The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1916-12-01
THE HOUSE OF OUR FATHERS;
CAN THE SOUTH COME BACK?"

week:
with a Southern man eight success
sive years in the presidency during
the most momentous period of Amer
lean history a majority of Southern
men in his cabinet, and with con-
gress of unparalleled legislative
achievement, under the leadership of
Southerners, the people of the South
have now the right to say in sincerity:
1--WE are in the house of our faith
ers, our brothers are our companions
and we are at home to stay, thank
Cod
with this fair fact established let
us put congratulations aside and face
the question which it now submits to
the South. The question is, whether
the South had come back or can come
back to a permanently great and con-
structive influence in the nation COM
parable to that she once enjoyed. Are
we as people prepared to reassume
and maintain national leadership in
the affairs of the whole country? Has
the capacity of the South to contri-,
butte consistently successful national
leadership suffered the loss of any of
its vital elements during the half CEN
tu' Ii 4 which we have been aloof from
any la'ge interest or place in nationa,
affairs?
This question is of great practical
concern to every forward-looking
Southern man. 1t may be that our
present conspicuous position in ma
tlonal affairs is only an accidental
turn of the political wheel of fortune.
We should think of that and begin to
Scrutlnlze our chances of national
prominence when we no longer can
depend on a Woodrow Wilson to Sc
cure it for us and we have to rely upon
our own actual capacity as a people
to produce continuous lines of lead
ership big enough to claim and hold
national attention. If it can be got
ten abroad in the South that we are
called upon to reassume the South's
ancient glory in this republic and must
get ready for it, it will prove to be
the best impulse for our industry,
education, polite and morals.
"The Souths approach to its oppor-
tunity, if it is intelligent, must begin
with two facts:
First: That his American nation
is the house of our fathers; they not
only lived in it gladly, but they built
it.
Second: That the Southern peo-
pie must regain the attitude and spirit
our fathers had who built this house
and made it big and broad for hui
manity.
"The House of Our Fathers
"The nation in which we live is the
house of our fathers in deed and in
truth. Whatever this nation has
amounted to or may amount to, its
original idea and its persistent idealsI
were mainly Southern born. The part
the South played in the Declaration
of Independence, in the War of Inde-
pendence, and in the formation of the |
Federal Constitution, upon which the
American Republic was founded, is
acknowledged by all historians. Ban
croft and Fiskes were not Southerners,
but in their histories they have put
beyond any disposition of dispute the
fact that the Southern States of the
original Thirteen Colonies contributed
the largest share of the patriotism
and political genius which established
the nation. 1t was out of these South
ern colonies the spirit of Revolution
broke forth most fercely, and it was
in these colonies that the roots of the
Republic found their richest soil. That
may be said with all applause for
Massachusetts and New England. The
concert of colonial unity was not ral-
lied around Massachusetts, as it was
around Virginia and the Carolinas.
Before the Pilgrims launched the May
Hnyuar IN Al
an organized social and political
fabric, with representative assembly,
making laws for the government of
Dominion twice as large as the New
England States afterwards became. 1t
included the great Northwest terri
tory, out of which have been carved
the commonwealth of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, North
Carolina, West Virginia and Tennes-
see. In 1890, the Southern section
constituted in area and in population
three-fourths of everything involved
under the government of the Federal
Constitution. Tt the time the Consti-
tuition was adopted there was no ques-
ton at all of the predominant respon-
sibility of the Southern section for the
new Republic, not only as to the prin-
c:ples on which it was founded but as
to the energies by which it was
"~"ieved and the actual administra-
tions of its government. For fifty
three years the Southern States fur
nished it's twelve presidents in an al
most unbroken line of succession. It's
congress was controlled by Southern
representatives, and it's Supreme court
was held firmly in Southern hands. 1t
was great time in the world, and
great time for the South when our