Book .G^_7._ J. M. GREENE. Prose and Verse. BY REV. J. M. GREENE. A.M. ATLANTA, GA. The Franklin Prtg. and Pub. Co. 1 901. COPYRIGHTKD. 'or |)qbicnliom TO MRS. MARY S. COLQUITT GREENE, aHY LOVING WIFIC AND PArTUKPL UELPMICI-: T THROUGH Ahh THE YEARS OP A LONG WEJ)I)EI) LIFE, AND TO WHOSE LITERARY APPRECIATION AND JOINT LABOR IT OWES ITS EXISTENCE, THIS HOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. THE AUTHOR MRS. J. M. GREENE. PREFACE. In the Feast of the Boughs which the ancient Athenians annually observed as having been instituted by their king Theseus in celebration of his vows to Apollo for his safe re- turn from his expedition against the Cretans, they carried in the sacred procession a branch bound with wool, which was laden with all good fruits, and called Eurosyne. As they marched, they sang the strain : The golden ear, the ambrosial hive, In fair Eurosyne thrive. See the juicy figs appear! Olives crown the wealthy j-ear! See the cluster-bending vine! See, drink, and drop supine! The author trusts that this volume of Prose and Verse, which he offers to the public, like that ancient sacred sym- bol, may be laden with the riches of language, thoughts, fan- cies, sentiments and fruits of knowledge, as gathered from the field of literature, that will afford to its readers an intel- lectual feast that will regale the taste and delight the mind. He indulges the hope that it will bring pleasure to the reader of classic taste, inspire the young minds of the South with love of their own fair land, and awaken in them a noble ambition for honor and virtue, and to be worthy of their ancestral renown and rich heritage of the South. In the selection of the writers, orators and statesmen for the notice of the pen, from the roll of the eminent sons and daughters of the South, strict chronological order has not been observed, but they were chosen as familiar knowledge, fancy, personal admiration or friendship might dictate. Nor has minute biographical details been followed- such as when and where they were born, when died, and all the turns of fortune with them. They lived in thoughts and deeds of the mind, and their lives are not to be measured by the fig- VI Preface. ures set on the dial-plate of time in the dates of birth and death, but in the immortal instruction and inspiration they gave to mankind. The authors, orators and statesmen, the subjects of es- say, are but few in number as compared with the shining throng that by their genius, eloquence and wisdom adorned the annals of the South in literature, oratory and states- manship during the past century. Among those who shine in glorious beauty in the literary firmament of the South as bards of song, may be mentioned George D. Prentice, Ed- gar A. Poe, Paul Hayne, Henry Timrod, Father Ryan, Sid- ney Lanier, Eugene Field and John Esten Cooke. And not only these, but many others of melodious strain with a score or more of female writers of prose and verse, and a long- list of orators of dulcet tongue and statesmen of brilliant talent. The Essays may be considered eulogies rather than sketches of life and character and reviews of the technical critic in literature, and not to have- added anything to the greatness and glory of their sul^jects. Let this be so. The author rejoices that it has been his task to bring forward to notice some whose lives and writings have been un- chronicled, to reinsculp the names of others on the tablet of time, and with loving hand to lay a fresh garland of honor upon their cenotaphs in the field of letters and to hold up all to the cherished remembrance due them from the South. The Author. CONTENTS. THE SOUTH: ITS POLITICAL, LITERARY AND THEOLOG- ICAL WRITERS, ORATORS AND STATESMEN. Page Southern Literature — Introduction ] Thomas Jefferson 12 James Madison i:s Jam^^s Monroe 3-i George Washington 87 Patricia Henry 3s George Y. Ma^on .' 39 William Henry Wirt 4U John C. Calhoun 41 Henry Clay 47 Robert H. Toombs 55 Alexander H. Stephens (il Benjamin Harvey Hill 70 Walter T. Colquitt 70 William L. Yancey 7S Henry W. Hilliard 82 Augustus B. Longstreet SO George F. Pierce 97 Alexander Means 102 Alexander B. Meek lO^ Daniel A. Chandler 108 Henry R. Jackson 110 Weems, or " Peter Horry " ]]2 William (iilniore Simms iKi Thomas M. Norwood llii Miss Penina ]\Ioise 138 Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz 140 Mrs. Amelia P.. Welby • 142 ]\Irs. Augusta J. Wilson . 144 -Mrs. Loula Kendall Rogers 153 jMndiime Le Vert 1G4 VIII Contexts. ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES. Pape My First Schoolmaster and Early School Days 1G9 Tlie Prophet of the Confederacy 189 Sketches of Texas L.G A Historical Etchinj^ — Tlie Hero of San Jacinto 206 General P. G. T. Beauregard 2:J0 Texas Talent ^ 236, Poetry, etc 230 Young ^Fen r.s\ Old Men 240 Pulpit Oratory— No. 1 244 Pulpit Oratory— No. 2 246 Pulpit Oratory— No. 3 248 Pulpit Oratory— No. 4 2oi Pulpit Oratory — No. 5 254 Pulpit Oratory— No. 6 2r,f) Literary Criticism from Perseus Flaccus— Satire 1 2()(1 Literary Criticism from Juvenal — Satire L . 263 Poetical Contributions 2(i7 Obituaries 271 Character-Building 27o The South 282 Reminiscences of the War 291 " Praying for All that are in Aulliority " 311 VERSE. Introduction — Literary Criticism from Horace— "A rs Poetica " 217 Why Should I Write? Part I —Inquiry 322 Why Sliould I Write? Part IL— Answer 323 " Look not iNIournfully into the Past " 324 What Flowers Sliould Decorate the Grave of the Christian. . . . 325 Lines of Condolence to F. i\L R. on the Deatii of His Beloved Companion 320 Sonnets to Shakespeare 327 Visions of Sleep 327 Thanatokallia. Our Evie 329 Christmas Day. An Ode 331 .\n Elegy in Memory of Willie Oliver, Henry Smith, Oscar Tayhu- and Charlie Wood 332 Lines Written in an Album 333 Contents. ix Vane The Dead Canary 333 K|ii(lialainiiini. To Mrs. Marj' Groenc AV'ilson ;;34 Address of St. Valentine to the Yoiin^ Men of Linden 335 I Tliinic of Thee. The Soldier to liis Wife. (Sentiment) 33(; I Think of Tliee. A Soldier to his Wife. (Fact) 337 1 The Tramp 3(52 The Youth. An Ode. (From the German of Kh)pstock) 303 The Two Muses. An Ode. (From the (ierman of Klopstock) . . 3()3 EARLY rOKMS. Address of May-Day Queen 365 The Address of Fh)ra of a May-Day Celebration 3(5G Lines to One AVho Said : " There is no Love Save in Home Af- fections " 3(37 An Acrostic 3t8 A Valentine to Miss Mary S. Colquitt (My Betrothed) 368 A Poetical Epistle to Mrs. J. M. Greene, nee Colquitt 3(5!) The Birchen Scepter ; or Pedagogue Rule 371 A Retrospect of Life 382 The South: Its Political^ Literary and Theological Writers^ Orators and Statesmen* SOUTHERN LITERATURE. INTRODUCTION. Has the south a literature of its own? This question is "well propounded in view of an article from the pen of Don Tiatt, the noted litterateur of Washington City, in which he •^neeringly remarks, in a comment upon Southern books, that "one village of New England produces more books than -all the Southern States together." It must candidly be admitted that the productions of Southern intellect are few and small. Why is this the case? may be inquired. This is an anomalous feature of the South as a political or national section. It possesses all the other elements of moral and intellectual greatness. It can not be that this deficiency in the realm of letters attributed to it, arises from want of intellectual endowments, esthetic taste or literary culture. It has produced minds during the past century which by their matchless eloquence in the forum and in the halls of Congress, by their statesmanship in the national cabinet, and in the administration of the affairs of government, have encircled the name of the South with a halo of intellectual glory. To confirm. this statement needs only to mention the names of Hayne, Crawford, McDuilfie, Forsyth, Preston, Berrien, Clay, Calhoun, and of many •others who by their brilliant talents, not only shed lustre Tipon, but shaped the political destiny of the republic. Nor can this poverty of the South in the production of books arise from lack of those resources necessary to form a literature. The beauties of scenery which it presents throughout its broad domain are as fair as those sung by old Greek Theocritus on oaten stop to the shepherds of Sicilian plains, or by Virgil in bucolic verse to the polished -ear of the Roman Caesar. Its historic past is filled with 2 Southern Literature. examples of patriotic virtue and deeds of heroic valor as glorious as those which have rendered those nations of clas- sic antiquity, Greece and Rome, the illustrious models of national glory to all ages and climes. In the wide field thus opened, the poet can find themes worthy of every strain of song from the lofty numbers of the Epic Muse to the melting accents of the lyre. Here, too, may the historian gather ample materials for the glowing narrative or for the profound utterances of philosophical history. To show the -causes that have led to the sparsity of the contributions of Southern mind to the literature of the age and to consider and determine its true literary status and merits of Southern authors, will be the design of future essays. A full and thorough investigation of the causes which have restricted the growth and production of Southern Literature is a task that requires more labor and research than can be given to it in a fugitive essay. They are well worthy of the philosophic inquiry of the future historian,, who faithfully and justly interpreting them, may vindicate the South from the imputation of illiteracy and establish its claim as an enlightened political section, though un- crowned with the laurels of literary distinction in the field of authorship. Don Piatt, the Washington City critic, in the article to which allusion has been made, states, as it were "ex cathe- dra," what he deems to have been the radical causes of the reputed inferiority of. the Southern States in the art of mak- ing books. He assigns as one of these causes, the former existence of the institution of slavery. That late peculiar feature of Southern society has been to the North, for a century past? the constant source of sectional spleen, and the prolific topic of political vituperation of the South. It has looked upon slavery as a social atrocity, and re- garded it with that obliquity of moral vision that canceled all the virtues of Southern character. So diabolical was the crime thus committed by the South considered, there was not rain enough "in all the sweet heaven to wash out" its stains. So deep-rooted the prejudice it engendered, that the Introduction. 3 fearful civil war that extirpated the institution, has not plucked the memory of it from the Northern mind, nor the sufferings entailed upon the Southern people by that war, condoned for the guilt of their ancestors in cherishing slav- ery. Though it might have afforded grounds for the polit- ical proscription of the South, but that its influence was such as to produce moral and intellectual disciualification (for the cultivation of literature, can not be readily con- ceived. This notion is unsustained by theory or fact. If considered in its physical effects, it will be conceded by every enlightened mind as an axiomatic truth, that through slave labor, the Southern people, being relieved from the drudgery of manual employments, would have leisure to devote their attention to intellectual pursuits. That in its moral effects slavery has had the tendency to restrain and impair the intellectual energies and pursuits of a people, receives no practical demonstration in the his- tory of those nations in the past where it existed. Nor was such its result in the Southern States. Let Southern civilization be compared with that of any nation of ancient or modern times. None exhibits a higher stand- ard in respect to the general intelligence, enlightened senti- ment, and religious culture of the people. It furnished to the world as noble examples of patriotic virtue and political wisdom as adorn the annals of Greece or Rome. Mediae- val age with its belted knighthood produced no brighter specimens of chivalry, courtesy, and honor. Nor England with its starred and coroneted nobility and its famed middle class presented no higher degree of intelligence and Chris- tian culture than was exhibited by the yeomanry and the landed proprietors of Southern society. He, whose boyish recollections extend to those days, recalls with feelings of veneration the men of that period, as they loom up before the mind in all the grandeur of moral worth and pure sim- plicity of early republican manners. The only adverse in- fluence that slavery could have wrought upon literary pur- suit at the South was, that by its easy production of wealth it took away that necessity which would prompt to the cul- tivation of literature as a means of livelihood. 4 Southern Literature. In connection with the influence of slavery, the enervation of the cUmate is likewise assigned as a cause of the sparse contributions of the South to the literature of the age. The investigation of this charge should be a matter of interest to those Southern minds tliat feel deeply concerned for the fair fame of the "Sunny South," and desire every imputa- tion repelled that would unjustly tarnish its escutcheon. To this task the present article will be devoted, and though the labor performed may not meet with that responsive sym- pathy and regard which its importance deserves, yet it will be a work of love. That climate exerts an influence upon the development of the physical and intellectual characteristics of the human race, is an opinion currently received. But that it is at- tended by all the physiological differences, so strikingly ex- hibited in color and feature which were attributed to it by early geographers, is a subject of scientific inquiry. That its effect is such as to create marked contrasts in the nor- mal character of the human mind, can not be fully predicated of it. It is demonstrated in the case of the Hindoo race, occupying the great peninsula of Southern Asia. Though they have not the intellectual endurance of the inhabitants of colder climates, yet they are represented as making great proficiency in books, and the remains of their ancient liter- ature in the Sanscrit will compare favorably with those of other nations of antiquity. This is an isolated example, but a representative one that fairly illustrates the principle at issue, as there is no country upon the globe whose climate can be considered more unfavorable to the healthy and vigorous development of the physical and intellectual pow- ers of man. The Southern States, geographically considered, lie within the limits of that zone, which being exempt from the ex- tremes of heat and cold, has been considered as possessing a climate the most desirable for the residence of man and the most auspicious for the maturing of all his powers. Within this belt of the earth's surface was the cradle of the human race, and along it spread that civilization which in its west- ward march, produced for the world the noblest triumphs of Introduction. 5 art and achieved for mankind the most important discoveries of science. The near approach of the Southern States to the tropics, being counterpoised by the breezes of the Gulf of Mexico, and in extension northward by the waters of that "summer sea," the gulf stream, that flows along their line of Atlantic coast, intersected by numerous rivers, and di- versified by the verdure-crowned ranges of the Alleghany mountains, they have, on account of these peculiar features, a variety of climate, and one unsurpassed by that of Italian skies or the sunlit realms of Greece. The only effect that climate could have had upon the literary pursuits of the South, was that its geniality, combined with a productive soil and a vast extent of territory, turned the intellectual energies of the people to the development of their material resources. They devoted their intellectual efforts to agri- cultural pursuits, choosing from their broad cotton fields and their rice plantations to produce the staples and the -food that would clothe and feed the world, as a means of opulence, than to weave the airy fabrics of the brain and purvey mental stores for the literary market. They pre- ferred- the active arena of political life to the ease and re- tirement of the studio. They chose rather by living elo- quence, "the applause of listening senates to command," than in poetic numbers to indite their thoughts, and from the voiceless folds of the press to spread them as sybilline leaves for the instruction and admiration of mankind. It is not to be supposed that the people of the South, in the meantime paid no attention to education. They estab- lished schools to meet their wants, and erected colleges as towers of light to illuminate the land. With all these ad- vantages it became to them " A country of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven over all the world besides." A retrospect of the progress and development of the Southern States during the past century will unfold the true causes that operated against their taking a high posi- tion in the production of literature. At the close of the American struggle for independence, the population of the South was small and widelv scattered along the line of the 6 Southern Literature. Atlantic seaboard. Before them westward stretched a large territory that was almost an unbroken wilderness. Separated from the old world by a broad ocean, and their domestic resources being greatly impoverished by the long war that had just closed, they had but few of the arts of civilization. To subdue the wilderness, and from the soil to create the products necessary to supply the material wants of life was the task that would first necessarily engage their efforts. Because they had sprung into political existence, and at once attained a republican form of government and entered upon a national career with a rapidity unparalleled in the history of nations, it is erroneous to presume that they would, in like manner, develop and possess all the other institutions of an old established State. Many of these are the slow products of years, and especially the arts and sciences. That little State of Greece which has been so famous throughout all time as the favored abode of let- ters, did not at once produce that literature which is still to the world the chosen criterion of grace, beauty and sub- limity. It ^yas four centuries from the time that the Hel- lenes conquered the autochthons, the natives of the soil, be- fore Homer, the blind old bard of Scio's rocky isle, wander- ing through the cities of Greece, sung for bread those sub- lime strains of song handed down to future ages in the im- mortal Iliad. This was the spring-time of Greek literature. It was a long-like period of time before it expanded into that rich summer of learning whose immortal bloom and exquisite luxuriance well nught favor the idea that the minds which wrought it received inspiration from the Muses that were fabled to dwell on the tlowery summits of Mount Helicon. Roman Literature was likewise a many-ceiUury-blooniing plant. Though grafted on the learning of Greece as its parent stock, yet many cycles of time elapsed before it flow- ered and gave to the world the stately epics of \'irgil. the glowing lyrics of Horace, and the polished periods of Cicero. The literature of Kngland, which with Nile-like munificence waters and fructifies the realms of mind throusrhout the Introduction. 7 T^ng-lish-speaking countries of the globe, was slowly and gradually augmented to its present grand volume. Begin- ning in Chaucer as its fountain-head and trickling forth as a •rivulet, and constantly receiving tributaries in the produc- tions of gifted minds of each succeeding generation, it has broadened and strengthened as it rolled with the lapse of ages, into that magnificent stream that bears within its bosom "the solidest treasure of learning and the noblest har- vests of poesy." There are certain laws that govern the productions of the "human intellect, and they can be superseded by no artificial processes. This applies in the case of either individuals or nations. In this wonderful age of scientific progress and difl:'usion of knowledge, artificial aids have been tried in the various theories and systems of education that have prevailed. The hot-house experiments have failed, and it is still found that there is no royal road to learning, and lie who would climb its rugged heights and drink of the Pierian fount upon the summit must endure the toil of the ascent. In the early days of the republic, an English reviewer, in •commenting upon American literature, said that "Litera- ture was one of those finer manufactures which a new •country will find it better to import than to raise." "Native literature," says the Reviewer, "the Americans have none. ■Jt is all imported. And why should they write books, when a six weeks' passage brings them in their own tongue, •our sense, science and genius in bales and hogsheads." In reply to the criticism thus quoted, a book was written t)y l^obert Walsh, Esq., in 1819, titled "Strictures upon the Calumnies of British Writers," in which this uncharitable and illiberal spirit was denounced, and it is the same that is now practiced by the North toward the South. Besides the disadvantage which the South experienced as Ijeing a new country in the production of a literature of its own, the intellectual activity of the enlightened world was turned into the field of scientific discovery. Then com- ■menced the era of those brilliant achievements of science -which has made the nineteenth centurv the most marvelous 8 Southern Literature. epoch of all time. The discovery of the power of stearrr and its application in the steamboat, railroad and the various- mechanical arts, created that revolution which directed the intellectual energies both of Europe and America into a: new channel. The South participated in this movement, and devoted its attention to productive and mechanical in- dustry. There was no time for indulging in the dreamy abstractions of literary pursuits. There was no leisure for exploring the heights of Parnassus and coquetting with the Muses. The nymphs and Naiads of Greek and Roman mythology, the inspiration and topic of poetic genius, de- serted their sylvan bowers and limpid streams at the ap- proach of the locomotive as it moved through the wilder- ness. The iron horse of science supplanted the winged Pegasus of the poet. The fountains of tratific it opened up were more enticing to mankind than all the waters of Hip- pocrene. Thus we may perceive the true causes that led to res- triction of the cultivation of literature at the South. A review of the literary productions of the South pre- sents an extended field of investigation, and in view of their sparsity and the indifferent state in which they are preserved, it may be considered a task of barren and diffi- cult toil. It can not boast of those massive volumes of history which invite the student to tread the dim aisles of the past, and survey as in living panorama the men and things of other times. There are no multitudinous works of fiction to charm with their ideal and delusive scenes of "many colored life" or beguile with their gorgeous dreams of romance. There is no epic poem to delight with its sub- lime thought and majestic sweep of verse, and stand in^ solitary grandeur amidst the flow of centuries as the en- during monument of national genius and glory. The list of Southern authors is small. But few if any of them, in the past, claimed to be professional writers, or sought distinction in the sphere of authorship. They wrote only as leisure might permit, or fancy or inclination might prompt. Their coiUrihutions were mainly to the journals and periodicals of their day. They poured forth their Introduction. 9 thoughts with that careless procHgality with which, in their own clime, spring scatters its floral wealth, or summer its fruits ; and published in the manner they were, they often perished with the occasion that gave them birth. Those who were enamored with poetry piped in every note of the muse, and in the exulting fullness of song with which that winged child of Euterpe, the mocking-bird, pours forth its varied melody. There is no profusion of Southern books. But what they lack in quantity they supply in quality. They are thickly- sown with thoughts and sentiments which resemble "those fruits and flowers which the Virgin Martyr of Massinger sent down from Paradise to earth, distinguished from the productions of other soils not only by their superior bloom and sweetness, but by their miraculous efficacy to invigorate and to heal." There are a few productions of Southern minds, which judged according to the established standard of literary excellence, exhibit that grace, beauty, and wit^ which should entitle their authors to the shamrock of im- mortality. Could all the writings that have emanated from Southern pens be evoked from their hiding places, where they lie entombed in periodicals, journals, and pamphlets,. or in some antiquated volume in the obscure corners of pri- vate libraries or of booksellers' stalls, they would, if col- lected and properly arranged, form a literary Parthenon^ which, if not grand in its proportions, yet would be peer- less in its classic grace and beauty. To the task above men- tioned the cultivated intellect of the Southern States should earnestly and assiduously devote itself. It is worthy of its. noblest efforts to rescue from oblivion and preserve in dura- ble form the works of its posthumous writers, which are gradually, and "by piecemeal falling into the maw of time.'^ It is a tribute of honor due from the South to its children of genius. It will but add to its fame. A national litera- ture is the moral Nile upon which the popular mind depends for its nourishment and fertility. The Southern people should no longer submit to be held in that degrading vassal- age which makes them dependent upon the educated mind of the North for theii: supplies of books, as they do upon its lo Southern Literature. skillful thrift for its manufactured goods. As forming one nationalitv, relations of peace and friendship should he cher- ished and sustained hetween the two sections and the bonds of brotherhood be firmly knit, but "Timeo Grjecos et dona ferentes," should be the cautious spirit of the Southern heart, in view of the past. In a book of oratory designed for schools and sold in the South, the following insidious extract from a speech by a Northern writer upon the "Tri- umph of the Union Cause " appears: "The flag of the Union waves in triumph over the rebel Capitol, and Davis and Lee and tlieir guilty compeers, with l)rand of treason on their brows, are seeking for a hiding place, and can find none on American soil." What Southern parent wants his children to imbibe such sentiments in regard to the "lost cause." ITS POLITIC.VL WRITERS. The South has produced some distinguished political writers. A consideration of their writings may legitimately be included in the scope of sketches of Southern literature. The intellectual taste and genius of the Southern people have been eminently political and have been largely directed to the investigation and discussion of the great principles of popular self-government from their incipiency to their present grand develoi)ment in the Constitution of the republic. The treatises that have emanated from Soutiiern writers upon these subjects are worthy of the profoundest regard. They are not ideal speculations of government, which, as in tl goUlen tlreams of Plato of his haj^py repub- lic, portray a perfection of politics and laws which would remove all evils and secure universal happiness to mankind, but "baseless as the fabric of a vision." They present the exposition of these political immunities, the freedom of oj)inion and the right of suffrage, which by giving indi- viduality and making each citizen a constituent element of the body politic, has wrought for the American people the largest blessings of civil liberty. They are the land- marks by wliich the political policy and movements of the country have been guitled, and by which it has reached its Introduction. ii present proportions of unrivaled s^reatness and t;:lory. Sueh is the cliaractcr and merit of the j)olitieal writers of the South. They arc well worthy to be ranked in that line of illustrious statesmen of past aj^es, who by their wisdom laid broad and enduring the foundations of States, and with them should occupy a noble pedestal in the world's great Pantheon of immortality. The ])rinciples which produced the American l\cvoluti(-)n and the brilliant success that attended that struggle, con- stituted a new era in the political history of the civilized world. To appreciate the ideas of the political leaders of the contest it is necessary to survey the civil governments of Europe, the great centre of human civilization, for many preceding centuries. The idea of a government for the peo])lc and by the people was obsolete. The last example of purely democratic government worthy of note was that of the ancient republic of Rome. l^Vom the twelfth to the fourteenth century there had llourishcfl the petty repul)lics of ject of the compact it might be inferred as reserved. "The pound of flesh" might be claimed in that political bond but there was no mention of "a jot of blood." The revolt of Texas from the Republic of Mexico, and the aid and encour- •agement it received in establishing its independence from the people but not the government of the United States, in- cidentally illustrated the popular sentiment upon the ques- tion of the secession of a State from a Federal compact. 