The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-06-14

Cavalier were lost in the storm of the
first revolution and the American cit
izen, supplanting both and stronger
than either, took possession of the re-
public bought by their common blood
and fashioned to wisdom and charg-
ed himself with teaching men gov
ernment and establishing the voice
of the people as the voice of God.
Mr.. friends, DR.. Talmadge has told
you that the typical American has
ct to come. Let me tell you that he
has already come. Great types, like
valuable plants, are slow to flower and
fruit. But from the union Of these
colonists, Puritans and Cavaliers,
from the Strengthening of their pur-
poses and the crossing of their blood,
slow perfecting through a century,
came he who stands as the first typl-
cal American, the first who compre-
hended within himself all the strength
and gentleness, all the the majesty
and grace of this republic-Abraham
Lincoln. He was the sum of Puritan
and Cavalier, for in his ardent ma
ture were fused the virtues Of both
and in the depths of his great soul the
faults of both were lost. He was
greater than Puritan, greater than
Cavalier, in that he was American
and that in his honest form were first
gathered the vast and thrilling forces
of his ideal government-charging it
with such tremendous meaning and
elevating it above human suffering
that martyrdom, though infamously
aimed, came as a fitting crown to a
life consecrated from the cradle to
human liberty Let us, each cherish
ing the traditions and honoring his
fathers, build with reverent hands to
the type of this simple but sublime
life, in which all types are honored
and in our common glory as Ameri-
cans there will be plenty and to spare
for your forefathers and for mine.
DR.. Talmadge has drawn for W.
with a masters hand, the picture of
your returning armies. He has told
you how in the pomp and circumstan-
ces of war, they came back to you,
marching with proud and victorious
tread, reading their glory in a ma
tion's eyes. Will you bear with me
while l tell you of another army that
sought it's home at the close of the
late war-an army that marched
home in defeat and not in victory
in pathos and not in splendor, but in
glory that equalled yours and to
hearts as loving as ever welcomed he
roes home. Let me picture to you
the footsore Confederate soldier, as
buttoning up in his faded gray the
parole which was to bear testimony to
his children of his fidelity and faith,
he turned his face southwark from
Appamattox in April, 1865. Think
Of him as ragged, half-starved, heavy
hearted, enfeebled by want and
wounds, having fought to exhaustion,
he surrenders his gun, wrings the
hands of his comrades in silence and
lifting his tear-stained and pallld
face for the last time to the grases
that dot old Virginia hills, pulls his
gray cap over his brow and begins the
slow and painful journey. What does
he find-let me ask you who went to
YOUR homes eager to find, in the well
come you had justly earned, full pay
ment for four years sacrifice-what
does he find when having followed
the battle-stained cross against over
whelming odds, dreading death not
half so much as surrender, ne reaches
the home he left so prosperous and
beautiful? He finds his house IN
ruins, his farm devastated, his
slaves free, his stock killed, his barns
empty, his trade destroyed, his money
worthless, his social system, ieucal
in it's insigniicance, swep3 away; his
people without law or legal status;
his comrades slain and the burdens
of others heavy on his shoulders.
Crushed by '!esea:. hi, very traditions
are gone. Without money, credit
employment, material or training;
and beside all this confronted with
the gravest problem that ever met hu-
man intelligence-tae establishment
of status for the vast body OF his
liberated slaZes.
What does he d.. this nero N gray
with a heart of gold? Does he sit
down in su1lenness and despair! Not
for day. Surely God, who had strip
ped him of his prosperity, inspired
him in his adversely. His ruin was