacons-
Held to the contrary. Notwithstanding?
The stars in their course fight for pro-
Sress. Nationality has shown itself an
electric and restless force.
The industrial tendency of the nine
teenth century vas also marked. IN
VentiOns kept pace with liberty and ma
~tfonaltty. On the 5th of January. 1869.
James Watt his patent for
n method of lessening the consumption
of steam and fuel in fire engines. That
is regarded rs the birthday of Eng
lands manufacturing supremacy. as
Well as marking the transition in all
progressive states from the exclusively
agricultural to The industrial status.
That same yea Arkwright's frame
superseded the spinning-jenny. Viii
had been invented by Hargreaves only
W years before. In 1877. a clergyman
Of Kent, Cartwright, produced the pow
er loom Six years later a Connecticut
school teacher, living in Georgia. IN
vented the cotton gin. What changes
followed may be family suggested by
recalling the fact that in 1884 an Amer
ship landed eight bales OF cotton
in Liverpool. and the custom house Of
icers seized them, on the ground that
was not a product OF the United
States. Coal. steam. steel, electricity
these made a new earth, giving magic
wealth and power to nations in the
van, such as England. Germany and
France. Society became dominantlv
Industrial.
"Circumstances-cruel circumstances
bring tears at the thought-had
shut the south out of a share in these
three mighty influences Of that CEN
fury. Destiny seemed to have arrayed
against them. in spite Of the fact
in the closing quarter OF the
century Virginia's owr, sons
were pioneers in the advocacy Of liberal
and national measures. uch is the |
pathOs and irony ofrthe civil tragedy. !
as the father of the constitu-
ton; Washington. putting his strong |
upon the federal executives:
giving force to the federal |
judiciary: and jefferson drafting the
ordinance pf 1877. excluding slavery
from the northwest territory-thase
men and measures appeared prophetic
Of a destiny for the south the reverse
IF what ensUed. The shift in the scene
was made by Eli Whitney in his inven-
in 1898. Of the cotton gin. which
rendered slavesy profitable in the rails
,ng OF cotton. a product 50 we'll suited
% the climate and soil of the south.
a result. the south found itself at
variance with h rapid changes which
lac swept over the world during The
first half of the nineteenth century.
The south vas led by I train Of
circumstances