20 Southern Literature. The Southern States tried the experiment in 1861. After a fearful civil war of four years they were subdued and co- erced back into the Union. This has practically settled for a time the question of secession. The principle still exists in the minds of men. It rose invincible from the crimson tide of war, and still shakes "its gory locks," and will not down at the bidding of any victorious party. The bonds of Union which bind the States can not be pcacably untied, but like the Gordian knot must be severed by the sword. It may be well to cherish the doctrine of State sovereignty as a safeguard of civil liberty, but the State or States should pause before they try the experiment of secession. It is a revolutionar\' measure that will require the arbitrament of the sword. As long as there lingers in the minds of men the recollection of the sutTt'erings of the South during the late war; its flower and chivalry slain upon the field of bat- tle, its products of industry swept away, its towns and cities despoiled and its peaceful homes burned, its widows' tears and its orphans' cries, its final subjugation and subsequent political humiliation, no State or States will be prone to re- peat the experiment of secession. Freedom of speech is a vital element and an essential safeguard of a republican form of government. The his- tory of the past demonstrates this fact. The Bema of an- cient Athens was the bulwark of liberty in the little repub- lic of Attica. It was from its summit the affairs of the government were presented and discussed in public assem- blies of the people, the designs of demagogues and traitors were exposed, and measures of safety adopted. It was from thence, that Demosthenes poured forth those burning Phi- lippics which "fulmined over Greece." shook the throne of the tyrant of IMacedon and thwarted his ambitious schemes for the .subjugation of the Grecian States. The Tribune or the forum was the citadel of popular liberty to ancient Rome, and for three hundred years preserved it as a repub- lic from the despotism of patrician rule and military chief- tains. The first cfifort of the foreign or domestic tyrant in his designs to overthrow the liberties of the people, has al- Thomas Jkfferson. 21 -ways been to suppress the freedom of speech. Bonaparte resorted to this trick of policy when upon "the rums of the throne and the tribune," he formed of hberty-seekmg France an empire. His example in this respect was fol- lowed by Louis Napoleon, who in more modern times bold- ly projected and successfully consummated the same enter- prise. . , The revolutionary struggle occasioned the exercise, antl obtained for the people ol" the United States the ])rivilege of "freedom of speech." The modern invention of the printing press opened for it a wider sphere of operation than presented in the viva voce of the popular assemblies of those ancient republics, Greece and Rome. The ubiquity imparted to it by this medium of communication largely in- creased its potency and restricted its mobocratic tendency. In regard to the freedom of speech or of the press, Jefiferson was a most zealous advocate. He urged that it_ should be secured by an express provision in the Constitution, and to that purpose persistently directed his efforts until it was accomplished, by an amendment to the Constitution passed bv the first Congress (1789). 'He considered it so vitally important to the security of che institutions of a free government, that he would not ad- mit of the propriety of the press being "muzzled." Al- though he was often the subject of its falsehood and vitu- peration during his political career, yet he was so deeply convinced of its utility in the preservation of the popular liberty, that he would not consent to its coming under the censorship of the law, where public measures and the acts of public men were concerned. The censorship of enlight- ened public opinion would neutralize and correct the abuses of a perverted license. The political trainiiig which it would impart, would qualify the people to judge rightly and justly of the truth of its statements. The history of the press for the past century justifies the wisdom of Jefferson concerning its freedom. It has been the great political educator of the people, and in an eminent degree qualified them for the critical experiment of :self-govcrnment. Sending out daily and weekly through 22 Southern Literature. the columns of the ubiquitous newspaper the discussion of all political topics by the enlightened wisdom of the land, it instructs and prepares the masses for the high duties of citizenship in a government, where each individual in proportion to his voice and vote exerts his influence in shaping all public measures. Every American child is a born politician. The influence of the press has been largely conducive to the tranquillity of the government. It has aflforded vent to the volcanic fires of party spirit that threatened disrup- tion of the rcpul)]ic, guiding to the bloodless contests of the ballot-box with the pen. instead of marshaling antago- nistic forces to the clash of arms. However in full record of the press it has been said, That with the bitter, burninjj speech of the tongue Intlanied the Soiitli with maddened sense of wrong, And urged the North with conscious might of force To press to blood>heti its fanatic course; And between those wrougiu internecine strife, Wlio from same dug drew Freedom's breath of life. And same cliiidhood of a ghirioiis past, Its golden link> of Union strong had cast. The press has become more wary and discreet, and the public mind does not always blindly receive the utterances from the editorial tripod as oracular. It now stretches out its Briarean arms over the whole land, and no human agency of civilization can compare with it in its power to do good or evil. As an expositor of political issues it should teach the people with the moderation of wisdom, and standing as sentinel upon the watch-tower guard with sleepless vigi- lance the citadel of liberty. As a fountain of instruction it should send out streams of pure and useful knowledge, that will truly inform and elevate the popular mind. As a censor of manners, it can encourage to the cultivation of virtue and deter fiom the practice of vice. This is its high mission. May it perform it well. The question of religious faith and divine worship has ever been one of intense interest to the human mind. What- ever religion may be embraced, and whether true or false, it takes strong hold of man's pathematic nature, and exerts an Thomas Jefferson. 2;^ influence which can awaken his mind to highest transports of enthusiasm or excite to wildest bursts of frenzy. In no other reahn of opinion does the spirit of bigotry exercise a more self-exacting and imperious sway or prompt the hand so readily to grasp the warlike weapon for the purpose of defense or domination. No nation has ever existed which did not possess and cherish some form of religion. Although the nature of re- ligion is such that it involves man's relations only as an in- dividual, and that solely to the Supreme Being, yet at an early period of antiquity, the religious creed and the rites of worship of nations entered largely into their political life and formed their national customs. Becoming thus in- separably interwoven, in many pagan nations the control and supervision of religion was made the business of the State. In ancient Greece it came under the jurisdiction of the court of Areopagus, ^^schylus, the celebrated tragic poet, was tried by this court upon the accusation of impiety, and would have been condemned and "stoned to death by the Athenians," had not his brother, Aminias held up his mutilated hand hewn by a Persian scimetar at Marathon, as a mute but eloquent appeal to the tribunal for clemency. The Roman republic created a college of Pontiffs to super- intend the worship of the national "gods" and to punish all acts of sacrilege. It might be supposed that the Christian religion in view of the character of its peculiar doctrines, upon its advent into the world, would inaugurate a new state of things. Its Divine Author announced that his kingdom was not of this world. He declared the true worship of God to be entirely spiritual, and required no outward pomp or ceremony. Its principle was love, and its object was peace. He invested conscience with an inviolable sanctity of right, and as the living oracle of God within the soul, in all matters of per- sonal religion, its voice was superior in authority to the edicts of kings or the arbitrary decrees of hierarchical coun- cils. It might be presumed that his followers would em- brace and be guided by the principles which he so clearly enunciated. The history of Christianity shows divergencies 24 SOUTIII'.RX LiTKRATURE. from tlic teachings of its Divine founder. When it grew itr power and became the religion of the Roman empire, it assumed the prerogative of requiring conformity to those articles of faith and that style of worship which it might dictate, and of punishing all recusants. The history of all religions shows the spirit of intoler- ance. It existed lietween Jew and Gentile, as truth and error are always antagonistic. Pagan Rome was tolerant of the religions of the nations it conquered by its arms, and established a Pantheon at the seat of empire for the en- rollment and worship of all divinities, but it issued imperial rescripts for the extinction of Christianity. Mohammedan- ism waged a war of extermination against all other creeds. "The Koran or the sword" was the battle-cry of the fierce warriors of Yemen that gathered under the green standard of the Prophet of Mecca for the propagation of Islamism. Oh! this spirit of religious intolerance! No plague more fell or destructive to human happiness has ever escaped from the Stygian stream. Even heaven-born Christianity with its proclamation of peace on earth and good-will to man, has not been exempt from its devastating work. En- genderetl in corruption and sin in the bosom of tlio Romish church, this spirit leaped forth, armed with the implements of torture and death, and rioted in the blood of thousands of innocent victims. The crusades for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre from Moslem power, the dungeons of the inquisition, the martyr fires of Sniitbfield. the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the wars of contending religious ^ects which made a battlefield of Europe for many years, all attest the fearful woes which the spirit of sectarian bigotry has wrought for mankind. The discovery of America- opened an asylum for the op- pressed, 'iliither fled thousands to escape the luerarchical despotism of the old world and to have liberty of conscience. The Puritans and Quakers from luigland, the Huguenots from l*"rance, and the Roman Catholics under Lord Palti- more. seeking religious freedom, sought the wilds of Amer- ica and laid the colonization of the New World. But the spirit of intolerance even here was not banished from the Thomas Jkkkkrson, 25 ranks of C'liristiaiiity. The Puritans commenced the per- secution of the Quakers and i^>aptists. This gave rise to that divinely inspired thought of reHgious toleration in the mind of Roger Williams, the leader of the Baptist refugees from I'm'itan tyranny. Thus from the lips of this humhle man emanated a truth which embodied a political principle, that either had escaped the attention of rulers, statesmen, and legislative bodies or had been ignored by them in the blind infatuation of power. The recognition of this trutli by the Christian world would have precluded much pain, suffering and bloodshed to the human race. In laying the foundations of a national government the question of religion, from its importance, would necessarily ])resent itself to the consideration of the convention that framed the constitution of the United States. As religious toleration had been practically recognized and asserted in the different colonies, that body left the question untouched. The attitude of Jeft'erson upon the subject was clearly de- fined in liis epistolary correspondence. He strenuously urged that the ])rinciple of religious freedom should be incorporated in the Constitution and be securely guarded by an express provision, nor did he relax his efforts until it was done by an amendment to the constitution, passed the first Congress in 1789. He said that he "contemplated with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting the estal)lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a walll)etween Church and State. The common right of freedom of conscience was a col- unm of strength in the Constitution, and was a crowning grace to it as the peerless model of a republican form of government. The United States was the first in time, if Tiot the only nation in whose organic law it was embodied as a fundamental feature of its polity. The pen may scarcely enumerate the inestimable blessings of which it has been the prolific source. It has been a heal- ing remedy for those strifes engendered by differences of religious tenets, which "in times past" had convulsed king- 20 Southern Literature. doms and polluted the peaceful altars of Christianity with the bloody rites of Moloch. There has been no resounding shock in arms of Protestants and Baptists on battle plain, or hounding of covenanters among mountain fastnesses to disturb the tran(|uillity of the government. Each denomi- nation of Christians has exercised the privilege of worship- ing God according to the dictates of their conscience "under their own vine and fig-tree" and none have dared "to molest or make afraid." Armed in panoply divine and marshalled under the same celestial labarum, all sects of Christians have constituted one grand sacramental host which has advanced on its line of march with the good of man and the glory of God in view. Freed from the shackles of ecclesiastical dogmas, theology has pressed into broader fields of inquiry and has added largely to the com- mon treasury of religious knowletlge. Thus the common right of liberty of conscience guaran- teed under the Constitution to all citizens, has engirdled with the bow of peace the religious life of the nation, and by its harmonizing power upon the religious creeds of men, it has come nearer than at any other epoch of the world's history of bringing into sweet realization the golden age as sung by Virgil in the diviner strain of the Sicilian Muse or the evangelical period as depicted by rapt Isaiah in the glowing words of prophecy. Naught has occurred to mar the harmonious picture presented or to require interference on the part of the government to prevent the infringement or abuse of this privilege guaranteed under the constitution to all citizens, save in the Mormon delusion and atrocity. How greatly favored were the United States in the con- servative character as well as the political sagacity of those minds which composetl the convention which framed the Constitution and laid the foundations of their national gov- ernment upon such a broad and happy basis ! How fortunate was it for the future glory and prosperity of the nation that in that legislative body, the religious fanaticism exhibited by the English Parliament in the days of Cromwell, or the atheistic sentiments of the French Asseml)ly that dethroned religion and decreed the worship of the goddess of Reason, Thomas Jefferson. 37 did not reign and mould its organic structure of govern- ment ! Scarcely had the Constitution been adopted l)y the thir- teen original States, when Jefiferson, surveying the present and forecasting with prescient mind the future, pronounced the government it inaugurated "as the best existing in the world or ever did exist." The experiment of a century has fully verified, if it has not transcended, his most san- guine anticipations in regard to its happy and successful operation. How few of the many millions of beings that have enjoyed the exalted privilege and the superior bless- ings of citizenship which this government bestows have fully comi)rehended and worthily appreciated the labors of that Convention which so successfully devised it. How few reflect and consider that it had no direct prototype in any pre-existing models of the republican forms of goyern- ment, either of ancient or modern times. Simple, grand^ and beautiful in its structure, the temple of freedom, it rose up amid the political fabrics of the world, marvelously springing into existence like the fair isle upheaved from the depths of the sea by the earthquake's throe or the splendid palace of fairy tale at the wave of the magician's wand. In the light of the events of history it may not be super- stitious or unreasonable to indulge the opinion, that the Divine Wisdom which by its fiat evoked earth's globose mass from the formless void and elanced it along its roll- ing way in all the freshness and beauty of its pristine crea- tion, did likewise inspire the minds and guide the delibe- rations of the legislative bodies which directed the strug- gles of the Colonies for independence and which formed "that immortal league of love which bound them in one broad empire. State with State." It is a divine teaching- that God often raises up men for special purposes as he did Cyrus of old, and the "inspiration of the Lord giveth them understanding." What gratitude is due from the American people through all time to the God of heaven and earth, the Giver of all good, that in the distribution of political blessings, he hath made their country the glory of all lands and the joy of all people ! Shall there be no- 28 Southern Literature. recognition of divine favor? Shall there be no gratulation to God by the people in their national capacity and at stated periods in perpetual memorial of his special favor and mercy to them in directing those events which have made them "a great nation"? Shall the Senate of pagan Rome in former times decree an offering of praise throughout all its shrines and temples to Jupiter Stator, the fabled god of their worship, for the preservation of the city and of the re- public from the destruction threatened by the conspiracy of Catiline, and Christian America have no votive tribute of homage to him who is Jehovah, and to them as to the Is- raelites of old, the Lord God, who broke from their necks the yoke of the oppressor? Should his overruling Providence be ignored in national affairs and not even an altar be erected as was raised by the Athenians on Mars' hill with the inscription "To the L^nknown God," lest it might be construed-as a political infringement of the Constitution, in that it would be uniting Church and State? This is the closing sketch in the review of Jefferson as a political writer of the South. The task was undertaken to vindicate the Soutli from the charge of literary pauper- ism, and not with the design to preserve the name of Jef- ferson from oblivion or with the hope to add anything to his illustrious greatness. His own deeds of statesman- ship have immortalized him. His political career was not that of the meteor that shoots athwart the sky and is then lost in darkness ; but that of the luminary which, when no longer visible, leaves a hemisphere radiant with its beams •of light. He has built his own monument of fame in the productions of his pen, and one more enduring than the statue of unmouldering bronze with which Virginia has honored him and placed within the shadow of its capitol, to perpetuate his memory to future ages. JAMES MADISON. It is an apothegm of the distinguished English historian and brilliant essayist Macaulay, that great men do not come singly, but appear in groups upon the world's theater of ac- James Madison. ^9 tion, when those achievements are to be wrought which un- settle or fix the destiny of nations. This was singularly il- lustrated in that epoch of American history characterized by the struggle of the Colonies for liberty and independ- ence, and their erection into a nationality as the United States of America. Grand and heroic were the minds need- ed for the consummation of that event which was to be " the noblest as well as the latest offspring of time," and destined to exert a renovating" and exalting influence upon humanity in all its interests throughout the habitable globe. The human mind is accustomed to magnify the men and things of the past, and as they appear through the dim vista of vanished years, imagination attributes to them the possession of virtues not now to mortals given. '"There were giants in those days," is the record biblical history makes of -the antediluvian age. Old Rome and classic Greece exalted the heroes of their primeval days to demigods. The x^mer- ican people can not too highly exalt the leading spirits who guided the Revolution to a successful issue and wisely laid the foundation of their free institutions. Their moral and intellectual greatness will stand the test when brought to the severest investigation. They were a constellation bright, which the telescope of time has resolved into stars of the first magnitude. The South was largely and nobly represented during the Revolution on the political arena as well as the tented field. It furnished the author that drafted the great charter of colonial rights, the orator whose impassioned eloquence gave impulse to the ball of the Revolution, and the military chief- tain who witb magnetic power held together the weak and scattered forces of the struggling colonies through the te- dious years of the war and by his genius invested them with the might of victory. Among those revolutionary worthies may be enrolled James Madison. He was not a prominenr actor in the first scenes of the stirring drama of the Revo- lution, but came upon the stage of action at the darkest hour of the strife, and as a member of the Continental Con- gress served his country in a legislative capacity. He was a potent master of the pen, and in his hand it became a thing 30 CJOT7THERN l^ITERATURK. "mightier than the sword" wielded in the serried ranks of war. Madison cherished the most advanced and enlightened ideas of political and religious freedom. He, at an early period of life, in a "local contest for religious toleration," distinguished himself as a zealous and active advocate and defender of the freedom of conscience. In 1784, when it was projected in the Assembly of Virginia, of which he was a member, to make "a general assessment for the support of religion," he prepared a memorial and remonstrance against the measure which utterly defeated it. He was a member of the convention that framed the Con- stitution. He first appears prominently as a political writer in a series of articles written in connection with Jay and Hamilton in support of the Constitution and of its adoption by the States. They were published at that time in a New York newspaper, but have since been collected and printed in book-form with the title of "The Federalists." The Constitution was not an exponent of the theory of national government which he favored. But wisely con- sidering the exigencies of the country and the imperative necessity for a more efficient system of government than was embraced in the Articles of Confederation, in the gran- deur of true patriotism he rose above the pride of personal opinion, and labored strenuously for the adoption of the Constitution as the best organization of a union of the States that could be effected under the antagonism of views that existed. The Federalists "remains the most forcible exposition upon the side espoused," and has been ranked with the "most famous political writings of the Old Eng- lish worthies." Nearly a century has elapsed since the adoption of the Constitution. As the repository of the principles which un- derlie the foundation and must ever control in the admin- istration of the government as a Republic it can never be- come obsolete as an old musty record of the past. The profundity of interest which nnist ever invest it, not sim- ply as the bond of political union to the States, but as has been decided by the umpirage of war, the fabric of national JAMES MADISON. j^l government to whose supreme power the States in their sovereign capacity must be subordinate, has been increased instead of being diminished by the lapse of time and the re- sults of its practical operation. The complex character of the Constitution, embodying as it does State and national governments, and the want of accurate delineation of the respective powers of each, has made the construction of its principles and provisions the prolific source of controversy and the origin of the rival political parties that under various appellations have divided the country and have contended at each quadrennial elec- tion for the reins of government. Although it has been made through every period of the past the subject of dis- cussion that immerged even into the strife of the battle- field, yet from the very nature of things the question of its construction will be constantly recurring as exigencies in the future arise. The opinions of the founders of the Republic upon the Constitution should be entitled to the highest regard from posterity. It is to the principles of government as enuncia- ted by them that the American people as a nation must look iDack, as to the Polar star, whereby to direct their political "bark, and as furnishing the criterion alone that will enable them to judge of all aberrations from the right line of origi- nal and uncontaminated republicanism. It is a sad com- ment upon the political character of the times that the Con- stitution, the organic law of the land, is considered as pos- sessed of such elastic properties that it can be so contracted or expanded in its meaning as to suit the purposes of the dom- inant party, like the magic fan of fairy legend which could be folded in the hand or spread out as a tent to shelter an army. The experience and wisdom of past generations should serve as beacon fires to illuminate the present. The boon of constitutional liberty should be sacredly guarded. Eternal vigilance should be exercised by a free people, not only against the insidious arts of ambitious demagogues or the incipient designs of military despots, but against the wild schemes of reform and innovation that may threaten ^change to the fundamental principles of government. ^2 SOUTHKRX LlTKRATUKK. The views of Madison upon the Constitution are worthy of profound consideration. He was a nienilxM- of that nota- ble body that franictl it, and as a statesman distin,c:uished for the conservative character of liis opinions. On account of his advocacy for the' adoption of the Constitution by the States he was styled a Federalist by the party who was op- posed to it. His views in regard to the federal govern- ment were set forth in a letter to Washington, previous to the meeting of the convention. In that letter he proposed "a scheme of thorough centralization." He expressed him- self as ecjually opposed to "the individual independence of the States and to the consolidation of the whole into one simple Republic." He also stated that he was in favor of investing Congrcf^ \^Mth power to exercise "a negative in all cases whatever on the legislative acts of the States, as here- tofore exercised by kingly prerogative." He desired that the right of coercion should be expressly declared, but on account of the difficulties of "forcing the collective will of a State, it was particularly desirable that the necessity of it should be iM-ecluded." From these extreme views Madison afterwards consci- entiously departed. The conflict between the powers of the State and the general government under the operation of the Alien and Sedition Acts enlisted him in defense of the sovereignty of the States. "Opposition to these violent measures having been inetTectual in the federal legislature the Republican leaders determined to resort to the State arenas for the decisive struggle." The letter now known as "the resolutions of 1798-9" was drawn up by James Mad- ison, and adopted by the Assembly of Virginia. The main features of these resolutions were the declaration "to re- sist all attempts to enlarge the authority of the federal compact by forced construction of the general clause of the Constitution and that in the exercise of powers not clearly granted to the general government the States had a right to interpose ; and that the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws was an infraction of right." Massachusetts and New England generally declared the obnoxious laws constitutiiMial and expedient. This drew forth Madison's jAaiKS Madison. 