The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-09-21

HISS. 1O IlldG cAGeIlG TIC Is D. puUllC
benefactor, and is worth to the coun-
try a thousand times more than all
the mere political agitators who
disturbed the peace Of the country
and died before the war.
THE COUNTRY LOST NOTHING BY
EMANCIPATION.
While the slave owner, at the close
of the war, was made poor indeed,
yet the labor was left, and is here
still, and labor is one of the most i'm
portant assets of any country. The
individual owner of slaves was i'm
poverished, but the country has been
deprived of nothing. Free labor is
more valuable to the country than
was slave labor. Before the war the
negro was a slave and he performed
for his master the assigned labor of a
slave, but now, that he is a freeman
he performs the labor of freeman,
and he Is a citizen.
MATERIAL AND MORAL WEALTH.
With churches, schools and col.
leges to train the mind and heart,
with the good climatic conditions,
the fertility of the soil of our rolling
hills and our vast stretches of pro-
ductive levels, the unequalled labor
and the limitless water powers of
this country will at no distant day
make this the best country on the
face of the footstoolof Him who made
the dry land, the sea and all that in
them is.
GREATER VICTORIES IN PEACE.
Truly, in war the Southern soldier
lost all, save Apnor. But worthy
sons Of worthy sires, inspired and
animated by the example of their
heroic fathers, have won greater
victories in peace than any of which
their fathers ever. dreamed of win
ming in war. And it is said that
victories in peace are no less re-
nowned than victories in war.
To the descendants of patriotic
warriors and to the sons and daugh-
tiers of the noble women of a former
generation Abbeville County, the
State of South Carolina, and the
world, is indebted for these splendid
colleges which stand amid these mag
nihcient oaks whose towering heads
teach us to look from Nature. up to
Natures God. These classic halls
teach us to reach out for the higher,
the purer, and the better things of
life. In the diffusion of knowledge,
In the spread of religion, and in the
cultivation Of the polite arts they
stand as beacon lights on the noun
tain's summit. Here in these col
leges young men and young women,
like Paul at the feet Of Gamaliel, may
"be taught according to the perfect
manner of the law of the fathers"
And not until the good people of
Due West come down from their
high estate, will they cease to pay a
hearts tribute to the memory, to
the sacrifice, the suffering, the life
and the death of those who went out
from their doors to shed lustre on
Southern arms.
A COUNTRY's TRUE GREATNESS.
On occasions like this, when men
assemble to listen to chosen or in
vited orators, the speakers too often
are forgetful of the character, the
patriotism and the sturdy manhood
of the multitude whom they are
addressing. They forget that the
country's greatness is not measured
in the eXaltation of a few men.
A country's greatness is estimated
by the character, the courage and
the valor of those who are on the
common level. The grandeur of
the armament which showeth the
glory of the great Architect seen in
the stars and not in the meteor.
Except as an incentiv We to
greater effort to reach the higher and
the better things, or to strengthen a
more steadfast determination to
attain the mastery, there is neither
excuse nor justification for the con-
slant reiteration of any name, and es-
pecialIy should there be no liberation
on occasions like this, in the use of
any name except to point a moral
or to adorn a tale"
There is never any mitigation for
the irrelevant mention of the names
of the great, or the near-great, ex-
cept to elicit applause where the
subject matter of the speaker is not
in itself inspiring or entertaining.
GREAT MEN SOMETIMES OF DOUBT
Full BENEFIT.
The stereotyped and wearisome
mention of the names of distinguished
politicians may lead the citizen
to doubt the benefit of being born In
a land where the common people are
expected to become as pigmies that
they may idolize the great. Shall
the highest evidence of culture rest
in our ability to toady to the rich or
to become the subservient vassals of
the great? We all sing the praises
of Lee and Jackson, of Davis and
Johnston, but who has ever heard
of the name and the valorous act OF
any private soldier? The praise all
pooo RI +boea who suffered least in