Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-11-13
80 80
THE POWER OF SOUTHERN
WOMEN. $
Wilton for The Keowee courier.

tween the States, and we are truly
glad that 1t Is so. They have done a
great deal with their own hands to
perpetuate the memory of the Con-
federate soldier. God bless their ef-
forts so long as the moon endures.
But 1t will be to the mothers an d
daughters of the Confederacy in the
sixties about whom we shall write.
There Is power IN this Southland
now, and always has been, whose
sole mission Is to lead and uplift-
that power is Southern womanhood.
That power has been seen and felt
ever since Columbus first discovered
this great country; and when people
from all nations and all climes be-
gan to flock to this free, this beauti-
full, sunny Southern land, that same
power followed the multitude, shap-
ing the destinies of the Southern
States, and made those rude men
love their hearthstones better than
prince loves his palace. That power
guarded the cradle Of Washington,
Jefferson, Davis, Lee and Jackson;
that same power charmed Lafayette
and captured the young Napoleon;
that same power sent into the field
one of the grandest armies that ever
was marshalled on battlefield, for
1t was the very bud and flower Of
the South; that power helped to feed
and clothe and shoe that army from
the first to the last days Of the Con-
federacy, or from Manassas to Ap-
pomattoX. .......
The Greek mothers would tell their
sons, as they went out to battle,
Come back with your shield, or
upon them" The Confederate moth
ers went to the scene Of carnage, and
with their own loving hands laid
their own dead sons upon their
shields. And they nursed the wound
ed on the field and in the hospitals,
binding up the bleeding wounds, ard
bathing the fevered brows of their
dying heroes with bitterest tears,
amid the ashes of happy homes and
fruitless fields. ~
AS the nobility Of the mothers
character rises or falls, so rises of
falls the nobility Of her sons. You
may read history, and you search in
vain for noble son without a noble
mother While we know that this
great country Of ours has always
been blessed with great men and
noble women, heroism and bravery
were never fully illustrated until the
Confederate soldier made the name
OF Robert e. Lee immortal; and we
are convinced of this glorious fact,
that no nation ever rose more pure
and fair, and none ever fell so free
from crime. as did the Confederate
government.
The very highest type of Anglo
Saxon womanhood and Anglo-Saxon
civilization may be found in the
South. The heroic deeds Of courage
and chivalry of the mothers and
daughters in the bloody days of the
sixties will never die.
When President Garfield was being
inaugurated his mother was on the
rostrum with him, and, turning to
her, and with feelings of tender emo
ton, he said: Mother, 1t Is you that
have made me President of these
United States"
And now at Appomattox the end
comes. The four years Of bloody
struggle that tried the souls of both
men and women; war Of such mag
nitude, with such evil consequences,
such loss Of life and property, such
heroism displayed, no people of an
cient or modern times had ever wit
messed before. The road OF artillery,
the bursting Of shell, the whistling
Of bullets, the shouts Of the men, the
grcans of the wounded and dying are
hushed, the smoke Of battle had
cleared away, and again the white
dove of peace scars through the land.
The gray and the blue have gone
back to rebuild their devastated land.
The Aftermath.
"A few Of these ministering angels
(mothers and daughters of the six
ties) meet together to perpetuate the
memory Of the Confederate soldiers
in marble and brass, to let the gene
rationS to come know how q South
ern soldier could fight, and how he
could die for what he conceived to
be right. To-day the South Is dotted
with beautiful monuments that will
tell Of the chivalry and courage of
the Confederate soldier.
The mothers and daughters of the
sixties were our miniStering angels,
as are the women of to-day the Gus
todians Of the graves Of our heroes
who died for us. Nowhere In the his
tory OF any country have the heroic
women played q greater part in max
ing history than did the mothers and
daughters Of the Confederate States.
These monuments which have been
erected are not to perpetuate hate or
civic discord, but they have been
reared to our convictions and conse-
Grated to the memory of our dead |
We give the honor to the mothers |
and daughters of the Confederacy in |
the sixties, for 1t was they who con- |
ceiVed the plan. We are glad to |
state here that at Winchester, Va, |
which is the gateway to the South, |
monument has been erected to the |
Southern women. May it tower above |
everything else, and let there be writ |
ten on its face with n chisel Of steel, |
and with the point of a diamond, in |
letters of gold, what the mothers and |
daughters endured during the bloody |
struggle.