33 Report in defense of his resolutions. "This elaborate pa- per subjected the resolves to an exhaustive analysis and defended them with masterly vigor. It is the most famous of his political writings, and will rank with the greatest State papers written in America." The firm attitude which V^irginia assumed, and the warlike preparations which she began to make to resist the en- croachment of the Federal power after the passage by her Assembly of "the resolutions of 1788-9," together with "a happy change in the sentiment of the country," stayed for the time the conflict of authority between the general gov- -crnment and the States involved in the enforcement of the Alien and Sedition laws. The momentous struggle as to supremacy between the government which had been created by the union of the States under the Constitution and their individual sovereignty considered as reserved, which was then portended, was delayed unto a later period in the history of the republic. It is an inquiry suggestive of profound reflection to con- sider why in the course of events, it came not to a decisive test until the States as a nation had become multitudinous in population, colossal in power, and had stretched their lines of territory across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific wave. The ordinary mind without any effort of thought may readily conceive that had the internecine strife occurred then as in after years, the States separate and in- dependent would have been small and feeble and have fallen prey to the threatening powers of France and Fngland ; and even if they had been divided into two sections by the famous geographical boundary so often quoted as "Mason and Dixon's line," and had been formed into distinct gov- ernments, they would not have achieved that grand career which has marked their destiny as an undivided realm. The thoughtful and pious spirit that discerns the operation of the Hand Divine as equally directing the course of human events as guiding the rolling of the planets, may be dee])ly impressed with the conviction that he who calms the stormy seas, by a special providence held in abeyance the waves of human passion that threatened the early disrup- 34 Southern Literature. tion of the government, that he might build up in this wes- tern world a nation that would gloriously advance the civ- ilization and evangelization of mankind. The theory of the individual sovereignty of the State? is now a dream of the past. Like some majestic river with its current enlarged by the spring-tide of waters, the power of the central government, under the impetus given by the exigencies and results of the civil war, making crevasses in the barrier of States' rights designed to restrain it, now overspreads the whole ground of mooted prerogatives. The writings of Madison are voluminous. His manu- scripts were purchased by Congress from his widow for $30,000. Portions of them were published by the authority of Congress. This was an eminent mark of appreciation of merit rarely bestowed upon authors. Emanating from one of whom Jefferson said there was "no abler head in America," and embracing a thorough and lucid exposition of the fundamental principles of Republican Government as embodied in the Constitution, they were worthy of the lionor and preservation thus accorded them. The youth- ful American burning with ambition like Atheni.m Alcibi- iides to serve his country, who would engage in politics with a nobler object in view than the guerdon of office or the advancement of the interests of party, should make the po- litical writings of Madison and Jefferson the text-books of his studies. The steady and serene progress with which ALidison as- cended to the loftiest height of honor and the distinguished ability with which he served his country won for him an enduring renown. No need of public sympathy wrought by an untimely death from the hand of an assassin to en- circle the orb of his greatness with an aureola of magnified virtues, or to crystallize his memory in the tears of his peo- ple. Virginia, with a mingled feeling of affectionate attach- ment, insjiired by a confidence in his integrity and admi- ration for his illustrious talent, has given him an honored place in that group of her distinguished sons whose memory sJie has sought by the aid of statuary to immortalize in imperishable bronze. James Monroe. 35 JAMES MONROE. Glorious Virg^inia ! Worthily is she called "The mother of statesmen." No State, ancient or modern, can exhibit a nobler list of civilians than those which adorned the early pages of her history. The ban of political proscription pro- nounced by a dominant sectional party which has held the fasces of national power for twenty years may preclude lier, as well as her sister Southern States, from all places of honor in the executive departments of government, but it can not blot out or obscure the brilliant glories of civic renown which encircle her name. The future historian, as "he glances with telescopic eye over the past, will behold in the nation's gallery of fame, as it runs along the line of ages, no nobler group of characters than those she fur- nished to guide the afifairs and shape the destiny of the country during the dark and perilous period of its infancy. As an eminent Southern statesman, historically associ- ated with Jefferson and Madison and considered as form- ing with them in the consecutive administration of the government an illustrious triumvirate, stands prominently forth James Monroe. Although the productions of his pen were limited, yet as one of the leading public men of that time and honored with the Chief Magistracy of the Re- public, his political views are entitled to notice. He was a member of the convention which Virginia ■called to consider the adoption of the Constitution. He was opposed to the Constitution, as he thought "that without amendment it gave too great power to the general govern- ment." It is worthy of remark that this has been the char- acteristic sentiment of the South. It is a fact developed in "history that the people of more Southern latitudes have been distinguished for their ardent love of liberty. It may be that the fervid glow of the "sun's directer ray" ma\ impart to them that fiery nature that makes them more im- patient of the restrictions of arbitrary power than are the inhabitants of frigid climates. The love of liberty as em- "bodied in the doctrine of State sovereignty has been a cher- 36 Southp:rn Literature. ^ ishcil tenet in the politieal creed of the leathng- spirits of the South, from Jefferson to A. H. Stephens. It was in accordance with her dignity as a sovereign State and in the spirit of her motto "sic semper tyrannis," that Virginia es- poused the cause of her sister Southern States wlien the Federal Ciovernment denietl to them the right of secession and sought to coerce tliem hack into the Union. IJer maj- esty and power made her the hulwark of the South, and her geographical position exposed her to the fierce brunt of the civil war that ensued. She again became the theater of the battles of Freedom. Her soil was again drenched with the blood of her sons in defense of their wives, their children, antl their sacretl rights. Her wooded heights, hei beautiful valleys, and her peaceful ])lains became so many Thermopyhes and Marathons. Vov four long, weary years under her leadership the combined chivalry of the South in marshaled rank and with bristling bayonets beat back from her borders the |uiissaiU armies of the North ecjuipped with all the armaments of war and augmented by the swell- ing numbers which luu-ope, as a recruiting field, afforded. When the Southern Cross went down at Appomattox its occultation was not the ignominy of defeat, but the surren- der of heroic valor to overpowering might. Though ]\[onroe was not a voluminous writer, yet he enunciated political principles which have largely shaped' the policy of the nation and in their operation have per- haps exerted an iuHuence on its domestic affairs that can not measurably be computed. He counseled against "en- tanglement in the broils of Europe and of sutYering the jiowers of the old world to interfere with the affairs of the new," now generally known as the "Monroe Doc- trine." These political precepts have been wisely ob- served by the L'nited States and have contributed in no small degree to their prosperity and greatness. Espe- cially has this been the case in regard to the policy of op- posing the introduction of the European system of gov- ernment on this hemisphere. This idea indirectly gave origin and existence to that doctrine of the manifest des- tiny of the republic which has been a favorite tenet of Gkorge Washington. 37 the Democratic party, and actiniL:: under whicli the terri- torial limits of the nation have heen expanded from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the j:^reen savannas of the South, to the frozen regions of the North. It has ])r()ven a Pandora's box to the republic. Whilst it has added to its physical resources, it has in its results dis- turbed the harmony of the Union even to the threatened severance of its bonds. The bronze vault in Greenwood cemetery, within range of vision as seen from the acropolis of Richmond, may hold in its chamber the ashes of Monroe, but the truths he uttered will still live and exalt their voice to future ages. He is worthily entitled to the pedestal of honor which Virginia has assigned to him in that monu- ment of Fame which she has erected to her illustrious "lead. GEORGE WASHINGTON. The three great names Jefferson, Madison, and Mon- roe are not the only ones in the political history of Vir- g'inia deserving of the honoring tribute and notice of the pen. They were but a part of that brilliant throng whose talents and virtues as displayed in the sphere of public life shed an enduring luster upon the proud es- cutcheon of the "Old Dominion State." There were many who did not embody in elaborate treatise or state paper their views of government, having been content to act and speak in the living present without regard to a fu- ture or posthumous fame. The political precepts which fell from their lips were worthily entitled to have been pre- served in the cedared boards as the manuscripts of the sages of antiquity or perpetuated in the type of the printed page of modern times. First and foremost of this order of eminent men of the American Revolution who achieved no special political ■distinction may be ranked Washington. His civic talents were lost "in the light of his superior glory as a military 38 Southern Literature. chieftain." His "farewell address" on retiring from pub- lic life is filled with political wisdom hallowed by a spirit of sublime and eloquent patriotism. As a chart to guide the foreign and domestic policy of the United States it can never become obsolete as long as the true welfare of the country is regarded by its rulers. His deeds alone have made him immortal. All men stand with uncovered head and brow in reverence at the name of Washington. The North, strong and bitter as may be its sectional feeling and inappeasable rancor to- ward the South, accepts him "as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." With undivided assent of heart and mind they yield homage to him as "The Father of his Country." Side by side with him, equal in honor and glory, if not superior, they place Lincoln and hail him as the savior of his country. Washington, by his sword, defended and preserved the liberties of the colonies and secured their independence. He was chosen and served as president of the infant republic established by the union of the States under one general government. Though at first only nine of the colonies or States had ratified the Constitution, the or- ganic framework of the republic, yet no hostile army- was employed to coerce the remainder into the L'^nion. Peace and harmony were the great objects and results of his administration, and he retired from office with the benedictions of his countrymen resting upon him. When he died a nation fell to tears. PATRICK HENRY. Among those potentates in the realm of thought and speech who by their labors helped to achieve American independence and lay the foundation of the government,, may be mentioned Patrick LTenry, styled "the forest-born Demosthenes." Scarcely a fragment remains of those burning and prescient truths which were uttered by him- upon whose lips the "mystic bee had dropped the honey George Y. Mason. 39 of persuasion." Leaving no relics of his genius enshrined in the voiceless symbols of the press, he has floated down upon the stream of tradition enveloped in the airy concep- tion with which Apollo, the old Greek god of eloquence, is viewed. GEORGE Y. MASON. Equally deserving of notice is George Y. Mason, whose name was affixed in bold subscription to the Declaration of Independence. He was an ardent lover of liberty. He opposed the adoption of the Constitution because it circum- scribed the sovereignty of the States and provided for the per- petuation of African slavery. So great was the opposition to the Constitution that when it was adopted he would not ac- cept the position of senator under it. He predicted that the government it would inaugurate would lapse into a monarchy or become tyrannical aristocracy. The experi- ment of a hundred years has not confirmed his prognos- tications. The curule chair of the republic has not been converted into a kingly throne, nor have any of its rulers assumed the imperial title of Augustus. A rigid exclu- sion of all titles of nobility and all social distinctions of birth and fortune have precluded the growth and estab- lishment of a governmental aristocracy. Mental and moral qualifications in the main have guided the people in the selection of their officials. No shadow of tyranny has tfallen upon the nation unless that of the plutocracy formed by the bondholders of the present time. Even their grind- ing financial despotism is attended with reciprocating ben- efits to the country. Their immense capital is employed in developing the physical resources of the country by the construction of vast lines of railroad through the unpeo- pled wilderness. Mason was not the only Southern man that deprecated the existence of slavery. The institution of slavery as a social feature of the Southern States is now extinct. It was abolished at the expense of a vast amount of blood ,)() Sdi'Tiiiirn Lri'ivKA'prRic. .111(1 trc.-isurc. After an interval of twenty years since its abolition, with mind uiihiased hy sectional passions, the (|iiestion of slavery, so loni;- the a.^ilatint:^ soiu'ce of strife between the North and South, may now lie calmly considered. It m.i\- lia\r lieen best for the Sonth to have Consented to its abnlition at the formation of the Pfovcrnniriit. The institution h:is been to it a mixture of q'ood and evil, whilst it has contributed largely to the i;eneral prosperity of the nation. Without the aid of slavery Southern emis^ration wt)uld not have llowed so rapidly westward and would not have consummated foi" the I iiiled !~>tates th.it ac(|uisition of territory em- braced by the .States o\ b'lorida and Texas with their semi-tropical climates. Without the aid of slave labor Southern industry could not have occupied the malarial districts of the lower tier of States, and transformed them into broad belts of fertile soil, rich in the "mimic snow of the cotton," thi> wrdurous e\]ianse of cane, and "the m'olden robes iA the riee lield," and with these tropical products h;i\'e made the American cornucopia indeed the horn of luerllow iiiL; abuiulance. The New l'ai,i;land .States have especially been the ben- eficiaries of the products oi slave labor. The staple fur- nished by the cotton fields of the Stnith built up their manufacturing c'st.ablishments, and thereby i;a\e employ- ment to llu'ir leeiniiii.; population, and ixnired wialth into their lap. wiLi.i.\.M iii:xuv WlkT. .Amonq- the distini^uished characters whose brilliant tal- ents .u.i\e them distinction and crowncil \'irs;inia with honor may also be mentioned William Henry Wirt. At- lorney-tleneral oi the I'nited States. He was considered an ornament to the American bar. thou,>;h he achieved no reputation as ;\ political writer. .As a lawyer, with all the accoutrements which profmnul legal attainments, exuber- ant fanc\ and splendid dictitMi coulil furnish, he swe]it m John C. Camioun. 41 g^allant tilt through the forensic list, like the knight of medieval age, in jianoply of gold and silver, upon rush- ing steed in the jousts of the tournament. His speech in the celebrated case of Burr and l>lennerhassct, has been transmitted as a model of g;orgeous and eloquent comj^o- sition. The chief production of his pen was the biogra- ])hy of Patrick Henry. In this loved task he culled the fairest flowers from the held of classic Eng-lish thai he might weave them into a wreath of fame to encircle the memory of the immortal Henry. JOHN C. CALHOUN. The astronomer, in his lonely contemplation of the noc- turnal skies, observes that the stars in their constellated beauty and their apparent motion from east to west, ad- vance along the cerulean vault, reach the meridian and gradually sink below the western horizon. This l)rilliant panorama never ceases. Whilst the various constella- tions that appear sweep across the field of vision and linally i)ass to their occultation, other stars are constantly rising to supply their places in the hemisphere of night, rin's brilliant pageantry of the stellar universe may be chosen as a fit representation of what is presented in the moral world relative to the passing generations of men. Whilst those intellects which shine as lights to the world of mankind are moving in resplendent orbit to their Oc- cident to disappear beneath the horizon of time, other glo- rious minds rise to view. This state of things is exhibi- ted in the as])ect which is presented by the jiolitical sky of America. It was so thickly sown With intellectual leading- lights during the night of the revolution of '76 and in the infancy of the republic, that it blazed like a January heaven. When these were passing away, others ascended. When Jefferson, Monroe and others of the early states- men of the South passed from public life and service, they were succeeded by Calhoun, Clay and others. None occupied a more eminent position than Calhoun, 42 Southern Literature. through his long political career. He was identified with every leading movement that had for its object the advancement of the welfare of the country. He held a high political place in the national legislature. As a mem- ber of the Senate of the United States, he adorned the councils of the country. No old Roman wore more wor- thily tlie senatorial robe. His political writings will form the topic of succeeding articles. Some of the political doctrines he promulgated and advocated are to-day live issues in the administration of the government. This distinguished statesman gave expression to his political views in his speeches delivered before the Senat« of the United States and in his popular addresses on various occasions. The main political production of his pen was a posthumous treatise "On the Constitution and Government of the United States." Scarcely a quarter of a century had elapsed since the adoption of the Con- stitution and the inauguration of its policy when he en- tered upon public life. His term of service in high of- ficial position extending through a generation, and con- temporaneous with an eveaitful period in the history of the American republic, his opinions are entitled to the consideration of posterity, although the eloquent tongue that spoke and the facile pen that recorded them have perished from amongst men. Like all contemporary Southern statesmen he was a zealous defender and advocate of the individual sover- eignty of the States under the compact as expressed by the Constitution. In the maintenance of this view "he fell under the accusation of pushing the doctrine of State rights to extremes." He was not a political malcontent or revolutionary in his sentiments, but regarded State sovereignty as essen- tial to maintaining an equilibrium of power among the States and the preservation of constitutional liberty. He turned his attention to the advocacy of this doctrine in opposing the oppression of the Southern States which would be produced by the protective system embraced in the tariff of 1828, enacted by Congress. Building on the John C. Calhoun. 43 Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798-99, he pro- pounded the doctrine of nuUification, that is to say, the right of each State to prevent the execution within her Hinits of such acts of Congress as she might judge uncon- stitutional. He embodied this doctrine in an elaborate paper prepared in the summer of 1828, and which became known as the "South Carolina Exposition." The political views of Mr. Calhoun thus expressed, "with softening modifications," were presented to the leg- islature of South Carolina, and were ordered to be printed. The conduct of South Carolina during this period has been the subject of much animadversion, and has served to excite the prejudice of her sister States against her. Yet her attitude in this eventful crisis marked her as the bold and firm opponent of the encroachment of Federal power in the execution of a law she considered as tyrannically op- pressive. It was in accordance with her past historical record that she should occupy such a position. The love of liberty was coeval with her political existence. She was colonized by those who had fled to the wilds of America to escape the political and religious oppression of their na- tive countries in Europe. She had acted a gallant and pa- triotic part in the colonial struggle for independence. She has a list of bright names on her revolutionary roll, whose deeds have entitled theiii to immortal renown in history. Well may she be styled the Attica of America in view of the ardent love of her people for liberty, and their cultivation and refinement. Though she has been made the subject of obloquy and oppression on account of her part in the late civil war, and through her discomfiture in the project of secession she has been brought low, yet every generous spirit will do her reverence. Such a people and such a State did Mr. Calhoun represent. He was a worthy son of a noble mother. Among the powers expressly named in the articles of the Constitution, as granted to the general government by the States, is that of the coining of money, the establishment and regulation of a national currency. The creation and adoption of a financial system is a matter of vital impor- 44 S()UTiii:rx Liticuaturk. tanco to every civili/A-d nation. 'I'lie institution of a com- mercial nuMlinm is an essential characteristic of civilization, and tlie lirst slep of mankind from a State of barbarism. l'"rom the earliest period of anti(|uity some medium has been ailopted fur ilie purpose of connuercial intercourse, either fortiiMi or domestic. Ciold, either in coin or bullion, has luH'ii ihe medium nmsl cornDKinly (.'mplMyi'd. It was, ho\ve\er, lars^ely dependent upon the natural i)roducts of the country, whether they were ai^ricnltural or mineral. Amontj the enliL',hli'ned nations of ancient times .ijold or silver coin was used. There is one noted exce])tion to this custom in the case of ancienl 1 ,aceil;emon. L\cur^ns, in the code of laws wdnch he de\iseil for tlu- ."Spartan commonwealth, pre- scribed the adoption of iron coin as the circulatiui; medium, in order to securi' the jieople a.^ainsl the corrupting;- iniUi- cnce of avarice and the iiiervatin;;- elTects of luxury. Anionic sa\ai;e nations we lind the nse i^i cowries. ;is in the case of tlu- Irilu's of Africa, and wampum belts amony the .\mer- ican Imli.ins. The institution and a(lo])tion of :\ fmanci.al system which wonld setMU'c a sound and uniform currency was a (juestion that demanded the e;irl\ consideration of the L'nitctl States in their or}.;ani/.ation of a general i^overnment. The Con- tinental Congress, as enijowered by the "Articles oi ( on- fiMler.ition" imder which the Colonies had united, had passed an act anthori/injL; the issue of a ])aper currency, ;it an earl\ period t\\ the w;tr. in order to detray the ex- penses of the i;o\ernnienl. I lion>;h the i^ri'at work ol in- dependence i\ad been achieved, yel at the close of the slrui;- i;lc the country was in an imjiovcrishetl cimdition and with a currency so depreciated as to be almost worthless. Various measures were adoi)leil by the C'ontinental Con- j^'ress duriuj;- the peiiod of its existi'uce to meet the commer- cial cxii^^cncics oi the comitry. The monetary condition of the country continued to be characterized by uncertainty, di'pression and disaster. 