The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-05-16
"A VlNDICATION OF THE SOUTH
ADDRESS CHIEF JUSTICE EUGENE B. GARY ON
MEMORIAL DAY. 1917, UNDER AUSPICES OF u. D. c.

(vol. 1, p. 71s, ninth edition), this
statement appears: "Since the Rev
olution days the few thinkers of
America born south Of Mason and
Dixon's line-out-numbered by those
belonging to the single State of Mas
sachusetts-have commonly migrat-
ed to New York or Boston, in search
Of a university training. In the world
of letters, at least, the Southern
States have shone by reflected light;
nor is it too much to say, that main
ly by their connection with the North,
the Carolinas have been saved from
sinking to the level Of Mexico or the
Antilles, like the Spartan marshaling
his helots, the planter lounging
among his slaves was made dead to
art. It has only flourished freely in
free soil, and for almost all its vi
tality and aspirations, we must turn
to New England" We shall endeavor
to vindicate the South from these
statements that are not true.
We disclaim any intention to criti-
else the North, or to arouse sectional
feeling. We are now an united peo-
pie; and God grant we may SO re-
main until time shall be no more.
May the North and the South ever
utter, the one to the other the words
of the Jewish daughter, in that most
exquisite of idyls: "Entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return from fol-
lowing after thee; for whittier thou
goest, I will 60; and where thou lodg-
est, I will lodge; thy people shall be
my people, and thy God, my God.
Where thou diest, will die, and there
will be buried; the Lord do so to
me, and more also, If aught but death
part me and thee"
All fair-minded people will readily
admit, that the South should not be
placed in a false light before the
world, and that it has a right to be
vindicated, even if the facts SEEM
ingly reflect upon the North
By way of preface, it may be well
to call your attention to the charac-
teristics of our early settlers, from
whom sprang two distinct civiliza-
tions. It was this difference which,
in large measure, caused the Civil
War.
The colonists of jamestown and
Plymouth Rock, were of different
types and distinct ideals. The James
town Colonists were descended from
the landed gentry Of England, and
were loyal to their king. They had
patriarchal ideas of life, and became
an agricultural people, settling on
burgeses or plantations, with their in
dentured servants, and living as in
their old homes.
Not so with the New England or
Plymouth Rock colony. They, too,
were Englishmen. They, however,
did not come from the landed gentry,
but from Puritan stock. Thye had
q grievance with England for its in
reference with their liberty to wor-
ship God as they pleased. They did
not love the king or the landed gen.
try. So they began to lay the foun-
dations of new social institutions and
to set up new affairs of justice and
religion, and thus really became au-
tocrats in the administration of the
law.
AS the Jamestown Colony came
from English blood born to rule,
their very instincts of life, tended to
develop political leaders and states
men.
Their life on the plantations in
controlling their slaves, fitted them
to control themselves and others.
The Plymouth Colony, settling in
towns and cities, made a cohesive
civilization and developed traders,
manufacturers, and men fitted for
commercial control Of the country.
They were methodical, painstahng
and exact in all business calculations.
They devoted much time to historical
investigations, and 80 we find, that,
not only the statistics regarding their
affairs were accurately kept, but
everything pertaining to their history
recorded.
The South produced great orators
and great political statesmen whose
writings have come down, in the
political history Of our country, ex-
celled by no other section.
The Jamestown Colony thought
little of the value Of statistics. They
were big-hearted, open-handed, free
livers, given to hospitality, and often
liven far beyond their means. The
care of their slaves was always q
very heavy expense. The institution
of slavery brought on an immunity
from drudgery and gave leisure, for
the cultivation of the find and man
ners. It made gentlemen and gen.
tlewomen. There was little attempt
at granduer or display-a beautiful
simplicity was the charm of the life
Of the old South. There was no
need to study ethics, it was inborn
in white and black.
The Plymouth Colony also produc-
ed gentlemen and gentlewomen,
but they were of a different type.
While at heart they may have been
just as true, they lacked the social
graces, and charming manners that
the civilization of the Old South pro-
duced.
This difference came out very
strikingly, when Thomas Jefferson
and John Adams were at the same
time, representatives from the Unit