The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-04-11
(Don-estic)
THE SOUTH AND THE NATION

remnant of Lees incompatible in
fantry, after a weeks retreat from
Petersburg, surrendered to Grant at
Appomattox, and the end of the
greatest war of modern times found
civilized people exhausted, at the
mercy of horde of liberated slaves,
all but in despair.
Richmond was in ashes. The pres
ident Of the Confederacy was in
flight. The South was starving, was
bankrupt. A large part of the army
with which Lee had fought over
whelming odds for four years was
scattering to the four quarters in
eager haste to protect its homes.
The triumphant North was in pos
session of a rich territory in lands
denuded of their natural rulers, of
apparently helpless women and chill
dren, of burned homesteads, devast-
ed cities, untitled fields.
Almost any other people under
similar circumstances would have
speedily relapsed into barbarism. But
the measure of their courage was not
yet taken. Following the barbarities
of the reconstruction era" the
South fought for its head and gain
ed it, in spite of fate, in spite of
power, in spite of numbers-on
character.
The South was Anglo-Saxon,
Scotch-Irish, Cavalier, and Hugenot.
Its blood was fighting blood, it's ira
dition was the iron of oppression, it's
passion was liberty. It's army rolls
carried no names foreign to the
genius of the pioneers. It owned no
Seige1s, no regiments, brigades, d.
visions to whom English was an I'M
known tongue. 1t had no soldiers
fighting for the pay that was to be
received for slaughter. 1t fought for
its head, and the mistaken impress
sion that some few in the North
have not learned to correct, even to
this day, is that it was ever conquer
ed-could ever be conquered
Lest any one think that we write
in passion or prejudice, let us recon-
mend for reading today the books of
Albion w. Tourgee, "a Fools Err
randi and Bricks Without Straw
wherein the author, Union officer
and afterwards a carpetbagger who
became judge, recited in a scholar
Iy way, with more emphasis on logic
than on prejudice and conceit, the
conditions in the South which led
him to despair of his own mission
and prove himself wise by calling
himself fool.
Nearly forty years ago Tourgee ir
these books declared his conviction
that you can not conquer and com
pei an unconquerable people. HI
wrote with the conviction of the mar
who had tried to conquer and giver
IL up as a bad job. He expressed
truths which to him were unpalata
BILE, because they were truths and h,
was an honest, if a politically jaun
Gated his prophecy.
Today the South remains the onl
section which, in the always some
what qualified sense, can be calle
America
Today, with all the shift an
change from old conditions it has
prosperity not as dazzling as tina
achieved by the immigrants to Ne,
York and IN tho ornat cpptrac Of Ri
West in the making of mammot
fortunes, but a prosperity whic
does not carry armies of unemploy
ed on its back. Its hereditary mi
1ionaires have largely disappeared
but its proportion of self-supportin
and ambitious men of effort is large
~ greater-among Americans-tha
that of any other section.
Today, Richmond, great city, h.
become one of the chief centres of
new financial system, winning II
distinction by virtue of progress /;
well as of location.
Today the president of the Unite
States is a Southern man in his e
cry instinct.
Five members of the cabinet a.
Southern men.
The leader of the Senate is
Southerner.
We could continue to expand Il
list. but it is useless to do so. Be;
this in mind, however, that befo1
the war between the sections, wht
a policy was to be announced, wht
of course of action was to be take
when debate was to be resolve
into its salts of logic, it was to Il