Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-03-27

borders in Patrick county comes Jcb
stuart; from Floyd, Admiral Evans:
from from southwest Virginia, the Floyds,
rather and son; ana here the Ran,
SONS, the Hollis, the Dukes and n long
list OF the worlds famous men. The
earlier men | mentioned were the con
temporaries and personal friends of
Washington and Jefferson, while Mad
anne Russell, the sister of Patrick
Henry, lived and died near the salt
works in Washington county, Vir-
ginia. 1t is the land of the rising
and not the setting sun.
Through the pass below Roanoke
City went Lewis and the hardy pion-
GERS who cut their way through For
ests and field and ctream to. open n
new empire in the west, and Boone,
the rugged pioneer, comes from this
portion of North Carolina; and Sam
uel Houston, the hero of "San Jacin-
to-, from Rockbridgc county, Virgin
in, and many of the men who died mt
the Alamo from the same mountain
country. Cannon comes from Gull
ford's battlefield. They were all men
born and rocked amid the mountains.
Why go west or 20 south or east
when the world lies ut our feet?
1t is Il land of monuments and mem
cries, and in the blue haze of it's
mountains and the music of its rip
ping streams we read the future of
Il new and mighty generation, and
we should teach our children to stray
not from the parent nest, but to
honor and revere the land the Lord
hath given them.
Muncy, the most magnetic orator
of the Southern Methodist church,
comes from Bonnie Bland; Parson
Cummings, from Abingdon; Bishop r..
+. Hoss, from Embreville, Tenn. Da-
vid Sullins, the sweet singer of Is
rael, from east Tennessee, near the
Great Smoky Mountains; Bishop Gal
Iinger. of the Southern Methodist
church, from Wythe county, Virginia;
Robert Shelley, who did more good in
his day and generation than any other
man, came from Smyth county, Vir-
ginia; Andrew johnson from near
Raleigh, and right here wish to re-
flute the idea and partial belief that
Andrew johnson was an unbelievcr.
In DR.. Prices book it is noted that
among President Johnson's papers
was found note beginning, "All is
gloom and despair, and ending with
the sentence, chat | place myself un-
der Gods protecting wing"
But to recount all the famous men
who have made this country great
would be an endless task. MY main
purpose i'm this article is to direct at
tention to the Battlefield of Guilford,
one of the landmarks of American
freedom.
Lying just outside your beautiful
city, it is an inspiration and a pleas
ure to go there, and, in imagination,
listen again to the "Battlecry of
Freedom" Why should not the Fed
eral Government help to perpetuate
the heroic deeds enacted on Guilford's
battlefield?
Thermopala, Balaklava, Gettysburg,
Waterloo, were all on grander scale
so far as outward trappings and the
munitions of war were concerned, but
not on a grander scale when it came
to the crucial point. 81 may die, but
I will never surrender, for that was
the spirit that animated these men.
We teach by monuments as we'll as
booys. A few years ago the Federal
Government wanted to educate us
under the Blair bill. Now, all we
ask, and we have the right to ask,
is to aid us in our monuments and to
beautify our battlefields; for their
heritage is our heritage and the herit-
age of mankind. If you do not, we at
least have the conclusion that
"On Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead"
And if there be warriors heaven
we know and believe that these heroes
are today in the halls of Valhalla.
If the Federal Government will not
help, we will be tempted to exclaim
Gland of our fathers, can it be that
this is all that's left of thee?"
JAMES S. BROWNING
In the Greensboro, IN. c., Daily
News, March 16, 1914.