'i"he fmancial distress of the i;ov- ermuenl became so threat that in 1S14 the institution of a national bank became a (luestion much as;itated. It was a measm"e advocated by Mr. L'alhoun, anil a plan iov the op- John C. Camioun. • 45 cralioii of a nalional I)aiik was ])rcsc'iUe(l l)y Iiim lo Con- gress. The outlines and merits of the ])lan lie ])r()|)ose(l will be the subjeet of future artieles. Universality of j^enius is ni)t eoninion. Tlunij^h Mr. Cal- houn was aeute, analytieal, and oris^inal upon every subjeet, and disposed to traee out cvcrythinj;- to its ultimate results, yet he was not eonsidercd to have been endowed with niark-ed or brilliant financial genius. To evolve a bnxid system of finance adequate to the wants of a nation, to grasp all the details and remote bearings of its operation, is a faculty of mind which few have been found to possess. History tells of a Neeker in the past of the French government and of a ( lould of the ])rescnt day, whose gigantic minds were ca- pable of projecting and consummating plans of financial pol- icy with marvclously unerring intuition. Yet the present time seems tf) be prolific of financial talent and to furnish exception lo all former exhibiticjus of tact. Not content with the present financial system of the country, there are nud- li])lie(l thousands who would address themselves to the task of improving it. The orator from the tribune or in the halls of Congress, the editor from the tripod through the colunms of his paper, with assumed oracular wisdom, descant upon the great question. Tf the nation will but only adopt and follow their plans, all the present evils will be removed, and that happy ITopian period when financial distress will be, dissipated would soon be introduced every- where. The main features of the national bank ])roposefl by Mr. Calhoun, were thai it shoidd be "specie paying, wholly under private contrcjl, and not obliged to lend to the government anything. The capital of this bank was to consist of $5,- 000,000 of specie and $15,000,000 of new treasury notes, which it was proposed to get into circulation by making them convertible into bank stock. This jiroject prevailetl in the house by a large majority." It was finally defeated through a labored report of Mr. Dallas, Secretary of the Treasury at that time, in which be exhibited the injustice and political danger of the scheme involved in the bill pro- posed by Mr. Calhoim. However, in the compromise 46 Southern Literature. scheme for a bank, which was adopted, the great points of Mr. Calhoun's plan, were still preserved — that is to say. the bank was not obliged to lend to the government, nor suspend specie payment. The bill which embraced tliis •scheme was vetoed by President Madison as "being inade- quate to the emergency." The project of a United States bank was revived during the 14th Congress, resulting in the charter of the Bank of the United States. The subsequent political history of Mr. Calhoun records a radical change in his views of a national financial sys- tem. "President Van Buren recommended to Congress the policy of discontinuing the use of banks as the fiscal agents of the government. He proposed the custody of the public money by officers specially appointed for that purpose, and the exclusive use of coin on the part of the government. Calhoun separating from the Whigs, with whom he had acted in the struggle on the bank question, gave energetic support to this new system of policy." His speech in the Senate on the Independent Treasury bill in 1838 is an exhibit of his views of the system of financial policy which the nation should adopt. To this speech Mr. Clay replied. These two colossal minds met in fierce conflict upon the arena of debate, and each delivered a speech upon the occasion which they severally regarded as a vindication of their pub- lic life. Many years have elapsed since then, but time has not fully tested the views of either of these distinguished statesmen of the past, and which system of financial policy is best adapted to the country is still to be subjected to the crucible of experiment. As an orator Mr. Calhoun is eloquently portrayed by two of his contemporaries and fellow-members of Con- gress, and that at two different epochs of his life, which may account for an apparent discrepancy in the two por- traitures given. Thus Henry Richard Wilde, member of Congress from Georgia, in his reminiscences of "The Four- teenth Congress," says of Mr. Calhoun : "There was, also, a son of South Carolina still in the service of the republic, then, undoubtedly, the most influential member of this house. With a genius eminently metaphysical, he applied Henry Clay. 47 to politics his habits of analysis, abstraction and conden- sation, and thus gave to the problems of government something of that grandeur which the higher mathematics have borrowed from astronomy. Engrossed with his sub- ject, careless of his words, his eloquence was sometimes followed by colloquial or provincial barbarisms. But, though often incorrect, he was always fascinating. Lan- guage, with him, was merely the scaffolding of thought, employed to raise a .dome, which like Angelo's, he sus- pended in the heavens." At this period Mr. Calhoun was in the prime of manhood and a member of the House of Representatives. The Hon. Henry W. Hilliard, member of Congress from Alabama (1851), and likewise a contemporary, says: ^'Mr. Calhoun (who was then in the Senate) was the fin- •est type of the pure Greek intellect which this country has ever produced. His speeches resemble Grecian sculpture, with all the purity and hardness of marble, while they show that the chisel was guided by the hand of a master. Demosthenes transcribed the history of Thucydides eight times, that he might acquire the strength and majesty of his style, and Mr. Calhoun had evidently studied the ora- tions of the great Athenian with equal fidelity. He had much of his force and ardor, and his bearing was so full of dignity that it was easy to fancy when you heard him, that you were listening to an oration from the lips d|f a Roman senator who had formed his style in the severe schools of Greece." HENRY CLAY. No tongue or pen may add to or subtract from the honor due the illustrious dead and the memory of their virtues. As history has recorded their deeds, and the mar- ble and bronze in statue and in column stand as silent memo- rials to perpetuate their fame, there seems to be no need from living hand to mention their names, or render tribute •of eulogy to them. It is well, however, to recall them to the 48 Southern Literature. minds of the living;, that their heroic deeds and examples of virtue may be kept fresh before the minds of men and continue to benefit the world. It is well to revive the rec- ollection of them by the relation of some personal reminis- cence or incident in their lives unrecorded. This is the object of the writer in giving to the public this sketch of Henry Clay, the orator and statesman. When a boy, he had the pleasure and privilege of seeing Mr. Clay, and of being an eye-witness of the amusing in- cident that occurred with the great statesman, and which is related at the close of this article, during his southern tour in the spring of 1844, when he was a candidate for the presidential nomination at the hands of the Whig party. ]\Ir. Clay traveled by stage-coach en route from Columbus to Macon, Ga. As the time at which he would pass through Thomaston, Upson county, would be near noon, the citi- zens decided to honor him with a public reception and ban- quet. On the day that he was to arrive at Thomaston, men, women and children thronged the town desirous to see Mr. Clay. At the expected hour, 10 o'clock a. m., the shrill winding notes of the stage-driver's bugle were heard, an- nouncing the approach of the coach, and the coming and presence of the distinguished visitor and guest of the peo- ple. Up into the town, to the court-house the coach is driven. All eyes are turned to the opening of the coach door to catch their first sight of him whose fame had filled the land, ^sone present had ever seen him. Perhaps few had ever seen a crude engraving of him. As the occupants of the coach came forth, none needed any one to tell which one was Mr. Clay or to distinguish him from those who were the companions of his travel. Nature had set upon him the seal of greatness in the attributes of his person, as indicated in his lofty stature, the capacious mouth, the fore- head high, expansive and expressive of intellectual power, the eyes eloquent with thought and feeling, and the counte- nance animate with the spirit of benevolence, all well sus- tained by the dignity of dress and courtliness of manner. 1 he committee of reception received and conducted Mr. Clay into the court-room. The people greeted him with joyful acclamations. The chairman of the assembly. Cap- Henry Clay. 49 tain Edward Holloway, tall, stately, with his iron-gray locks flowing- down his shoulders, in manners a gentleman of the old school, presided with dignity worthy of the occasion. The speech of welcome was delivered by the Hon. J. J. Carey, a rising young lawyer. Mr. Clay made a short ad- dress in response. One figure of speech which he employed recurs to mind, wherein he compared himself, pursued by the malice of his political foes, to the noble stag of the for- est chased by the hound with that "deep hate that never tires." The speech of TMr. Clay being ended, the large crowd of men and women present received severally an in- troduction to him. Among them was an old gentleman of the name of Nasworthy, a farmer, who was fond of his dram and had freely indulged in his potations that morn- ing, as his rubicund countenance showed. Being introduced to Mr. Clay, he cries out as he shakes his hand, "Here is the old cream-a-tartar." What Mr. Clay said in reply to this salutation was lost in the hum and noise of the crowd. A broad smile was seen passing over his countenance, and w^e presume that it formed in after years an amusing rem- iniscence of his Southern tour. Whether or not Mr. Clay, in the brief speech he made on the occasion as recited, met the popular expectation in regard to his reputation as an eloquent orator, the writer can not say. The voice of history and tradition places him first and foremost in the annals of /American eloquence and statesmanship. This is the more wonderful, as the facts concerning his boyhood show that he had but few facilities for intellectual culture. He was born in Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777. When a child his parents moved to Kentucky, which, at that time, was being settled by pio- neers from the Atlantic States. From the very nature and condition of things his educational privileges were few and limited in their scope. It is said that the spirit of ambi- tion and the desire for intellectual improvement appeared in him at an early age. It is also told of him that he was accustomed to declaim among the cattle in the stalls the speeches he had learned in his moments of leisure. Books, those precious instrumentalities so well fitted for training the mind and storing it with ihe wisdom of the past, were 4 si 50 Southern Litkrature. few and difficult to be obtained. Tie received only the e^r- nients of what nia}' be termed an Eiif^lish education. The study of grammar, so essential to the culture and acqui- sition of stren<^th, beauty and precision both of oral and written speech, had but a small place in the curriculum of the common schools of that day. Tt is interesting to note and consider the educational facilities and rhetorical training of this American orator for the sphere of public speaking as comparcxl with that of Cicero of ]\oman fame. In historical account of this orator of anticjuity it is stated that he began the work of his in- tellectual training when he was five years old under the l)oet Archias at Rome. The language and literature ol Greece formed a part of his early studies, and were assFd- uously cultivated by him through life under various pre- ceptors at Rome and Athens. This was of the greatest advantage to him, as it enabled him to "enrich his idiom •with the treasures of the Hellenic tongue, and to add still further grace and beauty to the Latin which was beginning to assume a more polished exterior from its ancient rus- ticity." This rhetorical training is of essential value and im- portance to the orator. Language is the divine characteris- tic of man. Tn connection with the endowment of reason the gift of articulate speech distinguishes him from the lower orders of the animal creation. Language forms the medium through which he communicates his thoughts, sentiments and emotions, and it is the golden link that binds the race together as social beings. "The heart of a people is in its mother tongue, and it is only by learning that mother tongue in all its fullness, variety and beauty, that we can know that heart. It is while listening to 'the thoughts that breathe and the words that burn' from the lips of her orators and the ]iens of her poets, historians and dramatists that you can feel that heart beating responsive." But in addition to this cultivation of language this an- cient orator devoted time and attention to the special and daily training of his voice in extemporaneous declama- tion under the instruction of the rhetorician Diodotus. By this means he formed his voice, which was harsh, weak aTid Hknry Clay. 51 irrc£,ailus sons! i>;adiant is thy history with them as thine own blue heavens with stars. Thv "old red hills" may be seamrd with manv a scar and rent with chasms deep by corroding rains and dis- solving frosts in the ilight of years, yet thy ghjry still re- mains like the lingering glow of the golden sunsets of thy .autumnal evenings upon thy hills and valleys. Sweet mem- ories oi thee still swell the hearts of thy sons wdio have sought homes in other .Slates and dwell bciicalli oibci skies. ■Fair as in youth's bright morn rises befcjre the mind thy verdant plains, hr.'id slrt'ams and shadowy hills. With fleep pathos of s' nl do llie\- recall the mem(»r\' of the fathers and eNem])lars of llicir \oulh, those veniTable hkmi of the i)ast, who in ])erson and character were like the oaks that rr»se in massive grandeur from thy virgin soil. I'e- neaih thy clods repose the de.'ir forms of their fallnTs ancL yo Southern Literature. niotliers, and others of the dear family circle that met at: the festal hoard and j:^athercd at iiit^ht and mornings at the altar consecrated to prayer. From afar they greet thee and hold ont their arms to cmhrace thee as they recall in sweet reminiscence the dewy freshness of life's morning hour. BENJAMIN I1AR\ 1:Y HILL. Cireat is the gift of oratory, l-'ortunatc is the mortal upon' whose Iii>s "ihe mystic hee has dro])[)ed the honey of per- suasion." and from which in mellilluent stream flow the words and thoughts of speech. How enrapturing to the mind of such an one to he ahle to control, as at the wave of a magic wand, the opinions and passions of men either in the forensic arena, upon the political rostrum, or from the sacrcil pulpit. The poet is horn, the orator is made, says the oUl adage. Which one has the precedence and superiority in the realm of human thought and action, the speaker or the author, and which is the most desirahle intellectual endowment of the {\\o, has hixMi olten (.onsidered and debated. The winged wortls and huniing thoughts that come from the lips of the orator fall upon the ears and thrill the hearts of the living throngs oi men. They live only for a time in the memories of the autlitors. The eloquent tongue becomes nuUe in death, ami they are forgotten. The writer who gives to the world, either in prose or verse, the sublime thoughts am! eiu'apturing fancies of his mind, anil sends out a bot^k, has an audience in a thousand homes. lie sets atloat in his book a treasure ship of knowledge upon the broad stream of time that will descenii to ]iosteritv to de- liglit mankiml when his pen is cimsiuned with rust. The glowing clitue of the South is regarded as the land of tbic oratiM". Its ceruleati skies, its gorgeous sunsets, its tropical wealth of fruits and flowers, foster the glow of passion and awaken with fervid touch the imagination, more than the frigid attuosphere and ice-bound hills and valleys of the North. The Southern States have ]>roduceif Bknjamin FIarvi'.y llihl,. ' 71 (liirinp: the iircsciit contiiry a munhcr of public men distin- i^aiished for llicir brilliant oratory. First and foremost of tlie el()(|uent sons of the South who acc|uired renown as an orator in his clay and generation may l)c mentioned the Hon. Benjamin li. Hill of Georgia. As a lawyer at the bar Mr. Jlill commenced his career as a public speaker. The training at the bar alToids a Ihie field for the culture of oratory, if it is based upon early in- struction and drill in the school of elocution, and supple- mented by rigid study and practice in after-life. The his- tory of Athenian Demosthenes and Roman C'icero fully demonstrates that toil and industry are indispensable to the successful orator. It is a matter worthy of remark lo observe how few of the legal profession give special study to the art of oratory. It seems as if they expect naturally to grow up into polished speakers, and they have no as])iratiou to become elo(|Uent advocates before the jury. Mruiy seek no biglu-r proficiency than to be merely talkers, and give tlu'ir altcnlion soK-ly to ''the law and the testimony." The personal characteristics of Mr. Hill, though ])ecu- liar to himself, were pleasing. As in the case of Vergniaud, the orator of the French Revolution, the roslrnni was the pedestal of his beauty and fascination. The writer of this article had the privilege of hearing Mr. Hill speak on two occasions in his early life. One was in an extemporaneous address at the literary commencement of the Ivadrange Fe- male College, Ga., in 1855, being chosen lo fill the va- cancy in the ]:)rogram caused by the absence of ihc rcgidar orator. His situation at that time was slill furihcr cm- tarrassed by some speaker before him having incidentally selected his line of to])ics, and as he said, "taken the wind out of his sails," and he therefore had to steer a new and unexpected course in the realm of ihougbt. As an oralor (he forti,' of Mr. I lill was in his argiunenla- tive skill and power, llis nniid was keen and logical, and he could dexterously wield the foils, and thrust and parry in debate. This order of mind (|ualified him lo excel in the discussions of those points of law that would come before a court in civil suits where obscurity or intricacy of prin- 72 South HKN Litkrature. liplcs prevailed. He was well fitted for stump oratory, where the fallacy or plausible truth of any political prin- ciple nuist be unveiled, or ready retort nnist be made to anta.i^onist. INIr. Hill accjuired reputation as a successful l)<)litical speaker. Though not exactly contemporary with lion. A. II. Stephens, yet at the commencement of his career as a politician, he met Mr. Stephens in debate. He was very popular with his party. There was one peculiarity connected with Mr. Hill's oratory. It was an abrupt and rapid elevation of his voice at certain times to the pitch of the Indian war-whoop, or as his admirers termed it. to a Comanche }ell. The most celebrated oratorical elTort of Mr. Hill on record was his reply to James G. l^laine. when the latter in the United States Senate made an attack upon the South. The speech of Mr. lilaine was considered by his party as a triumphant defense of the policy that had been ])ursued by the N'orth towards the South. On the Southern side there was trepidation, uneasiness and indi^nalinn in vie\v' of the fad that the readmissioti of the .Southern .*^tatcs into the I'nion was recent and iheir reprcsenlalivcs ill ("on- o-ress did not feel sure, confuKMit, or at liomc in the halls of Congress. Then, the speech iA Mr. lUaiiie was i^rand and elo(iuent. In reference ti> this speech. Hon. kobert In- .i;ersoll in putting' Mr. lUaine as a presidential candidate before the Republican convention at C"hica5.i'o, said oi him, "Like an armed warrior, like a plumed kniqht, James G. Ulaine marched into the halls of the American Couf^^ress, and luuMed his shining" lances full and fair in the brazen face of the defanurs o\ his country and the maligiiers of lier honor." When this notal)le siieech was made the Sinuhcrn re]i- reseiUalives felt that there should be a reply to it. It seemed that all eyes were instinctively turned to Mi", llill, then seiialoi' from ( "icor^ia, as the proper man. lie ai^reed t(i lake up the gauntlet oi detiance thrtwvn down by "the IMniiu'd Kni'.dit." and made preparation to break a lance with him. W hat a darini^- attcmpf. What a tryinj^' onleal was there before Mr. Hill! Hemosthenes well could face the tickle and tmnultuous popnlacc i'>i ancient .\thens, when Bknjamin Harvky Hiix. 73 he (IcHvcretl his I'hiHppics aj^^ainst the tyrant of Macedon. lie had every true lover of (Greece to l)ack him in his patriotic zeal and purpose. Cicero, with the peril of assas- sination confronting- iiini, could holdly assail Catiline and his associate conspirators. There was virtue enough left in the Roman Senate to particii)ate with him in his sympalh}' and effort to save Rome. But with Mr. liill the situation was far different. He was the representative of a nohle people, hut they had heen and were still denounced as rehels, as traitors to their coun- try ; for nearly a decade they had undergone humiliation, rai)ine and political proscription at the hands of the North- ern States, who held the reins of government, and hefore those representatives in the halls of national legislation he must make a defen.se of the South. All that he might say in defense of the South, though founded on truth and jus- tice, would be misconstrued and find no hearing hefore such a partial and ])reju(liced tribunal as the United States Senate. He had, however, the nerve, the courage, and the patriotism to attempt the vindication of the honor and fair fame of his own beloved South in heroic defiance of the sectional prejudice and animosity arrayed before him. lie had the intellect; the data from the j)ublic records were in his favor, and the "I'lumed Knight" went down before him in this jiolitical tilt, and the good name of the South was nobly vindicated. The high compliment of ingersoll to Mr. r.laine as recited, in every fact and feature was the measure of the just tribute to Mr. Hill. The wisdom to determine the jiolicv that will tend to the weal of the nation, to disi-eni with acem-ate ken the meas- ures suitable to meet the exigencies which s])ring up in the existing affairs of government, and to forecast the o])era- tions of any legislative enactment are recognized as con-' stituting the elements of a true and wise statesmanshij). Mr. Mill evinced in his public career that he was thus en- dowed. As to the ability he may have shown in his four years' service as senator from ( Jeorgia in the ConfedtMate States Congress, nothing can be definitely known or said. The members of the first Confederate Congress were in a large measure old and experienced legislators. The limited 74 Southern Literature. experience of Air. Ilill in national legislation would pre- clude his thrustinfj himself forward. Then, whilst the lej^is- lation involved solemn and weighty matters as relating to the war, all proceedings were necessarily secret, and were thus locked up in the archives of the government. From what little is known of the Confederate Congress, it may be inferred that Mr. Hill by his talent wielded a large influence in that body. It was in the United States Senate after the restoration of the Union, that a broad field was opened to him as sen- ator from Georgia. In his capacity as senator he fully met the exigencies of his environment as being" from a Southern State, and a noble and gallant defense did the proscribed South receive at his hands. His reply to Blaine, previously noticed, was a notable disj)lay of his intellectual powers and crowned him with honor in the annals of Congress. The attitude of Mr. Hill in regard to the "Reconstruction Measures" of the fetleral government illustrates his politi- cal sagacity: How cruel, unjust and humiliating they were; how contrary to the terms stipulated in the surrenders of Lee and Johnston and to the expressed sentiments of the North as to the objects for which the war was waged, all those acquainted with the history of reconstruction well know. In his notes or philippics on the "situation," as they may be teriued, Mr. Hill gave a very correct statement, in a few words, when, in speaking of the position of the people of the South in reference to thcMU. he said in sub- stance: "The complying accept, the resolute reject, none approve, while all despise!" He, however, advised the Southern States to accept the terms as inevitable. This policv was unacceptable to the main body of the people. Thcv were overpoweretl. brought under the yoke of subju- gation, but not conquered. The spirit of freedom still burned in their breasts. They could not forget their former glory as sovereign States, and their political equality as an inalienable heritage and secured to them in the sacra- ment of the blood of their revolutionary sires upon the field of battle. Those who coincided with Mr. Hill in his views and fa- Bknjamin Harvky IIiiJv. 75 vorcd his policy were desiji^nated as the Boiirhon ])arty. The reader is referred to history for a full explication of the term "Bourhon." It has a remote allusion tc^ the tyranni- cal rule of the IJourhon dynasty of French kiuf^s and their oppression of the people. The proud-spirited Southerners spurned the shackles forged for them ,and their children, and in their indi<:;-nation as free-born men unwisely threw down the reins of State government. Provisional govern- ments were estal)lished for the States under military super- vision, and aliens and carpet])aggers crept in, took posses- sion and plundered the people. All Southerners remember well those years of sorrow and degradation. Had Mr. Hill's suggestions been adopted, the South, per- hajjs to some extent, would have escaped her long duress and spoliation at the hands of the Northern adventurers upheld by the Federal government. The parents of Mr. J dill are said to have been in mod- erate circumstances. His father was a plain farmer and his mother of a domestic turn of mind, and as the heads of the household were such as in ante-bellum days made the fam- ily the pride and glory of the land. As a boy, Mr. Hill is represented as being fond of his books. This may be re- ceived as a prognostic of his future greatness. Books! books! are the golden rungs in the old ladder of fame. Franklin, Lincoln and others of America's great men found it so. The lamp of knowledge, like the lamp of Aladdin in oriental story, brings to those who are masters of it, the services of mighty genii, who enable them to perform sub- lime marvels, as in the case of Morse in the telegraph, I'ell in the telephone, Edison in the phonograph, and Roentgen in the X-rays. The ambitious hopes of the parents clustered aromid the son. It is said that his mother spun and wove the suit of clothes which Mr. Hill wore when he entered college. His devotion to her forms a beautiful episode in his life. When he had grown to manhood, and naught remained to him of the devoted mother but her portrait, on retiring at night he would go to the room where it hung, and looking at it, would silently invoke the blessing of his unseen mother, and bid luT "good night." And in the morning before en- 76 Southern IvItkraturb tering upon the duties of the day he would render to his mother as represented in the picture the same tribute of fihal reverence and love. This filial virtue of Mr. Hill adorns and lieautifies his life and character as the soft acan- thus wreath the stately column of marble, and is as ex- pressive of his greatness and as honoring to his memory as the statue worked by the chisel of the sculptor and erected by Georgia, his native State, to be a perpetual memo- rial of her gifted son. WALTER T. COLQUITT. It is the remark of IMacaiday. the English historian, that the history of the world presents the iiUeresting fact that the great minds that have enlightened and blesseil man- kind by their wisdom and their deeds have not come singly, but in crowds, upon the stage of human action. They seem to have come upon the scene just at the time when their services were most needed by their country and their fellow- men. This is forcd)ly exem]ilified in the history of tho LInited States, severally and resi)ectively, during the first half century after the revolutionary war. The jiolitical fir- mament of that ])eriod was radiant with intellectual lights as a Jamiary sky with stars. In none of the thirteen orig- inal States was it more strkingly exhibited than in the case of Georgia. Among those who appear upon the roll of its distinguislKHl men to claim attention in view of their in- tellectual ability anti moral worth may be mentioned the subject of tliis article, Walter T. Colquitt. The |)restige and honor which the name of Colquitt has in Georgia and in the South is mainly due to him. He was a man remarkable both for his physical and intellectual power and activity. He had not the majesty of lofty stature or high forehead which are usually considered as symbolic of greatness, but he had the l)road brow, the wcll- sliaped head that showed fine poise of character and mental jiower ; and the calm grey eyes, in whose depths burned the lieht of crenius. Walter T. Colquitt. ']'] As an orator he was not excelled by any of his compeers and associates at the bar in pleadino- before a jury. I'le was stron.c: in criminal cases, and could at will open in the hearts of the jury the fountain of sympathy in ])ehalf of his client. So noted was he for this power and intluence over a jury that upon one occasion the opposing counsel warned the jury to beware of Mr. Colquitt; that he would try to make them believe that their hearts were in their feet, hands or some other part of their body. Mr. Colquitt in reidv said to the jury, that he did not want them to believe their hearts were anywhere else than in the right place, and that they were beating with warm and broad sym])a- thies for tlie unfortunate as God had designed, and that guided by them their verdict would be in favor of his client. The writer heard Mr. C()l(|uitt in the celebrated High- tower will case tried at the h'ebruary term of the .superior court, at 'I'homaston, Georgia, in 1847. He was counsel tor the ])laintif['s. The purpose was to break the will, as it was charged that, the devisor not being of "disposing mind and numory," undue bias and influence hacl been used by the party who wrote the will to cause him to make unjust discrimination in the distribution of the property. The will was written by the family physician. In touching u])on the action and evidence of this witness, Mr. Cokjuitt wound up by saying, there is "the finger of Joab" in this, b'inally, in seeking to cover him with ridicule and in an- swer to the question who did the work, Mr. Colquitt sung out "John Anderson, my Jo John," and by this action filled the court-room with laughter. Mr. Colquitt was master of all the arts of ofYense and defense in oratory. He could wield the trenchant argu- ment, handle the sharp-])ointed satire, or relate with rare humor the amusing anecdote. Whoever met him in the tilt of debate, either in the court-room or on the "political stump," might look well to his arms and his laurels. Few could successfully resist the impetuous shock with which he bore down upon his antagonist. He was fearless, but magnanimous in debate. He could touch the sensibilities and stir the hearts of men -jS Southern Literature. lo tears. Many were the grand achievements he won in the court-room before a jury in criminal cases. One of the most touching instances handed down of his power and pathos was in the case of a cHent who had neither money nor friends to aid him. Mr. Colquitt arose to speak and the following sublime exordium fell from his lips. "Gentlemen of the jury, my client stands before you friendless as the son of God." There was no play with words, no stale preliminaries. At one stroke he associated the pitiable case of his client with the most solemn and sacred event in the world's history. This appeal touched at once the hearts of the twelve men, and the picture presented, with the strain of sentiment that followed, made it the triumph of the Jiour. With his contemporaries, those who knew him, Mr. Col- it be said of Mr. Yancey in his life and political career. Mr. Stephens says of him that "he was a man of bril- liant genius, with many eminent qualities of natural as well as acquired ability. He was amongst the ablest men of the South who zealously espoused the cause of secession at an early day, and no one felt a deeper interest in its suc- cess." He was the recognized leader of his State. After the organization of the Confederacy he was sent by the government with A. Dudly Mann of Virginia, and A. P. Rost of Louisiana, to Europe to present to France and Eng- land the Confederate cause with the view of opening ne- gotiations with those powers. As stated by Mr. Stephens in his "War of the States." Mr. Yancey, "having seen that he could not accomplish the business for which he and his associates were commis- sioned and sent to Europe, returned home, and was elected by the legislature of Alabama to the first Confederate States Senate under the Constitution which had been adop- ted for their permanent government, and which was to go into operation the 22d of February. 