The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-08-19

State Senate June II, 1906
| Tariff for Revenue With
Incidental Protection, as
Against High Protection tc
Aid Private Individuals and
Build Private Fortunes al
the Expense of the Toiling
Masses-Ths South and its
Prosperity.
Editorial mention has been made
in these columns of the speech of Sen
atOr Overman on the tariff, and the
high praise which it has elected. We
are going to reproduce a portion OF
it, that part appearing under the
heading of "The South and It's Pros
perity." Replying to n taunt from
Senator Aldrich, Mr. Overman deliver
ed this significant tribute to the
South, which every one should pre-
serve:
Mr.. President, | am sure that the
distinguished Senator from Rhode Is
land (Mr. Aldrich) intended no refec-
tiOn upon the South when, in allud-
ing to that section, he said upon this
floor q few days ago:
81 am glad to see that Senators
upon the other side recognize this
fact, and are willing to cooperate
with us in giving such protection-I
care not what you call it-such Ell
cOuragement, if you please, to this de-
velopment as will make your country
what it ought to be "a country
which will blossom as the rose COM
pared with the wilderness which
existed there twenty-five years ago. !"
When he says the South was a will
derness twenty-five years ago | tell
him he never was more mistaken in
his life. Neither twenty-five years ago
nor forty years ago was the South
IL wilderness. The South has not
been q wilderness since the Cavalier,
the HuguenOt, and the Puritan set
tied in her borders; not since we de-
clared our independence and sounded
the death knell of absolutism and
the divine right of kings; not since
we wrote in the sky, as it were, a pill
lar of fire by night and cloud by
day to lead the people, Freedom.
equal rights to all men and special
privileges to none, Righteousness and
Justice.
Forty years ago, Mr.. President,
there was poverty, distress, sorrow,
and desOlatiOn there. But there was
still left fair women and brave men-
men with blood OF the Teutons, the
Angles, the Saxons, the Caucasians,
flowing III their veins. When the cur
tain went down on the awful tragedy
at Appomattox your people, amidst
shouts of triumph and paeans of
glory, with flags furled to the breezes,
returned to homes of plenty, our
people, ragged, barefooted, with sad
ness returned to their homes, leaving
blood in their tracks as they wended
their weary way along the country
road, to find poverty and almost de-
spair. There was desolatiOn every
where. Here and there the silent
chimney told where the torch OF the
invader had been. The old home
stead was no more.
Their fields were laid waste, their
stock all gone, the roof of the house
caving in. When he reached his old
home he beheld the sad, worn face of
that noble, loyal woman he had left
four years before. who had remained
as true and loyal to him and his cause
as he himself had been as a soldier.
| He beheld his children in rags There
was vacant chair in every home.
From 10 to 40 per cent. of the South s
population had died or had been
slain in battle. Still it was not a
wilderness.
The glad smile and loving welcome
OF his wife and children were an in
spiration to him. The old fire came
into his eyes, and he looked up. He
threw aside the old musket, which had
been his faithful companion for four
long years, ,and took up the old worm
eaten, rusty plOw, which for months
had lain idle in the burrows, and be-
gan to till the soil-State building
again. He laid aside the old sword
that had flashed in the face of the
enemy upon a hundred battlefields
and took up the old rusty scythe, and
began to cut down the briars-State
building again. Since he had surren
dered in good faith, he determined tC
be loyal to the flag and true to the
Union again. The cause for which he
fought had been shot to death.
Then came, Mr. President, the aw
full, cruel, dark days of reconstruction
more terrible than war. We had lost
but We saved our manhood, our in
stinct for local self government, anC
nowhere else in this world, Mr. Presi
dent, is it more intensified to-day
than in the South. Three millions o
the former slaves were turned loose
sunddenly upon us, and pitiful to tel
given the right to gpvern their for
mer masters. For a time these for
mer masters, who were descendants o
the men who had formed the govern
ment, were denied the right to vote
A tax of 3 cents on every pound o
cotton which they raised was levied
while the wheat, corn, and othel
crops of the prosperous farmers o
the North and West went free of tax
alton. There was rottenness in higl
places, corruption in office-every
where a perfect saturnalia of crime
and insult. Still it was no wilder
ness.
BY the providence OF our mercifu
Heavenly Father, these old soldiers