The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-28
savoysrd in Washington Post.

| civilization. Born in 1920, he was in
 ca the oid % sout @en was .ne ingyaifsd syaiis% n | revolution, war, devastation, defeat, despotism and chaos. He saw his peo-
 pie ruled by their former slaves, and ton that reversed the policies of
 Stevens. Sumner, Morton, Wade, Butler,
 Logan. and all the other stupendous blunderers who imagined that they had
 permanently subjected the Saxon to
 the Ethiopian. He was a disciple
 one of its most talented disciples--of
 the school of Jefferson. Randolph, Car
 the doctrines of the sovereignty of the | State, though he was born a Whig,
 reared a Whig. and remained Whis
 litical debates of 1850 made the whig | party a politician out of a job.
 | It was the patriarchal system, that
 fly was a ruler, and successful or de--
 feated as his sense of justice was great or small There is the secret. the only
 secret the whole secret of govern
 moil In the family and discomfort in
 the State. I do believe that in the en- tire history of mankind there never
 was anywhere. In any age. more of | played and practiced than in that "old | South" There was faith in obligation
 and horror of injustice. There was de. not swe-ve for all the dominion of all | the Caesars We cannot imagine the "Old South" brazenly nullfying the
 indirectfon, such as the nomination of | candidates for United States Senator l by primary election. Tn Rome soon af- | ter Junius Brutus banished the lying | store the despotism. messenger wis., | tied the banished Tarquin in his re-
 treat, and sought counsel for the. con | spirators. and Tarquin took him to his
 garden and cut down the tallest poppies | growing therein, which was interpreted as advice to get rid of the ablest and
 south never did that. The New 1 South" is planned on different lines Only the other day Tennessee cut down
 the tallest and grandest man and in
 stalled in his stead conscious inferior | ity. It is the only way envy can hit a
 shining mark. During the past double
 decade there. has been an abundant South would have better left standing. | Who knows that the hour will not soon
 strike for Bailey of Texas and Williams
 t1cky sng q sP cafss af Sf
 Whatever the faults of the "old South"
 she would die by her chosen leaders,
 and did go. to battle, to defeat and to | with all the faith, with all the desperate
 courage, with all the defiance of and all the delight in death itself that a clans
 nT sn for ceGm hIs c6isg 6seg would have felt in dy But the old South" is no more. 
 | James L. Pugh was born in Georgia
 in 1920. Four years later his mother | where he also died when his son was l but six years of age. About the time
 he entered his teens the lad rode the
 mail" and was so engaged when ap- | pointed clerk in a store at Eufaula, Ala, at the age of Ia. Here he learned
 to speak the Indian tongue, many Of the customers of the store being of the
 Creek tribe, It was frontier coun- | try, and daily accessions to the popu- 1 lation came from the older States of South Carolina and Georgia. Eufaula were gathered many choice spirits, dar- ing an adventurous young fellows,
 who had gone West to grow up with | the country.
 There was a cultured society at Flu faula, and the young store clerk was cordially admitted to it for his good | character, his good temper, his good
 manners, his good sense, and it may be, | for his good looks. There was a Thes- plan society that afforded great delight | to both young and old, and Jim Pugh
 to play "Pizarro." and Pugh was cast | for minor role, messenger who came l In to announce something or other.
 Some time before the premier" the actor cast for Alonzo became sick, and Pugh was given the role. He was de- | lighted, and studied hard, and when the play was presented he got more ap- plause than all the others together. Af- ter that he was the leading man, and, according to the best judges of acting Tn EufauIa, he was another Garriek or
 Edmund Kean. and sure to be an orna-
 ment to the professional stage, which ! he chose for a vocation.
 A sister, much older than MT. Pugh,
 was the wife of Dr. Cowan, and both
 vout Presbyterians, looking on all play
 acting as work instignated by the evil one. They were mortified when told
 of the resolution their young kinsman had made, and Dr. Cowan proposed that If Pugh would go to school for two years and then study law he would foot
 the bills. The young man accepted and was pac kedoff to school at LaGrange, Ga, the famous institution then pre- | sided over by Dr. Otis Smith. Upon his return to Eufaula young Pugh en-
 tered law office and studied with all
 his might. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one and became the partner of Jefferson Buford. the
 then head of the Eufaula bar. The terms were most advantageous for the
 young man. and in little while he was very successful lawyer and sub sequently leader of the local bar. He got to be very great jurist, profound
 in his knowledge of the principles and philosophies of that noble science. for 1t is a science as practiced by the leaders of the profession-the giants | who can give you reasons for the rule other than the precedents preserved in the decisions.
 Of course young Pugh was a politi- clan. Every lawyer at the South was 1 in those days, and Pugh was politi- | clan before he was a lawyer, or a voter, and went over the county making speeches for William Henry Harrison in 1S40 He supported Clay in 1S44 and
 was elector for Taylor in 1s4S. In 1852 he voted for Pierce. his first utilization
 with the Democratic party in a national campaign. In 1850 he had visited Washington and heard the Titanic de- bates in the Senate for that era. It was a period of intense political ex- | citement, and secession was narrowly | averted and perhaps was only prevent | ed by the efforts of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Stephen A. Douglas. In | Buchanan ticket for the State at large, | after which he was returned to the
 Thirty-sixth Congress.
 It was historic body-that Thirty | sixth Congress, the last time the "Old | South" sat at the national council beard. It was an irrepressible conflict was a pronounced Southern maL and a | believer In the good policy as well as | the absolute right of secession. He | made but one speech of any considera- l ble length, and l have never anywhere come across a cleaner statement of the | two conflicting ideas of the North and | the South than is contained in this l speech. I count no man adequately in- | fol med upon :he momentous issues that II DRI F T W O O D