1862." He was emi- neiittv (lualified by his talent antl experience for a ])lace in WlIJJAM L. Yanckv. 8 1 the Legislative Council of the young republic. The voca- tion of the statesman suited him better than that of the soldier. His impulsive nature and patriotic ardor did not •override his judgment and push him out into the field of niililary service as in the case of some others. Genius for military affairs is not always the accompaniment of bril- liant powers of mind, nor the product of culture and sci- entific training. The great chieftains and the successful warriors were devclo])ed from the bosom of war like Mi- nerva, its fabled goddess, is said to have sprung from the head of Jupiter. No art of training can make them. The world's great generals, as they stand forth upon the pages of history, have been reduced by some writer to five in lunnber — Alexander, Cresar, Hannibal, Scipio and llona- parte. The first and second terms of the Confederate Congress *?how a consteHation of old and experienced statesmen. Mr, Yancey acquired no special distinction in his new sphere as a Confederate senator. His career was brief. He died in 1863. It was whispered in subtle rumor at or before the time of his death that he had received a serious hurt in his spine in a personal rencounter with Hon. B. F. Hill on the floor of the Senate chamber. It is to be hoped that no such thing really happened. It would be, even at this time, a sad reflection that two men, renowned as they were for in- tellectual ability, should have, under any impulse, yielded to their passions and sullied their manhood and high official dignity by resorting to brute force for the settlement of any question of debate. Such a scene occurred years before in the Senate chamber of the Uniterl States, when the fiery Brooks, of South Carolina, assailed with his cane the imperturbable Sunnier of Massachusetts. From the hoary past custom has savagely made blows the redoubtable weapons or arguments of champions upon the field of in- tellectual as well as physical combat. The present age is becoming pugilistic in its taste and tendency. The charge against Mr. Yancey of having, in conjunction with Tooml)s of Georgia, Rhett of South Carolina, Floyd ■of Virginia, Davis of Mississippi, Wigfall of Texas, and 6sl 82 Southern Literature. other leading men of the South, conspired to overthrow the government and organized in secret junto for that purpose at Washington, the 2Qth of December, i860, is fully re- futed l)v Mr. Stej)hens in his "War of the States." He states that "they aimed at notliing and desiretl nothing but the maintenance, in good faith, of the Constitution, with all its guarantees as they stood." He further says, "the only real conspiracy against the Constitution organized in Washington, as he understood it, was that of the seven Governors from the seven Northern States, who assembled there, and by their mischievous machinations caused Mr. Lincoln to change his purpose as to the evacuation of Fort Sumter." Let no tarnish rest upon the name and reputation of William L. Yancey, but proud and erect in the majesty of his intellect and patriotic virtue, should he stand in the annals of American history, and, if need be; to render to him the honor due, let the South enwreathe his memory with the shamrock, the chosen emblem of liberty-loving "Ould Ireland," as it comes down through the generations of the past, wet with the hopeless tears of her people and stained with the blood of her sons. HENRY W. HILLL^RD. It is said by Plutarch that when Cicero, the Roman orator, was serving as questor of Sicily, that he undertook the de- fense of a munber of young Romans of noble families, who lay under the charge of having violated the rules of dis- cipline and had not behaved with sufficient courage in time of service. The orator acquitted himself with great ability and success. As he returned to Rome, meeting with a per- son of some eminence with whom he was acquainted, he asked him. what they said and thought of his actions at Rome, imagining the glory of his achievements had filled the whole »city. His acquaintance answered. "Where have you been. then. Cicero, all this time?" He found that the ac- counts of his conduct had been lost at Rome, as in an im- Henry W. Milliard. 83 mcnse sea, and had made no remarkable addition to his reputation. His ardent thirst for glory was rebuked at the thought that his living personality in what he conceived would bring him renown had not extended the short distance that he was from Rome. Though this was the case with the Roman orator in this incident, yet his name and memory still live in the immortality of his orations. The mig'hty republic of Rome lives only in history. Its grandeur and glory have passed away as a dream. No longer in serried array and gleaming in purple and gold the Roman co- horts are seen marcliing in triumphal procession along the Appian or Flaniinian ways to the seven-hilled city. The senators, the conscript fathers, in their togas with purple borders, no longer occupy their curule chairs in the Capi- tol. The rival armies of Caesar and Pompey no longer fill the Roman world with dread and consternation and the shock of battle. Cicero lives not in a single action nor in a single speech, but in his orations and his life devoted to virtue and liberty. Twenty centuries have transpired since he fell beneath the assassin's dagger, yet his orations still live in their spirit of unfading beauty and eloquence, and form the classic text-book of the schoolboy and of the scholar of civilized and enlightened nations of to-day. How beautiful and inspiring is the immortality that the products of the mind and the art of letters give to man ! The place and hold he has in the memory of the living may be sweet and precious, but it is brief and transient. The features of the countenance taken on the iodized plate of the artist will lie in the receptacle of private mementoes, half- forgotten. The waxen cylinder of the phonograph may receive and retain for years the tones of the human voice, but shut up in silence, unless some living hand shall set it in motion. The printed or written page with its treasured thought descends to successive generations of men. This is beautifully illustrated in the life career of the subject of this essay, Henry W. Hilliard, as well as that of the old Roman orator, Cicero. As photographed from the remi- niscences of the past upon the tablet of memory, this distin- guished son of the South was of fine personal physique, ex- 84 SOUTIIKRX LiTKKATrRK. press and admirable in form and stature, eyes and hair black, swarthy in complexion and dipiified and courtly in bearing-. Thus he appeared to the author as seen by him at LaCiransj^e, ("ieors;"ia. in Juh', 1855. He was at that time in the full meridian of life and at the close of his jnililic ca- reer that had been crowned with civic honors, lie had ac- quired distinction in the law as his chosen profession, and had been elected to a seat in the House of Representatives of the Conc^ress of the United States from Alabama. He had been sent as foreij^n minister to the court of Austria, and had returned from that mission the year past. He 'had a just and equal fame among^ his contemporaries, antl had re- ceived many honors from his fellow-citizens. His course in professional and public life had been the steady and serene travel of a star and not the flashiiii^ brilliancy of a meteor. The extracts taken from his s]^eeches dcliveretl uptm the floor of Congress and various addresses which appear in the school-books of oratory of the land arc models of classic beauty and eloquence. As an orator he was not vehement nor orotund in his elocution. He was easy and graceful in his actions as a speaker, and the words fell from his lips soft and gentle like the descending snowflakes that silently wrap the earth in a mantle of beauty. He delivered the adilress at the commencement exercises of the LaCrange Female College in July, 1854. The institution was then at the acme of its prosperity. It numbered, perhaps, two- hundretl jnipils upon its register. The sjiectacle the col- lege presented that day was grand and beautiful. There was gathered in its elegant and spacious hall an audience of two thousand people, who came from all parts of the State to attend the exercises. There were present in that large assembly the womanhood of the land in all the worshiped graces of female loveliness, educated manhood with its courtly bearing and culture, age with its reverend locks ami gatherctl wisdom, and learned brows crowned with the hon- ors of science. The orator (the subject of this essay) said in his address that he had travekHl over Europe, had visited the royal courts of its kingtloms and empires, but did not Hknry W. Hiluard. 85 see any courtly array of the female sex that surpassed the women of the South. This picture of Southern life and manners has been graphically described, because of the dark, malign and ])roscribe(l institution of African slavery that lay in the background, and on account of which sec- tional spleen has sought to defame the civilization of the South. It is as an author he forms a subject of special interest for the notice and review of the ])en. Late in life he came before the public in a book of fiction titled "De Vane," eras paraphrased, "A Story of Plebeians and Patricians." It is a sweet and pleasant story to read. Considered in its general character, it has a natural and genial plot, agree- ably sustained to its close, grace and beauty of diction with sparkling classical allusions, lofty tone of moral sentiment, sublime reflections on many things that form the profound subject of human thought and inquiry, and a hai)py duioue- ment. 'Jlie entire narrative meanders through the beauties of rhetoric, treasures of thought and descriptions of natural scenery like the clear brook thai glides llu'cmgh the llowery vale. Specially considered, the story derives interest from its being a representation of Southern life and manners at the period when the South was emerging from its pioneer state, and had expanded into the first stages of education and refinement, and prior to the "forties" of the past cen- tury. It presents the high standard of social, moral and intellectual culture that prevailed in the society of Colum- bia, South Carolina, the seat of the State University. It presents in vivid picture the literary exercises of that in- stitution of learning on commencement day at that period. The book as a work of fiction deserves special interest from the fact that the actors in the drama of life pre- sented are not fictitious, but real, and as noble as ever moved upon the stage of human life. There, under the veil of fiction woven appears South Carolina's great statesman, as charming in social life as he was grand and gifted in the legislative hall of the nation. And the female characters that appear are the true models of American womanhood, mothers and daughters that in their sovereignty as un- 86 Southern Literature. crowned queens needed not the title of the decayed nobility of Europe to add to their charms of beauty and virtue. The book should possess deep interest for the Alethodist reader,' as it presents in the fullness and apostolic grace of his character as a minister of the gospel Rishop \\'illiam McKendree, one of the leaders and founders of the INI. E. Church. Also in his young manhood. William Capers, who in after years came to the Episcopal office. It portrays him in the delivery of the celebrated discourse of traditional fame, as with sweetness of speech he wraps the souls of his audience in the elysian spell of spiritual ecstasy. It like- wise presents in clear and gra])hic description the form of divine worship as observed by the church at that period, in all its simplicity, solemnity and spiritual unc- tion. The ministers of the gospel of the present day may read this book of fiction with profit. "De Vane" when first issued from the press created no sensation in reading circles in the South, and has attracted but little attention since. Though it has received but scant recognition, yet judged according to the rules of pure taste, it possesses a high degree of literary excellence. In Its classic grace and beauty peerless as a Corinthian shaft of marble molded bv the skill of the artist, it should have and hold a high place in Southern literature, and stand as an enduring memorial of posthumous fame to the author, as to the Latin poet Horace his lyric poems, which he presaged would be to him iiioiiiiiiiciifiim (Crc pcrcnnius. AUGUSTUS B. LONGSTREET. As related by the Greek poet, Homer, in the Iliad, that during the siege of Troy, when Nestor, the clear-toned sjicaker of the Pylians, from whose tongue also flowed speech sweeter than honey, and who had been reared and nurtured through two generations of articulate-speaking men and was living in the third, arose in the council of the Greeks to quiet the strife which had sprung up between those intrepid warriors, Agamenmon and Achilles, in order to en- Augustus B. Lonqstreet. 87 force his advice reverts to his past experience. He tells them of Pirithous, Dryas, Exardius and Polyphemus, he- roes of the past, whom he had known and with whom he had associated in arms. In speaking of them he as- serted that they were the bravest of earth-nourished men, and no mortals then living might contend with them. He had never seen such men since, nor was he likely to see such again. It is the disposition of the old to look in review upon the period in which they were reared when it is passed as the golden age of time, whilst the smart and vivacious present, especially the young, are apt to regard it as an era of fogy- ism. They are not in the least disposed to accept the prop- osition that men and things of seventy-five or fifty years ago can compare in any respect with those of the present. It must readily be conceded that the present age has been ren- dered marvelous by its scientific discoveries and its achieve- ments in art. It can boast of the telephone which con- quers space and gives ubiquity to man. It exults in the pihonograph that with its waxen cylinders receives the im- pression of the tones of the human voice, and after a lapse ■of forty years can reproduce them with living exactness. This may be the case, yet the past may and does compare favorably with the present in literature and oratory and in the heroic mold of its men and the virtue and beauty of its women. Especially is this true of those men who laid the foundations of this republic and of those who came upon the stage of action as their immediate successors. On the roll of its illustrious sons of that period Georgia does not boast a Durer name or a nobler character than the Rev. A. B. Longstreet, D.D., LL.D., the distinguished sub- ject of this essay. It was the privilege of the writer of this article, in January, 1848, to have matriculated as a student of Emory College, Oxford, Ga., when Judge Long- street, as he was then addressed, was president of that in- stitution of learning, and to have the opportunity of obtain- ing personal knowledge of him during a period of six months. At that time he was perhaps sixty years of age ; tall and venerable in person, his countenance was plain and expres- sive of benignity, and peculiarly modified by his wearing 88 Southern Literature. liis hair dase-cut and combed down the forehead according; to the style of his boyhood days. With these pecuHarities of form and feature, and as president of a college and also author of "Georgia Scenes," he strongly impressed the- youthful imagination. The points of interest and traits of character that may have clustered around and marked his boyhood and youth are not known to the writer. Neither is the intellectual precocity he may have displayed at school nor the literary proficiency and the honors that may have crowned his course at college. He was an alumnus of the State University in- the early period of its history. In the capacity of instruc- tor he had charge of the departments of moral philosophy and political economy during the time he was president of Emory College. To portray in full and graphic detail the personal physique,, the moral stamina, the versatile intellect and the long, varied and useful professional life and experience of this eminent man, so as to present a true picture of him with living exactness, would require a skill and touch of mind and pen like to that of the subtle and nimble sunbeam that photographs the human form and countenance. Yet this is requisite in order fully to appreciate him and comprehend that note and place of honor and esteem in which he was. held by the people of Georgia and the South. His claims to historic mention and distinction are three- fold ; as a jurist and author and a minister of the Gospel. His first and chosen pursuit in life was the study and prac- tice of law. The intellectual training and literary culture of his collegiate course at the State University of Georgia^ although that institution of learning was in its infancy, pre- pared him to enter upon the study of the law with broad,, genial and enlightened grasp of mind and thought. This lifted him at once above the paltry chances of being a jus- tice-court or case lawyer, and was a pledge of high at- tainments in legal knowledge and of honorable position at the bar. However, though this might be the propitious augury under which he engaged in the study and practice of law, there is no doubt, that in the outset of his legal ca- reer he went the rounds of the justice courts, as Georgia was. Augustus B. Longstreet. 89 then a pioneer State and its social and political institutions were in their incipiency. It affords a true and pleasing picture to the mind to present him as a tall and slender youth going the rounds of these courts on horseback and carrying with him in his saddle-bags his law books, and tO' imagine him with a subtle play of humor in his eye and not over handsome face, as a youthful pleader before the justices, the revered magnates of the law. To do this would be no draught upon the fancy or imagination. What meant that rich vein of pleasantry with him in social life, and where else did he get that living picture of the men and manners of that day that appear in "Georgia Scenes," that production of his sportive genius? Although at that period Georgia was a pioneer State, as has been said, yet at that time its bench and bar could boast of brilliant talent and fine legal ability. This fact serves to demonstrate his success in the law, in that he arose to eminence amidst such contemporaries, and reached, that seat of honor — the judge's bench. The writer heard Judge John J. Floyd, a member of the bar of the Flint circuit, superior court, Georgia, say that Judge Longstreet W2LS an eloquent advocate before a jury. It was the privilege of the writer when a student at Emory College to hear Dr. Longstreet, as he was then called, in his pulpit minis- trations. At that time, his style and manner of oratory was . not brilliant or even declamatory, but was on the conver- sational order. In a baccalaureate address delivered at the commence- ment exercises of the college in 1848 there flashed forth rays of that fervid eloquence that crowned him with honor in the palmy days of his youth and manhood. The occa- sion was to him one of more than ordinary interest. It was the closing scene and act of his official connection with that institution of learning. His resignation as President had been tendered in view of his election to the Chancellor- ship of the State University of Mississippi. This would sever the sweet ties of kindred and of friends, disrupt the lifelong associations of the past, and expatriate him from his beloved State whose soil held in its embrace the aslies of the loved ones of his household and ancestry. Then, dur- 90 Southern IvITErature. iii<;- the session had occurred the death of his only son, a bris^ht boy of nine or ten years of age. All these circum- stances consi)ired to unseal in his bosom the deep fountain of feeling which found expression in sentiment and reHec- tions which moved to tears, as his voice rose in the thrilling pathos and sweet accents of speech ascribed by Homer to Nestor, the silver-tongued speaker of the Pylians. The taste and habits of this distinguished son of the South seem to have been of a strong literary cast. It is usually the case with the large majority of educated men, that when they graduate and leave the classic halls of learn- ing to enter upon the sphere and duties of active life, they cast aside school-books with their lore. The polished lines of Cicero, the burning invectives of Demosthenes, the lyric melody of Horace and the golden dreams of Plato are for- gotten amidst the whirl ami engagements of busy life. Their academic and collegiate course forms only a pleasing reminiscence, and if they retain any benefit from it, it is in the intellectual training and disci])line which they inciden- tally received. Though Judge Longs! reel may not have kept up the regular and daily study of his text-books as when at school, yet he seems to have cherished a fondness for the studies of his youth and to have given them such attention in review and retrospect as to keep them fresh in memory. He w'as a close student in his profession and in the general field of letters. So intensely absorbed in thought would he become, that the amusing anecdote is related of him that when coming into the house out of a shower of rain, he is said to have laid his umbrella upon the bed, and he himself went behind the door. On his walk to and from his house to the college building over a half mile distant, to attend the daily recitations of his department, when he met a crowd of students, he would rarely lift his eyes from their abstract pose to receive the salutation due him as the presiding officer of the faculty of the institution. Amidst the study of the abstruse principles, dry forms and technicalities of the law, he found time to indulge his literary taste and talent in the creative realms of thought. The first production that came from his pen was Augustus B. Lonostrkkt. 91 "Georgia Scenes." This book comprises (lescrii)tions of anuisiiig scenes and incidents in backwoods life, and of the social manners and customs that prevailed in the early and pioneer period of Georgia. Ihe charm and merit of the sketches lie not so much in the (lisp'lay of the subtle power of the imagination to create, as in delineations of ])crsons and characters taken from real life and drawn with graphic skill and touch, and in the quaint forms that appear of the collo(|uial speech or dialect prevalent among the uneducated classes f)f that period. They portray a phase of civiliza- tion prior to the reign of Webster's blue-back speller with its precious gems of learning and of Lindley Mm-ray's grammar with its graces of culture in the log school-houses of tke land. The mental contrast that naturally rises in the mind of the educated reader gives force and ])i(piancy and literary zest to the "Scenes." One of llic iiiitable slselclics of the bo(^k is "Ned r.race." The quizzing humor of this character whom the author as- sures us was not altogether a "man of straw," but a verita- ble original, delights and entertains the reader. Another slsH'tch ricli in enjoyment is the "Militia Muster." As de- scribed by the author, though it might be a drilling and a lireparation of the yeomary of the country for war, but from the military display made, it was as unwarlike as possible. It was a holiday spectacle for the boys, the women and chil- dren. The aged survivor from that period, who then as a boy was a spectator, or served in ranks as a substitute for some older ])erson, as did the writer of this article, reiuem- bers well how the idle pageant captivated his youthful fancy, and how "he felt that swelling of the heart that he should never feel again." He can tell how the sight inflamed his bosom with martial ardor, and with the war legends of 1776 and 1 8 [2 thrilling in memory, how lie longed to fight willi tile "I'.ritishers," the historic foe, whilom of the colo- nies and tlien of the vStates. Tt is pleasant to recall those jection. Some time ago a northern ne\\s]iaper would base a criticism upon the South bv referring to the characters and maimers j^resented in the "Scenes" as being descriptive or exponential of the Southern people. The tort ami injustice of such an argu- ment and conclusion are too apparent to require refutation. So far as the temleney of the "Scenes" to impair taste or culture, they may be said to have the opposite effect, as in the striking contrast presented they make an impressive appeal to the reader lor the graces of education. As to their moial tone and effect they incite to the practice of vir- tue bv showing the deformities of vice. Southern wit has been fruitful in the tield o\ comic or humorous lileralme. There are i[uite a mnuber of authors who have catered lo the amusement oi the public by the proiluctions o\ their pens. There apiK\ars iirst upon the roll in the earlv davs. Thonipson in the laughable story of "!Major Jones's Courtship." I'lieu C'lemmens ojums up a rare fund oi amusement in the rac\- character itf "Cai>tain Simciu Suggs." \'e\t, Harris comes out in the broad cari- catures of "Sut l.uveugood" and carries jocosity to its far- thest extent. I'ill .