The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1916-05-17

tioii VI the war, he based his argu-
ment, not on calculation of mater
1al resources, but Oh simple principle
or right. Submission to any en-
croachment, the least as we'll as the
greatest, on the rights of State
means slavery. To us submission
meant slavery, as it did to Pericles
and the Athenians; as it did to the
great historian of Greece, who had
learned his lesson from the Pelopon-
nesian war. and who took sides with
the Southern States, to the great dis
may of his fellow-ridacls, who could
not see, as George Grote saw, the real
point at issue in the controversy. Sub
mission is slavery. and the bitterest
taunt III the vocabulary of those who
advocated secession was Submissions
ist."
NO people ever made a nobler or
grander struggle to obtain their liber-
ty and their rights. Their failure was
without any taint Of dishonor or
shame. and when at last their battle
flags were furled and they came home
to rebuild. their dismantled homes
and broken fortunes the entire. South
exhibited the same courage and forti-
tude which had illustrated the yalor
of its soldiers upon hundreds of bat
tlefields.
It has been contended that in the
hour Of the South's defeat the North
was magnanimous, that no blood
flowed. and that no lives were sacri-
feed. The statement that no blood
flowed was true. The statement that
the South received magnanimous
treatment Is UNANIMOUSLY false. After
ut laid down its arms it was treated as
ia. conquered province. It's people were
plMndered and oppressed by the form
F!er slaves. the carpet Dagger and the
native renegade. Equality between
the, white master and the former
slave was sought to be enforced at
the point of the United States bayo-
knets. Contending for four years that
tho South was never out Of the I'm
ion. 1t nevertheless had to be recon-
.6tructed into it.
H. 1t Is true that Grant was magnani-
NOUS at Appomattox. For that all
honor to his memory, but the utmost
stretch of broadest charity will not
enable us to forget his conduct in the
black night of reconstruction. The
courage, the firmness and the dis
Ecipline of the Confederate soldier was
tof ,inestimablc value in wrestling the
government from the hands of me-
'.groes and carpet-baggers during the
period of reconstruction, when north
ern bayonets were at our throats.
1.-THE value Of a country" says
Lowell. is~weighed in scales more
delicate than the balance of trade. On
map Of the world you may cover
Judea with your thumb, Athens with
q fingertip, and neither of these fig
ures in the prices current, yet they
still live in the thought and action of
every civilized man. Material success
is good, but only as the preliminary
of better things. The measure Of a
nations true success is the amount it
has contributed to the thought, tho
moral energy, the intellectual happi-
ness, the spiritual hope and consola-
ton of mankind" Measured by this
standard South Carolina has nothing
to fear.
The past of South Carolina is at
least secure.
The opinions OF her judges have
been quoted with approval in West
minister Hail. She has given to the
medical profession J. Marion Sims;
to theology the great Thornwell; to
literature Sims, Legare and Timrod
The roll Of her distinguished states
men is too long to CALL Suffice it to
say, that our hearts thrill with pride
as we remember the conspicuous part
played by our people upon the battle
fields of America and by her represen-
tatives in the legislative hall in the
golden days of Rutledge, Pinckney,
Laurens, Lowndes and McDuffie. In
that period of our States glorious ma st
her people were united by common
pride and common love of country
and animated by common purpose.
Our leaders were not only masterful
men but patriots. For forty years
tho highest aspirations of the South
found expression in the towering in
tellect of the great Carolinian, in
his unyielding courage, his ardent
patriotism, his pure and unspotted life