The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-05-14
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Interesting Exercises 10 Memory Of Confed'
crate Soldiers.

crate Soldiers.
Address by Hon. John L. McLaurin]
Between $50 and 300 people
participated in the memorial ex-
ercises held at Ebenezer last Fri
day afternoon under the direc
tion of the S. D. Barron chapter,
United Daughters of the Confed-
eracy. They came from the sur
rounding country, from Rock
Hill and Yorkville and various
parts of the county. Capt. Ire
dell Jones, presided, as he has
been doing for many years past.
Rev. D. W. Thomasson offered
the opening prayer, and the clos
ing prayer was offered by Rev.
J. T. Dendy. W. j.. Cherry
Esq, of Rock Hill, read the roll
of Confederate dead. Several
patriotic songs appropriate to
the occasion were rendered by
the choir and by ladies from
Winthrop. The address of the
occasion was delivered by Hon.
John. L. McLaurin, of Benuetts.
vile, and the graves of all the
old soldiers were decorated with
flowers.
In introducing the speaker,
Capt. Jones recalled with pride
the fact that the orators on
memorial occasions at Ebenezer
had almost invariably been men
of distinction, including leading
leaders in the professions, gov
ernor, a chief justice of the su'
preme court, and others in the
confidence and esteem of the
people, and he was proud to be
able to say that in character at
tainment and public service the
present speaker ranked with the
best and ablest who had honored
the occasion in the past.
Senator McLaurin spoke about
three quarters of an hour and
held the attention of his highly
intelligent audience to the end.
He reviewed the causes of war
| in detail, showed how it grew
out of conflicting civilizations,
emphasized the glory and hero
| ism of the men and women Of the
south, and refused to concede
that abolition of slavery was ever
a motive on the part of the north
except as a deliberate means to
an end. He claimed that now
after fifty years by the election
of Woodrow Wilson from Geor.
gia, a man of the same high pur'
poses of Washington, Jefferson,
Jackson and Lee. the south has
| at last come in for complete vim.
dication. The audience attested
| its approval of the address with
generous applause. Following is
substantially the full text of the
address.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We are met today to do honor
to the living veterans who wore
the gray. and to deck with aow.
ers the graves of the dead. 1t is
| well on this day sacredly set
apart and observed from the Po.
tomac to the Rio Grande to re.
call the historic facts which led
to the war. The first friction OF
a sectional character occurred in
1917 when Missouri was to be
admitted as a state. The moral
! ity of slavery was not question
ed at all, because both sides
agreed that its morality was es-
tabIished by the Bible and its
legality protested by the FEEDER
| al constitution. Both sides rec
ognized the fact, however, that
free labor and slave labor could
| not exist in the same state on the
same footing. Therefore in 1920,
the slavery question was settled
bv what is known as the "MiS.
souri, Compromise" giving over
to the south all of the western
territory, below 36 degrees 40
minutes. This went on until in
l848, Martin Van Buren ran for
the presidency on what was
known as the barn Burners
ticket. The south at once noted
this threat against their lives and
property and began an aggres
sive defense campaign. In 1850,
the southern leaders forced the
fugitive slave law through Con-
gress, and the enforcement of
this law created so much friction:
that in 1854, congress, by a small
majority repealed the Missouri
Compromise" " This reilly was a
dehnitive treaty between the two
sections, and the war began, you
might say, right there. Border
rufians armed with rife and
torch, swarmed over the line.
The name of John Brown of Os
sawotomie preaching insurrec-
ton and murder came to be
known. The fame that declared
the coming of a greater day Of
wratch swept abroad throughout
the land, and men could see one
another's white faces by the red
glare that blazed out from the
midnight sky, and there was a
deep foreboding roar as of an ap-
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