\rp. from the trickling fount of humor, in his "I.etters to the Constitution." now for half a cen- tury has sent forth a geni:d current to refresh the reading public. The author oi "(.KHirgia Scenes" holds an hon- orable ]ilace among these sportive wits and purveyors of mirth for mankind. He who has never read this book has Augustus B. Iy()N(;sTRi';KT. 93 in reservation a store of enjoyment in the coniie scenc^s and pietnres vvliieh it ])resents, fresli and -lowing' from [hv \):\^qs of real life. J)r. Lonj;street was liki'wise the anlhor of a series of letters on the once j^reatly exeilins;- snhjeet of the aholition (»f slavery at the Sonth, pnhlished in pamphlet form, and addressed to the State of Massachnsi'lts, mider lln' ahhre- viated namt- of "Dear Mass." The writer of this article can not speak of llie political and literary merits of those "Letters," as, when he glanced over tluin in hoyhood, he was too young to form an opinion of them. It can hut be snpi>osed that they were able ])a])ers upon the subject, as Jud,i^e i-ongstreet from the logical cast of his mind, Icg^al training and social environments was well (pialified to dis- cuss the (|m'stion of slavery in all its ])hases and features. They did not however stay tln' tide of Northern fanati- •cism upon the subject. It is unnecessary to say how it was pressed and urged until it immerged into civil war, drenched with blood the fair fields of the Sonth, and has enslavi'd the •C(juntry to party tyranny and in financial bondage. The virus of the old sectional hostility to the South still exists. Tt was l)ut the other day, March 10, 189S, that Dr. l to Moiirisli ; To siisliiiii licr sill" li!»s A. Mr.'iiis." Tlu- followiu.L; l)t':mlifiil loasl was i^ivcii by the laincnlcd Janu's Loiij^'stri'rl, iu'|)lu'\v (if Krv. A. I>. Longstreet, cx- IMcsidc'tit of I'.mory : 'I'u Till.; H ION loll CI.AHH. " 'I'lii'v now I'onii one Itrilliiiil comsIcIImI ion of minds, l']ii('li of wliicli m.'iy lime willi ils l('l('S(',o|ti(' power cesolve Inio ;i s(;ir of llie iirsl in.'i^fni I iide." Ill", like MaiH-c'llus. iu'|)lu-vv of Aiij;tisltis C.x'sar, cclcbra- (c'd by Vir.L;!] in Ibc .luicid. dif(l eaiK- in bis career as a lawyer, wbilst boiior, wilb in\'isiblr band, was weavini;- for liis brow Ibe wrcalb of fame. b'acb oni' wciil f(»rlb iipmi bfc's arena and en^aocd in bis •cbosen ptnsnil. bOrly-seven \i'ars bave ebapsed since Ibe •eventful ])eri(id of j^radnalion. Tbe several destinies and fates of tbe members of tbe class ari' not known in Ibeir ]")articidars to tbe writer of_lbis ailiele. At Ibe comnience- nienl exercises of b'mory ColK'i^c in |nl\', iS()f), wben tbe alumni of tbe class were calU'd foiib upon Ibe stage, Rev. W. V. Cook, D.J)., of tbe Norlli ( icdr-ia Conference, M. E. ■Cburcli. Soutb, steppc(l ont as Ibe onh' reiiresentative pre.s- •ent. lie writes tbal be knew of bnl Iwo idbers surviving, tlic lion. T. M. Norwood and Ibc writer of Ibis article. Tbe weary wbeel.s of life witb tbem will soon cease to move. Tbe legal profession lias ever been Ibe brilliant road to social f)Osition and jjolitical prefermenl. 1 1 is clearly slujwn in tbe bistory of all civilized nations Ibat lawyers, or tbose will) are versed in tbe law, are tbe ones tbat are generally considered by tbe pco|)le as tbe most eligible for legislators, to carry tbe seals of tbe State, and as cbief executive to ]>reside over tbe destinies of tbe nations. Tbe power .and inlluence of lawyers ])revail to tbat extent in social life and -over public opinion tbat ev<'n in military tactics tbey are supposed to possess talent superior to tbose of otber pur- 126 Southern Literature. suits and avocations, as was shown during the Civil war by companies in the selection of their officers. To be a lawyer is to be on the way of promotion, may be construed as a safe social maxim. The path to the shrine of Honor is more often found through the temple of Themis. This was particularly the case at this time. There was then a proud array of legal intellect that occu- pied the bar throughout Georgia, composed equally and alike of that class who by their individual efforts had ac- quired their knowledge of the law frop the text-books and in the practice of the courts, as well as of the ones that had been favored with the manipulation and the antecedent training of the law school of that period. How grand and glorious was the list of them may be seen by a mere men- tion of their names. There was Absalom H. Chappell, Washington A, Poe, John J- Floyd, \\'alter T. Colquitt, Herschel V. Johnson and a host of others whose names and lives proudly appear upon Georgia's escutcheon and her arch of Glory. To be a lawyer thou meant something in the way of legal lore. It implied a knowledge of the principles of law in their broad scope and application, and not as is of- ten the case now, a scanty information of four or five books and applicable only to the case in hand. The law is a noble science and honorable as a profession. It may take a law- yer with due diligence and effort ten years to establish himself in his j^-ofession, but then when he has done so, it is permanent. It is with him as with the wise man spoken of in the Scriptures, who built his house upon a rock. He has a sure foundation and his edifice will stand. The law as his avocation in life was the ambition and purpose of Mr. Norwood in his boyhood, and he entered upon the study of it early after his graduation in 1850, with Claudius J. Wilson as his associate. He read law at Culloden, Ga., under James M. Smith, who afterwards be- came governor of Georgia. What a charming episode in the life of the writer of this article was the fall they read law, as being in charge of the school at Culloden. he was brought in daily social and intellectual association with Thomas M. Norwood, 127 tlu'iii, l)(.'iiii;- a vich afUTinatli of pleasure in llic rciu-vval ol Llu'ir c-dinpaiiionshi]) and tlic dclij^hts of collcj^'c days. Having- coiiipleU'd the course of readinjj," as preparatory to the practice of hivv, Air. Norwood, with Mr. WilsMu as his associate, went to .Savannah, (la., and opened a law office, 'idiey had stout liearls and brave spirits, tlius in the fresh flower of manhood and neophytes in the hiw, to f.jo to a city Hke Savannah to enter a forensic field where they woiild have to cope with the profound legal talent and the hi'illiant oratory of such men as Judg'c Lawton and Henry M. Law. They went in 1851, and no doubt in their legal career experienced the varying fortunes of youthful soli- citors of the bar. In 1861 they had begun to rise at the bar and acf|uire reputation for fine legal ability. The civil war, which arose and arrested in a measmx' tln' ])rogress and j)r()sperily of all peaceful ])urstnts at the South, closed up their joint career in the practice, as Mr. Wilson en- tered the Confederate service and died in the army. The faculty of atubition in man and the power to become great or distinguished in the eyes of his fellow-men afiford striking evidence of the divine clement of his nature. It shows him akin to Deity. 1"he old Latin poet Horace, in speaking of the honor of the victory in the ancient chariot race, beautifully says, the goal skillfully avoided by the glowing wheels and the ennobling palm elevate the lords of the earth to the gods. It is an old adage that has come down amid the traditions of the past, that Irue greatness or meritorious distinction is not the result of chance or acci- dent. It stands forcibly demonstrated in the history of the fame-crowned heroes, that toil, effort, sacrifice, ])hysical or mental power, gave them their suj)remacy among men. It is not as the old poet represented it, that ]"\)rtune, in the caprice of her power in human affairs, from the head of this one, with a sharp, rushing sound of her pinions, bears away the tiara in iiui)etuous flight; and on the head f)f that one delights to have placerl it. These reflections and deductions, drawn from the scenes and vicissitudes in the fortunes of men as presented in the shifting ])anorama of real life, find a fit illustration in Mr. Norwood's public career. As stated, he and his law part- 128 Southern Literature. iier, C. C. \\'ilson had begun to rise in their profession when .the civil war opened. In the winter of i86o-6r, j\Ir. Norwood raised a company to go into the Confederate service. Tybee Island was ■threatened by the L'nion or Northern forces in the spring •of 1861, and General Lawton then in command there, called for volunteers — /. c, companies not then enlisted. Mr. Norwood called his company together, read the call, sub- mitted the question to them, and they refused by a major- ity to go to Tybee. Thereupon he refused to command them as captain, and threw up his commission. In 1861-62 he was a member of the legislature of Geor- gia as representative from Chatham county. Without be- ing asked he was elected to this position by the spontaneous voice and will of the people. The antique and sequestered town of Milledgeville was then the capital of the State. Mr. Norwood's first experience as a legislator was marked iDy a political incident of almost dramatic character in the .legistative proceedings. The chief executive of the State, Governor Joseph E. Brown, was not in harmony with Jef- ferson Davis, president of the infant republic of the Con- federacy, and sought to use his official power to obstruct his administration. Some of the leading men of the State were in sympathy with him. Governor Brown sent in to the legis- lature his celebrated anti-conscription message. It was championed by the Hon. Linton Stephens, a member of the House, who made a magnificent speech in support of it, which demoralized the supporters of President Davis. The House adjourned when Air. Stephens closed his speech. Within a half-hour a committee of members, lieaded by O. L. Smith, ex-Professor of Latin, Emory Col- lege, and who was a member of the House, waited on Mr. Norwood, and requested him to reply to Mr. Stephens. This he reluctantly consented to do. The next morning the House was packed. The Supreme Court adjourned or rather took recess, and the judges occupied seats in the legislature. Mr. Norwood replied to Mr. Stephens in a speech of two hours or more in length. The opponents of Governor Brown's message were entirely satisfied ; the judges of the Supreme Court said that his argument on the Thomas M, Norwood. li^ law and the Constitution was a complete answer to Mr. .'Stephens. The message was overwhehningly voted down, — i. c, the resolution of Mr. Stephens to indorse the mes- sage was defeated by a large majority. This was Mr. Norwood's first effort in a legislative body. Eut there is not a record of a word that he spoke. There were no stenographers present to take down his speech, and it lives only in the memory of the members of the legisla- ture now alive who heard it. Though the incident related has no place on historic page, and his speech, like that of Patrick Henry before the Continental Congress of '76 in behalf of the Declaration •of Independence, lives only in tradition, yet not less great should be his triumph of the hour and the honor given. With patriotic and heroic emotion he can recall in thought that in the first stage of its existence he shielded the young republic of the Confederacy, the brilliant but vain dream of a gallant people for a separate and distinct government, from the deadly thrust of political spleen and ambition, and meni- •ory with him in true devotion may wreathe the tomb of Dixie's withered hopes with garlands of love and honor. . His patriotism has that high and delicate sense of honor that prompted him boldly to protest against the incivility to the South on the part of the committee in inviting to the Dewey banquet at Savannah General Miles, who had ■wantonly put in irons Jefiferson Davis, the South's martyr president, whilst in ]->rison at Fortress Monroe. In February, 1862, when Fort Donelson was captured, Mr. Norwood volunteered as a private soldier in the Chat- ham artillery, joined in March, took a cold the first night, which settled in his right eye. and it became inflamed from •standing guard in the cold nights and drilling in clouds of dust by day. The surgeon of the company sent him home to be treated by his physician. The left eye became involved, photophobia ensued, and in brief, he was disabled for five and a half years, so that he could not use his sight in read- ing or writing. As a class there were none more gallant and patriotic than were the legal fraternity throughout the entire South, in responding to the call of their country to the tented field. 9 f^ 1 130 Southern Literature. They sought to serve their country in a military, rather than in a civic capacity. They resigned their places of ease and official preferment to encounter the hardships of the soldier's life and the perils of battle. They esteemed the post of danger as the post of honor. Their patriotism was. not a poetic dream that fills the mind, or a mere sentiment that plays idly upon the lips in the piping times of peace, but it found its full expression in that sentiment cherished in the patriotic speech and hearts of all lands. '"Tis sweet to die for one's country." They went forth from homes of beauty and ease and happiness to meet the carnage of battle with light cheer, as if summoned as guests to a marriage feast. By their example and by their potent influence as a class they fired the masses of the people with zeal, and by their chivalry upon the field of battle often during the war turned the tide of defeat into victory. To mention T. R. Cobb of Georgia, who was eminent for his legal attain- ments, honored for his civic virtues, and lamented for his- untimely death, is only to enumerate one of a thousand like gallant spirits who laid their lives in costly sacrifice upon the altars of their beloved .South. The capture of Savannah by Ciencral Sherman was one of the closing events of the war. It signalized an entire re- versal of the hopes of the South. The civil war having closed and peace having resumed her easy sway over the land, Mr. Norwood returned to the profession of law and obtained a lucrative practice. Thus came to jiini. at last, the reward for the ten long years of his patient waiting and toil in the practice of law up to the date of the war, and compensation for that syn- cope in life's golden period and prospects in the four years that then followed and which were to the people of the South an utter waste of time as to peaceful pursuits. The state of affluence in which he was placed by this favorable turn of aflfairs enabled him to devote his attention to poli- tical matters and to indulge the ambitious hopes which he had cherished through life. The crisis and period at which Mr. Norwood appeared upon the political arena were eventful in the history of Georgia and likewise afterwards successively of the other Thomas M. Norwood. 131 Southern States that had seceded. It was the juncture at wliicli was sounded the death-knell of the infamous tyr- anny which the people had experienced at the hands of the Federal Government for four years and the pillage of the revenues of the State by a body of alien officials who had been put in power under the Reconstruction Measures passed by Congress. It was the second year of the admin- istration of Rufus W. Bullock as Republican governor of Georgia under ''car])etbag" rule. The people despairing of receiving justice at the hands of Congress and of framing any State constitution that would 1)e acceptable to that body in its action and de- mands upon the South, had with patriotic indignation and manly disgust thrown down the reins of government. In- stead of yielding to despair and the situation of things, with heroic courage and burning speech Mr. Norwood in public addresses sought to arouse them to rise up in their maj- esty as freemen and to throw off their ignominious politi- cal subjection. When the legislature of that year con- vened LUillock had lied and left the office of governor va- cant. James M. Smith, representative from Muscogee county, was chosen by the legislature to fill the unexpired term of Bullock. Before that body Mr; Norwood came as candidate for the United States Senate and was elected to that position for the long term of six years. The honor thus conferred upon him, though high and distinguished, may be regarded as a just tribute and recompense to him for the inappreci- able service he had rendered to the people and State in his lx)ld crusade against carpetbagism and his letters signed "Nemesis." In view of the facts of his previous history, as have been recited, his success in life may seem marvelous, but such a career lies open to every American youth. He had no b\)rtunatus cap which, by putting on his head, at his bidding would bring him wealtli and honor, but it was the toil of that grand magician and controller of human des- tiny, an energetic and well-trained intellect, that achieved for him his splendid fortune. It may be that in the pres- ent age when there is greater competition and a wider dif- fusion of talent and cultured mind, the chances for fame 1^2 SOUTHI'.KN LrrURA'lHiRl;. ;nul forliuic liavc Ikvii diininislKnl ; nevertheless, it wouUl lie well for Aiiierioaii parents \o instil in the hearts of their sons a hij;h and laudable anihilion. althoui^h they may not obtain the emohunents o\ oltiee ami the brilliant trojibies of civic honor. b'.nterint;" (.'oni^'ress as a nieniber ol the Senate, wliieli in the past as a lei;'islati\e braneh i^i i;o\ernnient was ehar- aeteri/rd and renowui'd as haviui; as august ai\d as abU' a boily {A men as ever sat in the eouneil hall ol a j;ieat na- tion, antl with the settlement of many points eonneeted with tho restoratiiMi oi the Southern Stales to their formrr status in the Union pending before it. well nii^ht the in- <|nir\ be made, what will be ^\o in this new ami mUried sphere and under the L^loweriui; Urnks ol hostile eyes? 'rhoni;h no list oi parlienlars may be j^iven ol the beariui^" and ability of Mr. Norwood, yet that it was fully commen- surate with the diiiihty of (leor^ia and the responsibilities of his hiiih position, may be inferred from the speech on tlu- ri\il Kii^hts r.ill. which he made (Mi the floor oi the Senate chambei- in \indication and defense oi the South, and which extorted tlu> pi'aisi^ and approbation ol Iocs. In scaimini; the starr\' hosts id' hcaviMi al nii;ht the eye will obser\i' with what nnifoinul\ ol si/e and luster the\' shine forth from their cerulean dei^ths. I'ut few of them liave distinctive mai;iuticence like Jupiter with bis belts, as he shines forth in radiant beauty from the i^ates of morn ov of e\e : or like the comet, relm-nin<;' from its travel of centuries throuj^h sj'ace with its fiery train o\ llamcs in awful i;raudenr athwart the midnii^bt skv. Thus in the political linnamcnt ol a natiini, whilst in its s;ala\y oi i;i"eat men there ma\ be man\ who are shiniui^- lights and o\ useful talent, \ct but few become ensphered as j^reat intellectual (M'bs to shine to after ai^es with fame and i^lorv that will never set. There are those who seem to ha\e been born for a crisis and an event, and their actii>n uniler the jimclure id' alTairs skives them ilistinetive renown, and the character oi the Accd im]>erishability of i"ame. Tliis was exhibitetl in the case of ratrick llenry in bis speech f(M- libertv before the House of Rnrqesses of \ ir- uiina; id" Thomas lelTerson in writiui;- the Oeclaration of Thomas M. Norwood. 13.3 Indi'prniKiKH', and of John /Xdaius in Ins spcccli before- the ( "onlinc-nlal ( oni^ri'ss, nr_i;in}; llu- adi)))tii)ii ol' llial inslni- nicnt ; and further on in America's histm-y, of llenry Clay in the Missouri Coni'iJroinise hill and liis s])eeeh in support of that measure. (Ireat fame has hut few heirs. iiavinj;- served his senatorial period, Mr. Norwood was I'leiii^I to the Mouse of Keprest'ulat ives for two successive terms. It was din"iii^' this period of his congressional life that he made his most iioled oiatoric.il eilOrl and display of his intellectual ahilily, as reported lo the writer by the lion. 'J'homas R. McC'rae, nieniher of ( oni^ress from the conjj;'res- sional district, /Xrkansas, in reply lo a one-armed Union soldier ruul a KepuMic.'in nieniher ol ( Oni^i'i'ss, who, in con- f^'ressional parlam-e, had in a speech "severelv ra'ltled the ])cmocralic ])arly." The heinoeraiic niemheis were sore over it and wi-ix' wanting' s(iiiie one to reply lo him. hi a day or two it was nunored that the new nieniher from Georgia would make a reply to ( ien. I)aviil I'.. Ilendei-sou. Intense interest was awakened. 'I'lie hour i-ame. The hall was crowded with spectators. In walki-d Mr. Nfirwood, (he new memher from (leorj^ia, with his bundle of papers. I'Vom want of comieous hearing' or for the pm|)osi' of l)rowbeatin^ him, ( ieneial I leiidersou look a chair and placed himself a few feet in fionl of Mr. Norwood and looked him in the face. Mr. .Xorwood .arose and spola-, and as a se([uel to the story Mr. McC'rae said that the speech he made was a triumphant retaliation and attended by cheers of victory for the l)emocratic ])arty. Tn re.Ljard to this s])ei'ch, Mr. Norwood, in spe.akiufj;' of it to the writer, said "that as an oratorical effort it was a bagatelle, a mere trilh'. Th.at (ieneial I leiiderson had wantonly indid^cd in a diatribe or vehement invective against the South, .and the only elTective w.'iy to mi-et it was by satire, l)m"les(|Ue or i-idieule." The spirit of satire, or to use ,'i more comprehensive term, the exercise of 7vit, is a marked feature with Mr. Norwood, both in his oratory .and his writinj^^s. It seems to be with him a nalm.al tr.'iit of mind, as with John Krmdolph of Virginia, the m.aster of political invective, noted in the early ann.als of ('on- 134 Southern Literature. grcss. It emanates not from a Mephistophelian or malig- nant disposition, but is blended with humor and partak'es more of the spirit of ridicule than reprobation. He seems to indulge in it from mere fun. The faculty of wit, satire, burlesque, or ridicule, single or blended, is a potent weapon from the armory of speech. Cervantes, as lord of the master-spell of irony, laughed away the rhivalry of Spain. Butler, in "Hudibras," sati- rized the social, political and religious vagaries of the days of Cromwell and Puritanism of England. Pope and other English poets plied the keen arrows of wit upon the follies and vices of their times. Mr. Norwood, in his first speech on "The Civil Rights Bill," in the Senate of the United States, used effectively this rhetorical weapon. He elicited attention to the construction of the constitutional amend- ment bearing upon the subject. He entered the ])olitical arena with this weapon in his hands. This action on his part may have been called forth by the crisis and character of the times, it being the period of "Car]-)etbag Rule" in the South. It played an important part with him in the political campaign in his race for gov- ernor. He was fearless in the use of it. He always struck the shield of his opponents in debate with the sharp end of his lance. r>efore it they quailed and fled. Though this campaign was a memorable episode in Mr. Norwood's polit- ical career, yet at this remote day we may not uplift the curtain from it. It would be to tell of the causes, the er- rors, the operations, the political confederacies of the lead- ers and the game that Eortune played. As such, as the Latin poet Horace, in an ode, said to Asinius PoUio. who was writing a history of the civil war of Caesar and Pom- pey: " Periculosiip plenum opns alse, Tractas, et incedis per ignes Siippositos cineri dolosi." It is "an undertaking full of danger and hazard and vou walk upon fires placed beneath deceitful ashes." Many of the actors have passed from the stage of time, and many of them are on the list of Georgia's noble names. We Thomas M. Norwood. 135 •sliouUl cherish the memory of their virtues and let oblivion •enshroud their faults. "Nihil de mortuis nisi bonum est." A seat in Congress is the shining goal of political aspi- ration. In a few years after their congressional terms have exiured, the intellectual prowess and oratorical display upon which its incumbents have relied for the transmission of their name and memory to i)osterity will be forgotten, or lie en- tombed in literary crypt in the dust-covered folios of Con- •gressional Records. It was once a proud exclamation of an American citizen ■to say, "I am a Congressman." It Js still a high and hon- orable position, though in these degenerate times unwor- thy occupants now and then creep in who prostitute the arak ; the other is the prayer of Hannah in thanksgiving unto God for the gift to her of Sanuiel. her son. They are sublime and elociuent, Init these quali- ties ma\- be attributed to the divine inspiration that rested tipon the speakers at the time of utterance. In the New Testament Scriptures there are likewise recorded two lit- erary compositions from feminine minds: the one is the (mIc of praise to Goil by Fdizabeth, the mother of John the Haptist, upon the visit of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to her ; the other is that of the Virgin in a hymn of adora- tion and thanksgiving imto God for the supreme honor of beiui?- made the mother of the world's Redeemer. Thev Miss Penina Moise. 139 Avere filled with the Holy Ghost, and each sacred rha])sody may appropriately he called '"The Mat^nificat." The records of the literature of ancient Greece still fur- ther show the paucity of the productions of the female mind in the world of letters. Greece has been always esteemed the nurse of arts, the land of song. Nature has lavished there its charms and enriched it with variety of scenery in the winding vale, the sloping hill, the mountain with its ver- dure, or snow-crowned, the lake, the sea and sunny shore, all spanned by the blue sky of the old /l^^gean, which, with its em])urpling light, invests all objects with ethereal beauty and repose, that awaken the soul to poetic rapture. It produced Homer with his Iliad; y'Eschylus with his Pro- metheus Unbound; Euripides with his Alcestis; and others, who, in different walks of literature, wrote and sung in the ■divine Hellenic tongue with the full inspiration of the fa- bled Muses of JMeria. Yet, Greek literature presents only the name of Sap])ho, the "burning Sappho" as Byron calls her, a lyric poetess. Addison, the elegant author of the Spectator, says that "among the mutilated poets of antiq- uity, there are none whose fragments are more beautiful than those of Sappho." Her poetry is fragrant with the sweetest incense of the Grecian muse. Ancient Rome presents not a single female name in its ■catalogue of authors ; nor does the mediaeval age, nor the period of ancient Rnglish. This anomaly of the position of woman in literature may be explained in various ways. It is easily solved in the fact that for ages past she has been made the "household drudge" ; considered man's inferior and denied the culture of her minrl. She has been allowed no time, nor had she any inclination to wander in the Rly- sian gardens of thought to ])luck the flowers and weave them into garlands. Moreover, she is in herself a sweet volume of poetry and romance, and her bounden dutv is to give to the world copies of herself as a mother in the merry little elves that cling around her knees. The subject of this article. Miss I'enina Moise, to a sketch of whom so long a ])refacc has been made, was a resident of Charleston, South Carolina. She appeared as an author of a book of i)oems about the close of the first i4o Southern Literature. quarter of the present century (1825). She is, perhaps^ not known now to the readuig world, and her poems have not been read by any one now living save the writer. It was read by him in early boyhood. It was in the library of a relative of his to whom the book of poems had been presented by the brother of the author. The book was a small, thin volume. The pieces of poetry- it contained were short. As to their literary merit the wri- ter was too young to form any just opinion of them. He read them with the same boyish carelessness that he would pluck a wayside flower, inhale its fragrance, admire its beauty and then cast it away. Around the "Palmetto State," and Charleston, her grand old city once in time,. have ever in the mind of the writer hung the charms of romance. This incident of reading the book of poems by Miss IMoise awakened it, and in gratitude for the pleasure afforded he would rescue her name from oblivion and place this tribute to her memory. MRS. CAROLINE LEE HENTZ. The record which the writer has given of the lives and character of eminent men of the South in these biographical essays has been to him a pleasing task. He has confined his selection to those with whom he was entirely or in a measure contemporary, and of whom he had some personal knowledge in the way of facts and incidents in their lives^ which he conceived would be matters of interest to the pub- lic. He has not exhausted the list of those sons of the South who are worthy of the notice of the historic pen and the tributes of the press. No, they are many ; and to enum- erate them all would be like counting the stars that adorn the azure depths of its nocturnal skies. There are a few readers to whom the "trifling grace" and information of these essays may aflrord "the perfmne and suppliance of a moment." With this encouragement of his literary toil and pursuit the writer with the opening: of the New Year feels prompted to renewed diligence in Mrs. Caroline Lrk Hentz. 