The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-10-14
Lexington Dispatch

Lexington D6patcn.
No Southern newspaper is more
Southern in spirit than this one.
None loves the South more, believes
more in the righteousness of the
South's cause in the sixties, vener-
ates more freely the men who wore
the gray. We confess to any amount
OF sectional prejudice, as we do to
any amount of dislike for Yankees.
There was a time when we hated
with unspeakable hatred everything
on yon side of the line which Messrs
Mason and Dixon made. But we've
softened. The South has undergone
a change. Even the Confederate SOL
dier, loyal unto death and if possible,
afterward, no longer harbors in his
breast those fierce passions which
marked his earlier years. Sectional
ism is passing, prejudice is giving
way to natiOnalism, and while there
will always be certain natural differ
ences between the North and the
South, larger day will sometime
usher in a reunited country in fact
as we'll as in name.
We are persuaded that the North
has changed and is changing. The
New Haven Comm Register gives
surprising evidence that it is. Speak
ing of Jefferson Davis, the New Eng
land paper, with a breadth of mind
that will make any Southerner open
his eyes, says:
cit is century and year since
Toff Nn IL Sc
half a century since his cause was
lost. 1t is twenty years since his
death. What better time could there
be to signify, by the placing of his
statue in the nations capitol, that
the wounds OF that war are healed,
that in the blood of brothers shed
the Union is forever cemented on a
foundation that standeth sure?
There let his presentiment stand
erect, noble, commanding, impress
i've, as he stood in the days when he
was master of half a nation.
cit is high time that the mist
which for half a century has distort-
ed the North's view of this son of the
South was cleared away. 1t is in
| Justice time that the man who in his
day suffered more than any other
Southerner for the cause in which be
believed, should cease to be reckoned
as traitor and coward, and be es-
teemed for what he was-a brave,
true Southern gentleman. OF that
host of true men who gave their best
and their all for the Confederacy be.
cause in their deepest hearts they be.
lieved they were doing right, none
was more sincere than he. OF that
multitude who lined up for the strug
gle against their brothers of the
North. none was braver and none
nobler. His sacrifice was as extreme
as it was sincere, and his treatment
by the victors after the crash came
was sore medicine for a heart that
was breaking"
| The South will welcome that utter
ance and will impulsively reach out 6
hand to New England in token of it.
appreciation. 1t is high time te
bridge the chasm. 1t will be bridged
Let us hasten the day. Neither sec
tion need lose its love for the hero
ism of the past; both can best shoV
their worthiness as heirs OF the heroi
years by meeting on common grOunt
and standing first as Americans. Th
South has already come to look OIL
Lincoln in a new light; the North i
beginning to see Davis as he was. !
monument showing these two leaders
hand clasped in hand, whould appea
we'll in our national capital.
The best people North and Soutl
, have ceased to wave the bloody shir
and reprobate its waving by Others