Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1917-02-21
Upshaw Defends Southern Valor

I9lI.
Editor Chicago Tribune:
In your issue of today I find this
startling and unwarranted telegram:
A Mothers Advice"
Washington. D. c., Feby. a.
Especial Telegram. Editor Tri-
bune: Advise great circumspection
about advocating war. Remember
the fighting would have to be done
by western men. The East can't
fight and the South won't.
"A MOTHER"
My wrath kindled when a friend
on the train read me the telegram
without giving the author, and nat
urally thinking the author man
and knowing the latter part of the
statement to be untrue, l said in my
haste and in the warmth of my south
ern ardor: He is liar" But when
l saw "a Mother" signed to this
protest against war, / said: "A good
woman is grievously mistaken"
I, too, am opposed to war until the
honor, indeed, the very life of our
nation shall demand it; but not on
the groundless ground declared in
this telegram. That the West
would be brave in such, sorrowful
crisis, I do not doubt. The South
has new reason to regard the West
in spirit Of grateful comradeship
for helping us to re-elect our great
God-fearing president who has striv'
en- so patiently and so wisely to
keep our country out of war. But
all my reverence for womanhood
that makes a southern gentleman
raise his hat when she enters an ele-
vator or give her seat when she
boards a street car, must not keep
me from registering my patriotic
protest against the unjust statement
that The East can't fight and the
South won't"
Since when? Barring all the re-
corded bravery of eastern and SOU
thern soldiers during the unhappy
Civil war-brayery tbs;t honored
American manhood eaei ~neFe -aHd
startled the wondering world, this
good western mother has surely for
gotten that it was Theodore Roose-
Welt of the "effete East" and Fight
ing Joe'' Wheeler, of the "Timorous
South" that charged side by side up
San juan hill and buried together
in the trenches around Santiago the
chickering's of our civil strife" as
they had never been buried before
She forge,s tha: it was Fitzhugh
Lee who represented this nation to
the last ditch Of danger in the def
ant harbor of Havana; she forgets
that it was the old southern war
ship, The City of Nashville" that
took the first trophy in the contest
with Spain-that it was Worth Bag
ley, of North Carolina-bless his
martyred memory (brother-in.law
Of our intrepid secretary Of the
navy) who gave up his brave young
life rs the first sacrifice on the altar
of war-that it was Tom Brumby,
of Georgia, who stood with Dewey
at Manila-that it was Victor Blue,
of South Carolina, who dared dan
ger and death as an American spy
in Cuba; that it was Schley, of the
South, whatever the critics may say,
the hero of Santiago still; that it
was Richard P. Hobson, Of Alaba-
ma, who, with his fearless compan.
ions, counted his life as trash that
he might give glory to the Ameri-
can flag, and who has proven since
then that he could not only sink the
Merrimac, but give body blows to
John Barleycorn as well; she for
gets that it was this glorious galaxy
of heroic sons Of the South who
kept the gods busy naming he
roes" in our last conflict with for
eign foe. Since when, A Mother"
tells us, and where, pray you, con-
ide in us. was the spo. ~uv.e vuI
national shame was born-the day
and the place if you will, where SOU
thern chivalry lost its meaning and
where southern arms were ground.
e4 in dishonor when our own fire
sides were in danger, or where for
eign impudence disputed the right
full sway of the flag Of our reunited
country which Cur southern sires
have taught their children to love?
] am son of the South. / plead
guilty to the soft impeachment. %
I was born beneath the ambient
blue of her arching skies;" | was
rocked in the cradle of her beauty
and her glory-I am proud of her