141 liis task of paying honor to those sons and daughters of the South to whom honor is due. Hitherto the selection and trihute of the pen have hcen to the "Sons" only; now. for a time, it will he directed to the "Daughters" of the South. I'Yom the very nature and constitution of things, man, as com])ared with woman, must necessarily figure prominently in the world's eye. As he is crowned with sovereignty, the sphere of man's action lies in the business affairs and the pul)lic duties of life. Wealth and power and those pursuits which bring renown arc the objects of his aml)ition. Woman is restricted by custom to the fireside and to the interests of the household. The welfare and the happiness of those around her en- gage her heart and mind. She stands exalted in the per- son of her sex and in the sacred character of her household duties, and needs no other deed or achievement to give her eminence than the faithful iperformance of them. The present century, as it has often been said, in the awakening glow of its intelligence, has removed the re- strictions which the social customs of the past had thrown around woman, and opened to her equally with man the portals of learning and the public pursuits of life. She lias promptly availed herself of the concession and privi- leges granted, and obtained instruction in the various pro- fessions and avocations. That of literature has been the special one, as opening to her a s]:)here for the exercise of her intellectual gifts and literary attainments, and as being well adapted to the quiet seclusion of home. In the South, among the first to appear before the public as an author is the subject of this sketch. At the time, she resided at Columbus, Ga. ; afterwards at Tallahassee, Fla. Perhaps the first production of her pen and genius was a floral poem, written and arranged for the coronation of the Queen of May. The verse, the music, the sentiment, the descri])tions and personifications of the flowers exhibit a rare and delicate taste and fancy, and unsurpassed by any English ]X)et of the present or of former times. As re- cited and sung in woodland bower and by nymphs of earth- born lineage, in the presence of the writer in the May morn ■of his life, it was to him exquisite and charming, and now 143 Southern Literature. in the senile years of life it comes up before his mind still radiant with the beauty, freshness and fragrance of spring. It was as a writer of fiction that Mrs. Hentz attracted the special attention of the reading public. This was in the early "forties." Books then were rare and the production of any pen would secure for the writer from the public the award of genius. The following are some of the works of Mrs. Hentz: "The Planter's Uride," "Moss Springs," "Ugly Effie," "Robert Graham." They were read with eagerness by all lovers of fiction. They showed taste, purity of style and sentiment, easy narrative, and in a word, con- stituted healthier literature for the young minds than the weird and imin-obable sketches of Bret llarte. the stories of Rider Haggard, with their oriental magnificence of in- vention and description, or the oliscure and fantastic pro- ductions of Rudyard Kipljng. These occupy the plac"es of honor in the literary world to-day, whilst the works of Mrs. Hentz are scarcely known. It is unnecessary at this period to make an analysis and review of her merits as a writer. It would be as useless to gather up the faded flowers of sjiring to revive their vivid tints and fragrance, as to evoke her works from their lonely nooks in the libraries of the land, and to restore them to popular favor. Her name and fame will be sweetly embalmed to posterity in the beauty and fragrance of the Mav-day poem she wrote, and as long as flowers bloom and birds sing should she be remembered by the daughters of the "Sunnv South." MRS. AMELIA B. WELBY. In his description of the "Temple of Fame," the English poet Pope represents the tuneful "Nine," the votaries of song, as ranged near the throne of the fickle goddess with eyes forever fixed on her as they sing. He savs. "for fame they raise their voice and tune the string." This may be predicated of some who have essayed poetical composition, but few, alas ! who sought it, could boast of success. The Mrs. Amklia B. Wkm?y, 143 ij^'lorious ])liant()ni, the dazzlint^ cheat, to live a second life in others' breath," eluded their grasj). The true sons and dau_tj;-hters of song sing their notes artlessly like the birds of the forest in springtime. They spontaneously pour forth in joyful utterance the gay fancies that fill the mind, or with thrilling pathos tell the deep feelings of the soul. They sing not for fame, but because they love to sing. Such are they to whom fame comes unlooked for, if it comes at all. Little did old blind Homer think as he wandered from city to city through- out Greece and the Ionian isles, singing for his bread, that those songs which he sung, and as now arranged in the Iliad, would with all consenting time crown him forever with the highest honors of the epic muse. Nor is it to be supposed that Shakespeare, as he with divine genius per- sonified nature with enrapturing charm in his immortal dramas, had the least thought that he would occupy in succeeding ages the foremost place in English literature. And thus we nn'ght mention others of lesser note. The Southern writer, Mrs. Amelia 15. Welby, the sub- ject of this essay, may be ranked with this class, if the romantic story of her life be true, as related. A native of Tennessee, she is represented as being a flower-girl and that the poetical productions that have given her a name and place in Southern literature were written and disposed of in the sale of her flowers. No ambition fired her soul,. no dream filled her mind of winning for herself the ivy chaplet, the reward of learned brows, by the efl"usions of her pen. The story goes that her pieces attracted the no- tice of a gentleman who had literary taste to perceive their merit, and through his patronage they found their way to the press. They were collected and published in book form in the "forties" of the present century. Tie afterwards made her an offer of marriage, and she became Mrs. Welby. The poems of "Amelia, or Mrs. Welby," arc character- ized by modesty of thought and of language. There is nothing overstrained in style or love-sick in sentiment about them, as is generally the case with all young poets. Her verse does not blush "rosy red," love's true color, as 144 Southern Literature. ■said of Tom Moore's, the Irish poet ; nor has it the im- passioned fervor of the poetry- of Ella Wheeler Wilcox, so popular at the present day. "The Pulpit" is perhaps her most dio-nifiod piece. The vivid description it gives of true evangelic eloquence must have been taken from real life. Who it was that with the burning raptures of speech awoke the inspiration and formed the subject of the poem is a matter of inquiry. It may have been Millburn, the l3lind preacher, who has been for many years chaplain of the Senate of the United States. The poem is worthy of thought and study to the minister who desires that the immortal themes of the Gospel should come flaming from his tongue, and his words should smite with force like arrows from the quiver of the far-darting Apollo as de- scribed by Homer. There are other pieces in the volume of poems published hy Mrs. Welby that have the grace and aroma of true poetry. As a writer she should be ranked among the gifted minds of the South, and her book assigned an honored place in the libraries of Southern homes. MRS. AUGUSTA J. WILSON. Literature opens to the mind a broad and diversified iield for thought, instruction and pleasure. In it are ■stored up the wisdom, virtue, learning, feelings and expe- rience of past ages. Here poetry leads out into its Elysian gardens to regale with music of verse and blossoms of thought as exquisite as the warbling of birds and the flowers of spring. Here the historian in glowing narra- tive tells of the mighty events of the past, the revolu- tions of kingdoms, the shock and carnage of battles, and the overthrow of valiant leaders stained with no inglorious •dust. Here, also, fiction upon its fascinating pages por- trays in ideal creations men, things and events with vivid touch, as if t.iey were living entities in the shifting drama of human life. There is no form of literature more popular and entic- Mrs. Augusta J. Wilson. 145 Ing to the literary world than that of fiction. Still its place in the field of letters is doubtful. There are some who hold that the readinf^ of novels and romance is detrimen- tal to the strength and vigor of the mind, and afford no solid information. It is also maintained that it corrupts and destroys all taste for useful and substantial reading. It is still furtlicr asserted that the young minds, who are the numerous readers of the works of fiction, obtain false views of life from the pictures given of virtue and vice being too highly colored, and the characters of men and women presented being no more real than the fabled fairies by belated peasants seen in moonlight revel upon the sum- mer green. It is likewise predicated that the promis- cuous reading of novels depraves the morals of society. That such is the effect is largely demonstrated in the pop- ularity that "Trilby" and other novels of like character have obtained with the general American reading public. There is another literary class who would maintain the position that novel reading is beneficial. They say that it is highly recreative to the mind when wearied with the toils and trials of the scenes of real and busy life. It is delightful to abstract your mind from the corroding cares of life and lose yourself in the 'pleasing dreams of the novelist, although they may be as transient and unsubstan- tial as the golden exhalations of the dawn. Some, also, claim that there is intellectual benefit derived from novel- reading, as it strengthens and invigorates the imagination, that imperial faculty of the mind, and that ideal represen- tations are elevating and refining. Thus the matter of the merits and demerits of fiction stand in equal poise. There are those who hold the opinion that the writing of a novel or romance is an easy task, and that it re- quires no high degree or brilliancy of intellect. They as- sign the fiction-writer a rank in literature inferior to that of the poet and the historian. This may be the case with many of the works now produced and daily thrust upon the reading public, but not all of them. The framework ■of the novel, say they, has been about the same through all centuries. It is the same old story of "love not run- 10 si 146 Southern Literature. n'mg; smooth" dramatized and having the same dt''nouement or ending. The,re are those who deem that it reqnires the highest order of mind to write a meritorious novel. Grand and suhhme was the genius that produced "Ivanhoe," "Rob Roy," "Waverley," and other works of Sir Waher Scott. His creations were so marvelous and lifelike, and came forth with such rapidity of production, that he was called the "Magician of the North." It required deep, accurate and comprehensive knowledge of human nature and of life to produce "The Newcomes" of Thackeray. What a vast and varied view and acquaintance with many-colored life did Dickens possess to create the plots and characters in all his works from "Pickwick Papers" to "Dombey and Son." The writer of "Ben-Hur" had a fecundity of mind and of literary resources that comes within the intellectual compass of but few individuals. As a writer of fiction the author, Mrs. Augusta J. Wilson, whose name appears at the head of this article, has- had and still retains a notable popularity in the South. She has given to the public a number of works since "Beulah" came from her pen. A cursory review of the literary merits of her productions will require several articles. The name of Beulah selected by Mrs. Wilson (nde Evans) as the title of her novel, was happily chosen. In its signification and use it might fitly predicate the delight which she would convey to the reader in the airy realm of fiction which it would open up, as Bunyan, the divine dreamer, by his Beulah or "land of rest," where the sun shines, the flowers bloom and the birds sing "all the year round," symbolized the sweet repose of the Christian awaiting his summons to the skies. Her book was a suc- cess, and established her name and reputation in the lit- erary world. The reading public of the South read it with eagerness, and applauded the genius of the author. She be- came a reigning star in literary circles, although it was in lonely brilliancy and beauty as that of the planet that opens the gates of the morning. As it was said of Lord Byron after the publication of his first canto of "Childe Harold,"" that he awoke next morning and found himself famous Mrs. Augusta J. Wilson. 147 throughout Europe, so it might have been said of Miss Evans then as to the South. To produce the work how many hours of thought and toil did it cost. How many days and nights did her brain busily work to cast the plot and in the creative power of the imagination to give form and feature, existence and personality, to the various characters that were to appear as dramatis persons. Then to secure unity of thought and correctness of expression, how often did she have to erase and rewrite page after page. The description might well apply to her which she gives of Bculah, the heroine of the book, who was admired and eulogized for her talent as a writer, when in speaking of her she says : "She sat be- fore her desk writing industriously on an article which she had promised to complete before the end of the week ; her head ached ; the lines grew dim, and she laid aside her manuscript and leaned her pale face on her palms." Then, in a review of Mrs. Wilson as an author, who would write a single line of criticism that would impair her just fame? Like the current of a gently meandering stream, the nar- rative of the book flows smoothly on without the in- tricacy of plot, or the variety of incident, or the tragic touches of murder and mystery which enter so largely into the composition of Bulwer's and Dickens's novels. The diction is glowing, the style rather figurative, and the range of topics and the modes of expression show the author to have been an industrious reader. In the delineation of character, the breadth and delicacy of conception of Sir Walter Scott, Dickens, or Shakespeare could not be ex- pected of her. The two principal characters in the fic- tion, Beulah and Dr. Hartwell, in some respects are for- cibly drawn. The sentiment of the book may be too strong and declamatory for real life. The religious experience and the fortunes of Beulah Benton, an orphan girl from an asylum, form the theme or argument that constitutes the thread of the story, and stand associated throughout. The former topic is empha- sized ; the latter is in some degree incidental. No more important matter can be presented to the mind than relig- 148 Southern Literature. ions experience, or more worthy to be dramatized, as is fully exemplified in its being- the purpose of the liook of Job, the oldest and the grandest book of the Bible. Her experience in a measure corresponds to that of the relig- ious world generally. In childhood her faith and trust in God were simple and fervent. Having experienced as an orphan the cold and bitter scorn of the world, it freeze.^> the genial current of her piety. She can not luiderstand and harmonize the ways of a kind and gracious Bcng 'in the diverse allotments of life. She turns from God and tries to reason herself into a state of infidelity. The casuistry she employs is specious, and runs in the same time-worn channel of all those who discard the Bible and its teachings, because they can not comprehend the providence of God. After drifting hope- lessly and aimlessly upon the restless sea of skepticism, she is finally brought back to the moorings of her for- mer faith. Like Job and thousands of others of the human race, she had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but after she had experienced his presence and sup- port in the furnace of affliction, she would not exchange ""her faith for the universe." The first draught to an author from fame's magic cup, like new wine, has an intoxicating eiYect, and awakens the burning resolve in the soul to repeat on a grander scale the experiment of writing a book, lliis seems to have been the result of Mrs. Wilson as to her brilliant success in her second literary venture before the public. As the word Beulah in the Hebrew tongue signifies married, it was in- cidentally prognostic of her becoming firmly fixed in her choice and profession as an author. The unique case is re- corded in the history of English literature of a young lady writing the rare alliterative verse, "Let lovely lilacs line Lee's lonely lane," and never anything worthy of note afterwards. The first work from a writer of ordinary tal- ent, if it has any claims as to magnitude and merit, will contain the vigor and freshness of his mind and the sum and substance of his literary acquisitions. The wealth and empire of genius, like that of ancient Cathay, is untold. Mrs. Augusta J. Wilson. ' 149 As in the case of Shakespeare, liavingf exhausted old worlds, it creates new ones. The fourth work of Mrs. Wilson bears the title of "St. Elmo." it is a more ambitious book than "Beulah" in its style and sco])e. Besides the ordinary phases f)f feelinjT^, topics and incidents that usually form the stai)le of the novel, it apparently has a twofold piu^pose and moral ; the one is to exhibit tlie iniquity and condenm the practii:e of duelinjr; the other, and the main one, is to teach and illus- trate the theory "that all works of fiction should be didac- tic, and inculcate not only sound morality but scientific theories." The custom and practice of duelinp^, as it has obtained in the world, is stripped of its meretricious cov- erinj^ antl decoration as the code of honor, and in the death of its victims and the wretched misery consec[uenl, it is presented in its true character as murder. The laws of the land have rightly settled the criminality of dueling by making it a felony. As to the second purpose, nothing will more fitly il- lustrate it, and also the character of the book, than to quote from the gifted authoress. She says : "To write with current coldness for the mere jiastime of author and readers, without aiming to inculcate some regenerative principle or to photogra])h some valuable i)hase of pro- tean truth, was in her estimation ignoble, for her high standard demanded that all books should be, to a certain extent, didactic, wandering, like evangelists, among the people, and making some man or woman or child happier or wiser or better — more patient or more hopeful — by their utterance. Believing that every earnest author's mind should ])rove a mint where all valuable ores are collected from rich veins of a universe, are cautiously coined, and thence munificently circulated." Thus does Ibe heroine of the story, who is an enthusiastic aspirant for literary fame, speak. Whether this was the i)urpose of the author in writing "St. Elmo," it is a most admirable illustration of her theory. The chance of success in writing fiction on this plan is justly criticized by one of the characters, who says that people read novels merely to be amused, not educated, and 150 Southern Literature. tliey will not tolerate technicalities and abstract specula- tion in lien of exciting plots and melodramatic cU'nioue- mcnt. The book is not an epitome of science, yet it abounds so profusely in scientific terms, quotations from foreis^n languages and remote historical allusions, that the reader who sits down to read it should equip himself with lexicons and encyclopedias, full and conq)lete. Never- theless, "St. Llmo" is the production of a mind opulent in genius and literary resources. It will be replete with in- terest and pleasure to those who delight in classic lore and antiquarian research. The human mind in its immortal vigor and fecundity, as said of the fabletl garden of Amidas. as soon as one flower is plucked, spontaneously puts forth another. This is a pleasing meta[)hysical fact, and in the field of literature is of infinite service, as it leads to nndtiplicity and variety of modes of thought and expression. It seems that there is or should be a limit to the power of invention to the mind, and that it would be a moral impossibility for the prolific writer of books, such as was Dickens and Walter Scott, to preserve distinct and separate the lines of their plots and delineations of their numerous characters. There will stmietimes be sameness and monotony, allhough, as in the "endless sea of human faces" there is a resemblance, there are rarely two exactly alike. There has been but one Shakespeare, of whom it is said when he had exhausted all known world imagined new ones. Notwithstanding there may be great similitude in the productions of liction writers, yet it may be said that it is the attribute of genius to be fresh as the dew and reviving as the sunbeam. The versatility that characterizes the works of Dickens, Scott and Shakespeare may not be predicated of the writ- ings of Mrs. Wilson. There may be change in the scenery that serves as the background to the stage of action upon which the characters that enter into the plots move and act, but there is at least a similarity in the moral anil plan of the story. With so many works froni her pen it might rea- sonably be su] -oscd that the power of invention with her would necessarily flag and the stock of her resources would be diminished. The title of her first book, 'Tnez ; or the Fall Mrs. Augusta J. Wilson, 151 of the Alamo," was well calculated to ini])ress the ])u])lic inincl. Who has not heard of the "Alamo," that hloody trag'edy in Texas history? The scene of the book was laid in stirring- times and in a land which would open up to the mind a field of daring adventure that would furnish rich material for the i)en and the imagination. It is said that it is the purpose of the author to rewrite "Inez." It cer- tainly docs not com])are in freshness of style and vigor of thought with "Bculah," nor in strength and force of plot and character with "St. Elmo," stiff and encumbered as the latter may be with its profuseness of scientific allu- sions and technicalities. Regarded in itself, "Inez" has its merits and is worth the reading. The exposure which it makes of the Roman Catholic Church in its propaganda constitutes in itself an object and purpose well worthy of the writing of the book. Rome ! Papal Rome ! cruel has she been in the past, if the records of history are true. She is now shorn of her tem- poral power. Babylon ! P)abylon the great has fallen ! Has she l^een ])urged of her ambition to rule the nations of the earth by a sword ? There are many who say she lias not, and are a]>prehensive that her withering touch may fall upon this American re])ublic. The beautiful and touching force with which Mrs. Wil- son portrays the religion of the Gospel to be "a. root to sustain ; a foundation to support ; the bond of charity ; the curb of evil passions ; the consolation of the wretched ; the stay of the timid ; and the hope of the dying," renders her books morally and s])iritually edifying to the reader. They go forth on their holy errands to invite mankind to earthly happiness and eternal life. High, honored, and delicately responsible is the sphere that the author occupies. As he penetrates the realm of mind and t.mfol(ls in classic |)rose or "high immortal verse" the unspoken thoughts and feelings that lie in cradled ■slumber in weary human hearts, he becomes a teacher ^o mankind, and adds to the sum of human enjoyment. The task of the writer no doubt becomes enamoring, as in its toils the mind glances from earth and scales "the high lieaven of invention, and gives to airy nothings a local hab- 152 vS( MTVw ]<: K N Lrri', r at u r i-: itation and a iiamo." It was cx(|uisiU' joy to Milton, no- (lonl)t, wlu'u lu' I'oniposod his "Paradise Lost," as ho hiy down at iii^ht lo lol his mind soar amid imiiuutahlii's spir- itnal and nnwiU-d, or lo i)rood m rri'ati\r lanr\' o\rr the bosom of oarlh and lo i)orlia\' llial w ihk'i lU'ss ot liaj^rance and hloom w hi rr anj^els kept armed j;nard ovei" ihe shnn- l)ers ol [\\v III si pair of lunnan lovers. It is presnmed Iha! the work of eomposilion is to Mrs. Wilson a delii;hlfnl task, if liie nninher o{ xolnnios she has urilleii and pnhlislu-d is taken as an imiex and as e\idenee. In this artiele tlu> di'siL^ii is to call the attention' of the reader to her lasl work. lU'sidi-s this one and tlu>se alreadv iiolued, she ha> written lliree others: "N'ashli," "Maearia" and " In felii-e." Ilu' one now under eousidi'i"- ation hears the peiailiar title "At tlie Mere\ uuH-al sentiment that per\ailes her writings- and tho i^races oi her st\le and Iani^naj.ie. should servo as an incentive and ;m example to the \onnj;' female minds of the Sonth to intellectual cnllure and elTort They shonhL Mrs. Lour.A Kkndatj, Roc.i'.us . 155. read her hooks, not for the- nu're exeileineiit of the story of love that eaeh eoiitains, hut for the animation it g'ives to the taste for the instruetive, the henntiful and the j^ood. As a writer slie will stand in the front rank, if not at the head of Sonlhcrn writers. MRS. LOULA KRNDALL ROCI-.RS. (jeiiins for poetry is elassed as a dislinelive endowment of mind. So e.\alteoems to be beautiful; let them be sweet and whitherso- ever they will lead the mintl of the reader. DenuKritus held that genius made the poet, and those only to be true poets who inchdged in the rhai^sody of song. The centuries of the old will drive off pieces devoid of instruction ; the ranks of the }Oung will turn away ivom those which delight not the fancv or tin-ill with emotion. r>oth genius antl art ciuispire to make the genuine poet and to create the lofty song. Clenius in its excursive flights over the flowering held of tlunight has' been compared to the bee as it goes out in the springtime to gather pollen from the llowers. As the bee. guided by its unerring in- stinct, seeks the fragrant caKxes which yield the desired sweets, so does genius prompt the mind to select from the mass of topics those tliat contain in them the spirit and essence of poetry. As in the waxen cells of the bee. so art nuist come in to aid the poet in the arrangement of his top- ics and the framework of his thoughts so as to secure unit}- of design and beauty of expression. Insania or the madness of genius inspires the poet to revel in song until he becomes intoxicated as the bee with the perfume of llowers, and to care nothing for glory or the gain of pelf, so enamored is he of the tlivine beauty and grace of the l\[use. Still further, it is genius that imparts to the mind its racy wit, as the formic acid of the bee to honey its de- licious sting. It was genius in Horace, as he says of himself, after the maimer and custom of the Matinian bee. with assiduous toil gathering sweet ihynio around the groves and banks of the moist Tiber, that led him to explore the fields of mythic lore, the pages of heroic antiquity and the stirring events of his own illustrious age, and to gather from them honeyed Mrs. IvOula Kendall Rogerj^. 