The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-05-27
4 GREAT SPEECH
Which Should be Read by ouc Boys
and Girls.
THE SOUTH and THE LATE WAR.

Did Any Other People Ever Face
and Overcome Adversity as DID
the Southern People
After the War;
The following is d synopsis Of the
oration delivered by Hon. John H.
Rogers. of the United States District
! Court. at New Orleans on Tuesday
week. before the annual meeting OF
the Confederate Veterans:
Why are we here? No fanatical
religious crusade prompted this I'M
mcnSe concoursc. Here are to be
! found all creeds ard faiths and be-
liefS. in perfect peace with each other.
| freed from anuagoniSm to excite the
passions Of men, In yonder sky are
no angry clouds Of pestilence or war.
No Impending danger threatens our
land, demanding consultation and
means Of protection from enemies
within and Without. We are 1t peace
at home and aboad. Neither are we
weary pilgrims to holy Mecca, seek
j ing absolution from our sins. Nor are
we aspirantS for social or political pre-
ferment. This is no vast political con-
rentioa or mass meeting assembled
for purposes of considering grave nat
ters Of state or seeking to confer hon
ors on favorite sons. Nay. nay, none
CT these. What is it that has brought
Us together? This great assembly hall
festooned with bunting and flags, en-
blems of liberty and power, its am
pitheatre filed with the grave man
hood and lovely womanhooc Of the
south, these venerable men, the survl-
vors of the tremendous conficS Of the
siSties--all these things tell or deep
underlying cause This great sea Of
upturned faces, glowing with life, in
telligence and sympathy--if not with
JOY unmingled with SORROW proclaim
that the purpose OF our assembling has
made deep impression upon our
hearts. We need not repress the de-
votions by which we are agitated.
Whenever and wherever these re-
unions occur, we are standing amid
the sepulchers of our dead. Every foot
Of our beloved southland is dlstin-
guiShed by their courage, their su-
blime fort!.ude, their self their
unwavering devotion and patriotism,
and sanctiied by the shedding OF their
blood. Time and nature have had
their course in diminishing the num-
bers of these who surrendered at the
close of the great Civil war, but nejth-
Ell time nor nature can relieve those
who survive of the duties they owe to
the memory of our unrecorded dead,
to our posterity, to our beloved south
land and to ourselves. We are here
today to discharge as We may those
duties and to renew old friendships
forged in the white heat of common
sufferingS and hallowed and sanct;hed
by the conscious convictions that IN
the hour of trial and peril re were
true to the constitution as it was
framed handed down to US by Wash.
ington and his compatriots. We are
here also to pay tribute to the noble
band of southern women, the mothers
and daughters Of the Confederacy.
IF we wo1ld not have our very chill
dren in the near future, if net ashanl-
ed and apologizing for us, then unable
to defend US, we must not be lo!e IN
preserving, recording and teaching the
real facts upon which the righteous
ness of our actions must depend.
II find no fault with the New Eng
land States that from the moment the
Pilgrim fathers touched foot on Plym-
outh Rock they began and Lave con-
tinued Gay by day to record their own
deeds: but it cannot be truthfully said
that their writer's and statesmen have
always been as just and faithful IN
their Interpretation and treatment OF
the actions Of others as they nave been
diligent in recording their own deeds,
and afterwards escaping their respon-
sibility and logical consequences. III IS
a misfortune to the south that her
sous, if not Indifferent, then carelessly
neglected to preserve for the historian
like records. The true records OF the
south, If itcan be related with historic
accuracy, is rich in patriotism, in in
tellectual force, in civic and military
achievements, in herOiSm, in honorable
and sagacious craftsmanship, OF a
proper share in which no American can
afford to deprive himself. So much
genius in legislation, in administa-
ton, in jurisprudence, in var. such
great capacities, should expel partisan
and sectional prejudices.
1.-THE south is reproached for dis
secession. 1t is the basis for
the charge of treason, of dlSrupt1ng
the union, of violating The constitu-
ton, of rebellion, Of making war on
the United States. 1t must not be for
COTTON that there is wide difference
between secession and rebellion. The
south made no war on the States re-
naming in the union. Secession
meant disunion so far as the seeding
States were concerned, but it neither
meant war or rebellion. Ii meant a
union intack so far as all the States
were concerned which did rot secede.
and union, too, under the constltu-
ton. AS the States entered the union,
each under acts Of ratification Of its
own so secession meant the resumption
by each State Of it's delegated powers
by repeating the acts under which each
seeding State entered the compact:
but the repeal Of such acts did not and
could not affect the acts by which the
remaining States entered into the
Confederacy.
II affirm, if odium is to attach to
the south for the act Of secession it
ol, oil m tho ora9t n0rtH