Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-07-08
ABOUT TRAITORS.
It Is Principally a Question of Suc'
cess. as Shown by Examples.

II Is Principally Question OF Sue
cess, as Shown by Examples.
Next to avarice, envy is the basest
of the vices, and i am sorry to see
numerous grand army posts guilty OF
it, for their protest against the statue
of Robert L. Lee in the old hall
of the house of representatives is Moth
ing else than an exhibition of malice,
and when translated it means, I'VE
couldn't match him." and that Is all
it means.
In the horrible period of Republi-
can reconstruction of the beaten and
PROSTATE south, General Sheridan
was satrap over Texas. One day he
declared that If he owned hell and
Texas he would sell Texas and live
in hell, whereupon the unreconstruct-
ed Texas rebel printed his approval
with this morality: Damn a man
who won't stand up for his own coun-
try"
And if ! were not too modest, too
religious, and too polite, l would say
Damn a state that will not stand up
for it's own traitors" Let Connecti-
cut send Benedict Arnold, and Kan
sas John Brown, to the national
Valhalla. Then let the world decide
between the southern traitors, Wash
ington and Lee, and the northern
traitors, Arnold and Brown.
AS for the Valhalla in the old hall
of the house of representatives, the
best thing to do with it is to cart all
the statues back whence they came,
and thence many of them should be
carted to the lime kiln where they
belong, for the monstrosity of the
art" they stand for. There are
statues there of men nobody ever
heard of 100 yards from where they
lived. OF course that is an exaggera-
ton, but l say it for emphasis and to
illustrate the ruth of how lonely the
small are in the presence of the great
If every state had a Washington and
a Lee to send, it would be all right
Thank God my old state OF Kentucky
has a jefferson Davis and an Abraham
Lincoln and it will be disgraceful II
she does not send both. 1t would be
the only contribution that could vie
with that of her grand old mother,
Virginia, that sent Washington and
Lee.
If Lee was traitor in 1861, Wash
ington was a traitor in 1I16. IL the
state of Virginia worked treason in
1861, the colony of Virginia worked
treason in 1916. And here are George
Washington and Robert E. Lee, the
two greatest figures. not only of our
hemisphere, but of all profane his
tory. Neither Alfred the Great nor
william the Silent. could vie with
Washington or Lee for nobility OF
character.
AS for the statue of Lee in the
national Valhalla, l made some en-
phatic remarks in criticism OF the
Virginia delegation in the two houses
Of congress for not formally present
ing them and demanding a vote on
their acceptance. l am now convinced
that l was wrong and they right.
Let the thing sleep a score of years
more and there is nothing more GER
tain than that the delegations from
Massachusetts i'm the two houses of
congress will demand that both
statues be accepted.
Kansas is agitated over the ques-
ton as To whether she shall send the
statue of John Brown to be put be-
side that of John Ingalls, in the ma
tional Valhalla. BY all means she
should. Brown represents Kansas as
distinctively as Lee does Virginia, or
Calhoun South Carolina. He is to
Kansas what Boone was to Kentucky,
what Houston was to Texas, whether
we look on him as lunatic or mon
ster and he was both. Yet he was no
more fanatic than was Wendell Phil
lips, who would have sent to the
slaughter a million white men, women
and children, given their roofs to the
flames, their flesh to the vultures, and
devastated their fields, had that been
the only way by. which he could ac-
cOmplish the emancipation of one sim
gle black slave.
All of us Anglo Saxons are come
from robbers on land and pirates on
sea. Drake was a pirate. who har.
ried the Spanish main and made his
fellowmen walk the plank" He was
ut-throat yet hero. He dealt
more cruel blows to the "Invincible
Armada than any other captain of
the nimbler English fleet; and who of
US but would cXult if he knew he was
in remotest degree of the blood of
Francis Drake? Jane Porter ideal
ICES William Wallace. and would have
made him a Jean Val Jean if she had
been endowed with the genius of Vic
tor Hugo. but that same hero, Wal
lace. would be looked upon as a cruel
and remorselesS butcher if he were
country he did in his.
We are told of Martin Schenck-
the Dutch John Brown-whO wrought
SO fearfully. SO infamOuSly. so demon
iacally, in the long war Holland waged
against Spain for freedom. Robust
women tainted when they looked on
that terrible and relentless countc-
nance, and strong men tremhled before
that pitileSS gaze. But even Dutch
Theodore Roosevelt would step higher
than even he does if he were sure
that he mad one drop of that mon
stcr's blood in his veins, and perhaps
he has.
| hold that the very aristocracy of
history is the story of the traitor
Hampdcn and Fairfax were traitors.
So were Washington and Lee. If
there ever was the man pictured to
us as William Tell. he was Il traitor
and 50 was William Wallace. William
the Silent WAS Il traitor. and SO was
NOltairc. and so was Rousseau. Treas
on is rs you look at It,
ON the other hand Nero was a pa
triot, and so was every Caesar who
preceded or succeeded him as a
Roman emperor. Patriotism is Il
sentiment. 1t teammates from the
heart. fills the soul" and loves to
r"0St in the camp of the rebel In
deed. rebel. patriot ana traitor are a
trinity that compose the very elite of
tn" story Of tn" human family.
Washington and Lee are types.
old Virginia can proudly challenge
all the world To match them
SaVoyard.