155 sweets to store away in cells of lyric poetry. It was g'enius in Homer that inspired those lovely creations of character and incident, and so molded his iictions and so blended the false and the true, that produced the Iliad, and art has so ar- ranged it as to make it the brilliant wonder of all time. It was the grand comprehensive genius of Shakespeare that enabled him to grasp nature in all its varied forms of life and l)eauty and the huiuan character in all its features, and to ])ortray them with such glowing ])ersoniiication as to give to his dramas the fascinating touches of real life. It is genius that in the glowing forge o^ thought fash- ions and produces those great truths that become current as proverbs of wisdom among men, and those poems small or great that fill the great human heart and are cherished through the lapse of centuries. The sons of song shine from the past which they have made glorious. Time has gathered the productions of their genius in the ghjwing lyric and the stately epic into the leaves of its im])erishable volume, and has given them a place in the hearts aud memories of men forever. The Muses, the imaginary divinities of Pieria, have vanished into the land of fable ; the poet no longer invokes the aid of Melpomene, the ruler of the sweet melody of the golden shell, as did Horace, to assist him in his tuneful labors; the divine Apollo no longer bestows the poetic altlatus, the name of the poet and the Delian laurels; yet the faculty for poetry still exists among men. The general diffusion of knowledge and the progress made in mental culture that marks the present marvelous age have rendered the talent for poetical composition wide-spread. Like violets in the wild woods or roses in the •garden, poems are springing up in the nooks and corners of the journals and the ])arterres of the magazines through- out the land in every issue of the press. Many of them are sweet and beautiful; many of them will ])erish in the moment of their birth ; some will have a place in the folds of the cedared boards of immortality. Talent has taken the stead of genius; combined with toil, ever patient toil, it develops the poetical faculty in power and beauty, if the •germ of it is in the mind. The box with its forty divi- 156 Southern Literature. sions, through which Tom Moore had all his poetical pro- ductions to pass in the process to their completion, gave ta his Irish melodies a grace heyond the reach of art. The incessant plying of the shuttle of the imagination by Ten- nyson in weaving into his poems new and daring forms of style, the glinting beauty of language and all the linked harmonies and graces of versification, crowned him the poet-laureate not only of England but of the century. The South as a political section presents no long array of genius or opulence of literature. It has, however, pro- duced writers both of prose and poetry who deserve places of honor and distinction in letters. Among these may fitly be placed Mrs. Loula Kendall Rogers, the subject of this ar- ticle. She is now a resident of Rarnesville, Ga. The home of her childhood, Bellewood, was in Upson county, of that State. As known to the writer her home was the abode of wealth, taste and refinement. All her environments were favorable to the culture of her mind and heart. Her father. Dr. David Kendall, was a man of rare mental poise that fitted him to be the guide and governor of a house- hold, and with amenities of address and speech that made his companionship delightful in the studio. Her mother was endowed with those moral and mental virtues and suavity of manners that qualified her for the sweet sov- ereignty of the home circle, -and properly to train the young spirits committed to her maternal care and guidance for the duties of life. In an article from the pen of Mrs. Rogers, in speaking of the home of her childhood, she writes, "The best books filled our library, and it was my de- light when a child to climb up to the highest shelves and capture sotue old antique volume that had passed a century in the family." The solid mahogany bedstead, with its carved leaves and flowers, the cedar chest, with its fra- grant odor and beauteous stain of nature's dye, as heir- looms from the past, told of a noble ancestry, and the bearing of the faiuily comported with the dignity of their record. In the fresh hours of childhood, as she has stated, the genius of her mind and taste led her to the love of books. To direct and inspire her in her early pursuit of knowl- Mrs. Loula Kendatx Rogers. 157 'edge she had neither the inspiration of Polyh^'mnia nor any of the other Muses, but the sound, solid and cultured sense of her mother. In the first years of her education she attended the Cen- tral Female College at Culloden, Ga. ; afterward the Geor- gia Episcopal Institute, Montpelier, under the supervision of the Right Reverend Bishop Elliott ; and graduated at Wesleyan Female College, Macon, Ga. Her graduating composition was the first poem ever written by a graduate of that institute. Leaving the literary seclusion of the college she resumed her wonted place in the circle of home with its sweet ap- pointments of social enjoyment and means of intellectual culture. She enters upon the threshold of active life, and to her its opening scenes expand full of hope and pleasure in the years to come. Whatever might be the aspirations of her mind, rigid custom had fixed and confined the sphere of labor for her sex to the precincts of the houschoTd. There was no choice of vocation to the educated woman of that time save that of the rare chance of employment as teacher in the schoolroom, or that to which the unfre- quented walks of literature might invite. The one was con- sidered an unaristocratic calling and was unsought by the sons and daughters of parents who were in affluent circum- stances, as its hireling character did not accord well with their patrician notions ; the other opened an inviting field for educated minds, and was opulent in all the natural and historical resources necessary for the creation of a rich and varied literature, but there was little promise of re- muneration. There was a propensity in the youthful mind of Mrs. Rogers for literary pursuits. Either as a spontaneous out- flow, or as fostered from daily association and conmiing- ling of thought with the concourse of great minds in the perusal of their volumes of wit and wisdom in the library, the poetic faculty of her nature was stirred. It may have been awakened by the scenery around Bellewood, her dear home, upon which her eyes opened at morning's light and reposed at evening's hour, and as described by her, present- ing, when seen in the mantling beauty of spring, a broad 158 Southern Literature. encircling landscape of stretches of hills and vales crown- ed and dotted with lofty oaks, interspersed with blooming- orchards and verdant fields, and with the horizon belted with the dark-green ridge of the Pine mountains, whilst in the distance might be heard the roar of Tobler as it hur- ried its waters along into the Flint, or the Fronetiska as called in the musical tongue of the Indian, to be borne by- it into the Gulf. Mrs. Rogers became a contributor of short poems to the press. During the civil contest she gave expression to her fervent southern patriotism in war lyrics. The merit of these may be noticed at some future day. Her chief poem is titled "Toccoa The Beautiful." Upon it will rest her claim to poetic genius. It stands now laurel-crowned in the theater of literary criticism and award. It won the prize offered by the Home Economist, published at Wor- cester, Mass., 1884, for the best poem. It was published in Werner's Magazine, and has been recited in nearly every State in the Union. The poem is based upon a legend that tells of the sad story and tragic fate of an Indian maiden named Toccoa. As described, she was the daughter of Hiawassee, an In- dian chief, and was of superior beauty and intelligence to all her companions. Of the tribe of the Uchees, she lived in the mountains of North Georgia. The white man with ever encroaching step had not yet penetrated that region. Upon Toccoa rested the spirit of prophecy, and she had a vision of the future. It unfolded to her the destruction of the red man. She saw- the gathering storm, the ever-rolling tide of civilization, the clefting of the mountains and the rush of the iron steed, the steam locomotive. When the "council men" heard the vision expounded that told of the destruction of their race, they decreed that the ill-omened prophetess should die. Bounding up the mountain's lofty height, they found Toccoa seated upon a crag absorbed in meditation. They seized and .bore her to the edge of a precipice, and having pierced her body with a hundred arrows, hurled it into the chasm below. Ere she w^as slain, she demanded of them to tell her father, who was then away on the war-path, when two moons had rolled Mrs. Loula Kendall Rogers. 159 away to look for her tears in the pearly spray of the water- fall near by. , • .1 ^ f.,1 Hence her name and story is perpetuated in that crystal sheet of water that with a leap and a bound descends one hundred and eighty feet, and enraptures the beholder with its miagnificent beauty of Hood and spray. The gifted writer was fortunate in the selection ot the dactylic'' hexameter as the meter in which she chose to write her poem. This was a stroke of genius, as this measure, with its long sweeping rhythm and cadence, is well fitted to give pathos and dignity to tragic narrative, ihe interweaving of four lines of tetrameter verse m the stanzas is >a happy device to relieve the flow which would other- wise become languid and monotonous. As a specimen of the poem, we quote the last stanza which gives the sequel of the story. It tells how Hiawassee hunted for his daugh- ter Toccoa', when on his return he was told of her death. " Maddened— faint— broken-hearted, plunged he into the crystal Resthi'i^ not amid the darkness or the daylight's piercing beam ; SearchTng ever for his daughter, but he saw her face no more ; Gone from earthly sight forever was the radiant ioccoa. Ere two moons had passed in sorrow. Came a shimmering stream of brightness, Still, so still, its silvery whiteness Seemed a bridal veil in lightness ; 'Twas the tear of sweet Toccoa gleaming in the rainbow hue^ Of the Great Hereafter— telling of the Beautiful and Irue. The theme was likewise happily chosen, as there will always be in all minds touched with sensibility a romantic and 'unwaning interest in the Indians as portrayed by Cooper and Irving. Their melancholy story and appar- ently inevitable doom of extinction as a race will ever stir the human heart. Each song and legend that tells of them will go down to posterity touched with all the en- kindling glow of the romance of their history. The part that the female sex has played in literature during the present century has been one of peculiar luster, and is worthy of the loftiest panegyric. They may not have produced masterpieces like those from the past that 3 6o SOUTHKRN LiTKRATURE. liave stood as colunins of f;ranito finu and erect amidst the flow of centuries, the Hterary huuhiiarks of a nation's j^lory, yet in the reahii of poetry and fiction they have made hirge, rich and varied contrilnitions to the general stock of Htera- lure. They have performed a noble service in the grand iind silent temple where learning sits enthroned, adorning its columns with the soft acanthus wreaths of song and its arches with the graceful festoons of fiction. Their poetic genius and taste have been forcibly expressed in the relig- ious jioeni and the sacreil lyric or hymn. Like Mary in the gospel with the alabaster box of precious ointment, Fran- ces Ridley Havergal in sweet, poetic numbers has poured out the fragrance of devotion at a Saviour's feet and filled the world with the odor of his love and praise. Dinah Mu- loch, from the rich treasures of thought in holy fervor, has sweetly told of Christ the blessed Redeemer, and the joys and comforts of his grace that, like "myrrh, aloes and cassia out of the ivory palace of perfume," make glad the heart of the sincere lovers of Jesus. Tt is in the writing of sacred lyrics and gospel hynms thai the female mind in lilor.ilure has been strikingly dis- played. More delicate style of sjK'och. tenderness of feel- ing, and fervor of piety (|ualif\ the sex for the task. What pathos, what devotion, in the songs of ["'annie J. Crosby. How touchingly expressed is the deep contrition that fills the soul of the awakened sinner in "Pass me not, O gen- tle Savior"! How precious to the human heart is the k)ve of Christ, presented in "Savior more than life io me"! What strength, what comfort in "I need thee every hour" by Annie J. Hawks ! How great a source of spiritual bene- diction to the church and the world have been the songs ci)ini^osed by the female sex who have thus consecrated their genius to the glory of God. They have ui^lifted from the Christian life tlie gloom and formality, and dissipated the groans, tears, strifes, doubts, fears and the constant laying of the foundation of repentance from dead works, •with which it has been associated. They have let in the sunshine, and made the path of the Christian as he wends his way heavenward to be one of triumph, joy and vic- torv. Thev have not the solenm music, the sublime thouuht Mrs. Loula Kendall Rogers. i6i and doctrinal teaching- of "Old Hundred," "How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord," and many others of the old hymns, which they should not su])ersede, but serve as poems of rejoicing- to the Christian in his pilgrimage through time. Among the writers of sacred lyrics may be placed Mrs. Rogers, the subject of this article. She is the author 'of a missionary poem that was sung at the convention of the delegates of the female missionary boards of the differ- ent conferences of the M. E. Church, South, at Nashville, Tenn., in iS*)/. As an index to the character and literary merits of this composition the following stanza is quoted: " Lovely minstrel, let the music of thy most entrancing lays Swell the triiimpli of .Teliovah in a song of joy and praise, Like the voice of Miriam wafted o'er tlie l)illows of (he sea; Cliant liis glory witli timbrel, ' Who, O Lord, is like untolhee?' " The noble life she has lived is Mrs. Rogers's grandest poem. In the s])here of Christian duty she, as a lifetime teacher in the Sabbath-school, has been leatling those of her sex in the sweet bloom of girlhood toward the beautiful city, and in the responsibilities of a long period of widow- hood she has fully met her parental obligations, by her energy of spirit and toil of brain securing for her children the benefits of a collegiate education. Rome will hereafter render divine honors to me as a parent said the Roman matron Cornelia to Marcus Nepos, the historian, who had written l)ittcrly of her as the mother of the two Gracchi, that had fallen martyrs to liberty. Thus should honor and distinction crown every mother who has done her parental duty. "Only a Fleeting Dream" is perhaps the finest producticin ■of the gem'us and pen of Mrs. Rogers. It was published in "Woman's Work," Athens, Ga., December, i8()3. It is a poem of exquisite tenderness and beauty. If she had written nothing else it would have crowned her with the poet's immortal wreath. None other may excel it in deep pathos of soul and ethereal touches, not even Poe's "Anna- bel Lee." As the mind scans the lines, the heart throbs with emotions too deep for utterance or tears. It sweetly lis 1 i62 South KRN Litkraturiv. recalls in ideal dream the years of wedded bliss of the past, and of the return of the one (the husband) so loving and true, whom death had borne away to the spirit-land in the lonj;' ago, and again are renewed the scenes and hapjjy dreams of life's May-morn. The blissful illusion fades, and "down life's weary way" the dreamer with lonely heart turns again. The story of love's deep devotion in the pt)em is no iig- mcnt of fancy, but had its realization in the life-experience of the authoress. It was written upon her birthday. As. she had written the first two lines, " Down from tlin liills of tlie Unseen Jjand A whisper comes to-day," there was a violent shaking of everything in the room, and she began to think it really was a spiritual manifestation. She arose and went out in the hall, where her sister and the children were gathered, and "we found out," she writes,. "there was an earthquake" — the one which shook Charles- ton to its center. The patriotic element is a marked feature of her charac- ter. This was fostered by the associations and environ- ments of her childhood, and by a continuity of incidents and events in after-life. Iler patriotic feeling has been in- terestingly illustrated in her personal history. She had the honor at two different times of presenting flags to a military company. The first was in i860 when in tlie bud- ding grace of womanhood she presented the United States flag to the Upson Guards. This was the last flag of "the stars and stripes" presented at the South. It was 'a fair, sweet morn, no cloud llecked the blue above, and the broad land was wrapped in the golden beams of sunlight. Peace spaiuicd the political horizon and all hearts rejoiced. The o\d Hag, as it threw out its silken folds to the breeze, filled' each bosom with patriotic joy and pride. When the epoch of secession came and the South would' set up a separate governiuent, she again presented a flag^ to the same military company. This time it was the "bon- nie blue," ov C\^nfederate Hag. It was luade with her hands, and the first on Georgia's soil. This flag went all throucrb Mrs. Louisa Kkndall Rogkrs. 163 the war, and is now folded up aniong^ her relics of the Con- federacy. At a nieeting of the Dauj^hters of the Confed- eracy in the fall t)f 1897, at Au<^usta, Ga., which she attended as president of the chapter of her own town, by a stran^je coincidence "she sat on the stage, directly under the very banner" under which her deceased husband had marched. The incident unsealed the fountain of tear's "when the sur- viving luenibers of the old company marched into the hall amid the beating of drums, in the dear old jackets of gray, and canteens gracefully slung over their shoulders." The pride of ancestry serves to foster the principle of patriotism. This inlluence is not properly recognized in .the social structure in this government of i)olitical equality and marked individuality of the citizen. Moral and mental graces may not be always transmitted, yet more than oft the son will inherit the virtues of the sire. There is a magnetic force and power in a noble lineage and an illus- trious record to inspire to worthy deeds. Such may have had its induence in fostering the patriotism of the subject of this article. vShe is a lineal descendant of Sir Ralph Lane, who was sent over to Roanoke, Va., by Sir Walter ivaleigh in 1585. Her great uncle Joel Lane was the founder of Raleigh, N. C, and deeded 3000 acres of land to that city. Tlie Provisional Congress met at his house on the 12th of July, 1775. He was a full colonel in the Revolutionary war. Her grandmother had five nephews that were governors — Governor Joe Lane of Oregon, Llenry Lane of Indiana, Governor Colquitt of Georgia, Governor David Swane of North Carolina, and Governor Lane of Alabama. Love of country is an ennobling principle of character. It is esteemed as the highest type of virtue. That soul is dead to every generous impulse that can not say with deep pathos of spirit, "this is my own, my native land." As em- blematic of its national glory and honor, the patriot will love his country's flag, 'i'he leal sons of the South can but love "Dixie" and cherish tender regard for the "Ixjnnie jlue flag" that went down in humiliation and defeat, but they should remember that the restored union demands their love and loyalty, and that the banner which now floats above them is the "stars and stripes," and they 164 SouTiiKRN Litkraturp:. should venerate it when furled in peaee, and follow it when as "the war i^od" it ilini;s its folds to the breeze, and ealls them It) the held of hattle. and to ilie on "honor's loftv bed." MADAME LE \'K\n\ \s the author of "Souvenirs of Travel," Madame Le Vert, the subjeet of this essay, has elaini to literary notiee and distinction in the realm of letters. Perhaps no species of literature is more fascinatinj^- to the mind than that wliicit k'lls llie story of Iravel in l'orei,u'n lands with a de- scription of the scenery, manm-rs, customs, laws, science, arts and governments of the people. It is delij^htful with book in hand to follow the tom-ist as with his pen he sketches and unfolds in beautiful panorama ilie moimtain in its i;randeur, tbe valley with its verdure, the lake with its shimmerini;- sheen and the river in its majestic flow; or leavino^ the sequestered scenes ol' uatiu'c with its haunts of ■echoins;' i;lory, he plants us in tbe marts ami lhoroui;iifares ■of towns and cities amidst a new and stranj^c civilization with its ever-sbiftiui;' throno- of faces and actors, that jiar- lake of tbe fantasy of a dream. Not every one has written or can write an interesting- book of travels. It nmst be more than a record of jour- neys or the recital of objects seen. The true tourist nuist be one who loves nature and has an eye observant of all its charms and phases, and who with ])hilosophic mind scans all the features and ciMiditions of mornl and social life. The W(M-ld has produced some famous travelers. Anion-;' tbe lirst on record may be mentioned Herodotus, a Greek, who livetl in the liftb century before Christ. He journeyed throus;b F.s^ypt and the cmmtries of Asia, and wrote his observations of the mamiers, customs and laws of the nations tbat lu visited, and compiled them in nine volumes, named after tbe nine Muses. His style is so easy and "•raceful tbat it is said oi bini that be borrowed his laiie'uasje from tlu' Muses, llis work is extant, and tlunie'h Madami-: lyiv Vi'.K'r. i'')5 his iianativrs liavc the air of romaiu-c. vol they dispkiy the intclhgviuT of a shrewd ohscrvcr, and arc (.-onsidercd to be of niealcLdahle vahie as she(hhii,t;- h.uht upon that era of the workl. i'olyhiiis, a Greek, next appears, lie Hved in the second century hefore C"ln-ist. and at the time when Rome was l)y the siihju,t;-ati()n of (Ireece ])reparin); for tlie ac(iuisiti()n of universal empire, lie traveled extensively and visited all comitries then known and accessihle. 1 lis work is hi,L;hlv esteemed hy scholars. Marco Tolo of the fifteenth century. I -e Hue and P.ayard Taylor of tlie i)rcscnt aj^e and manv others have adcU'd valnahle hooks of travel to the list. This review of hooks of travel shows this class of litera- ture is not worthless and ephenu'ral. It sustains Madame Le Vert's claim and title to an honoiahle pkice in literature as the author of "Souvenirs of Travel." There are cir- cumstances connected with her writing- the hook that add honor and luster to her name. It was at an era when at the South there were hut few names in Hteratin-e. When hi-r ])ook canu- forth hefore the ])uhlic, it a])peared in soli- tary ])eautv like the star that opens tlu- ^ates of morn- infj. She 'resided at Mohile, Aka. She made a trip to lun-ope, and the "Souvenirs of Travel" is the record of lu-r ohservations and rellections upon what she saw and heard, with the various inciij;hty mem- ories. There, too, was Rome, still in its fame the impe- rial city to the world after a kapse of nearly thirty centuries. This was to MacUuiie Le Vert, the field of travel and re- l66 SOUTIIKRN LiTKRATURK. search from which, with licr graceful and ctiUiired intellect, she gathered the descriptions and observations of men and things presented in "Le Souvenirs." Not only as a writer, but also for her attainments as a linguist does this gifted daughter of the South deserve literary notice. A taste and genius for the study and cul- ture of modern languages was a marked feature of her ver- satile intellect. These perhaps were fostered by her resi- dence in foreign lands. Traveling to Italy and sojourning in that land of the orange and the grape, overarched by its beautiful blue skies, living in the midst of all in art that could inspire the mind and having the Italian falling upon her ear in accents soft as the notes of the lute, she could but desire a knowledge of the language. Residing in Paris and hearing the ]*"rench spoken by the polished circle of that city, she would be charmed with the grace and deli- cacy of that tongue which has given it precedence at the courts of Europe as the medinm of diplomatic intercourse, and be incited to learn it. And so with the Spanish, which in the Castilian, the classic dialect of the nation, pleases with its soft lingering cadences and stmorous majesty. The studv of these Romance languages was an object of special pursuit with Madame Le Vert, and in her "Sou- venirs of Travel" she urges the study of them upon all per- sons of literary taste. She speaks of the learning of them as being of easy attainment and largely repaying the scholar for his toil by opening up to him new fields of thought and modes of expression. At the time Madame Le Vert wrote the schools aiul colleges in the land were in their infancy, and ]<>ench was the only modern foreign language studied, and that merely as ornamental. In the last few years the tendency has been in the educational world to eliminate even the study of Latin and Clreck from the curriculums of Ihe .'■.chools, on acccnuU of the marvelous development of the JMiglish language in its vocabulary and the increase of its capacities and its wide dilTusion making it, as it were, cosmopolitan. The study of foreign tongues should be promoted, not for the sake of pedantry, but for the solid benefit it renders to scholarshii). It affords fine training for the mind and Madame Le Vert. 167 'Contributes l.ar_f^ely to the culture of voice and capacity of ■expression. The oral readin^^ of Latin and Greek, not according to the curt rules of English pronunciation, but with the musical flow of then- ancient vocal sounds, will add to the charm and beauty of speech. There will be a soft abrasion of the angular points of many words in the English with those who have the privilege of such training. Tt is said of Emerson, the oracle in letters to New Eng- land, that he would not read a book written in any language save the English. He considered the labor bestowed in translation from a foreign tongue a waste of time. "The intellect," says Aristotle, " is perfected, not by knowledge, l)ut by activity"; likewise in another passage, "The arts and sciences are powers, but every power exists only for the sake of action ; the end of philosophy, therefore, is not knowledge." "If," says Malebranche, "I held truth captive in my hand, I should open my hand and let it fly, in ordfcr that I might pursue and capture it." The toil and delight of the mind in the study of the languages find a happy illustra- tion in the labors of the bee that gathers pollen from the •opening flowers rather than feed upon the honey already stored up in the cells of the hive. So far as English-speaking people are concerned, the study of their own language is a matter of prime impor- tance. It is their vernacular tongue, and in view of its grace, majesty, opulence of synonyms and vast literary wealth, it may be called the royal language. It is rich in all the elements of speech necessary to express sublime thought or tender emotion, with every note of modulation, from "the thunders of the epic muse to the melting accents of the lyre." Award to her the medal of the traveler and wreath of :the scholar. ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES. MY FIRST SCHOOLMASTER. AND EARLY SCHOOL DAYS. CHAPTER I. A dream wafts me back to my childhood. I shake my gray head, and with wonder and dehght ponder how it comes that its pictures visit me, which it seems would long ago have been forgotten. As clear as pebbles in the limpid brook the incidents and scenes of that period of life ap- pear mirrored forth upon the tiny stream of its memories, as if it were but yesterday I dreamed myself back to child- hood. Vividly comes up in mind the important epoch of that era, the beginning of my school days, and my first schoolmaster. To me, as to every one, it marked the dawn of my conscious intellectual being and individuality. Up ta that time, as with all children, vague and indefinite were all my mental acts, and these were confined to the demands of my physical wants and functions. This beginning and excerpt of my school life was over sixty years ago. It was among the red hills of Middle Georgia, where the skies are bluer, the air sweeter, and the flowers brighter to me than in all other lands ; for there mj'- eyes first opened upon the light; there was the scene of my boyhood and of the riper years of my manhood, with all their endearing associations, and there, in its sacred soil, repose the ashes of my father and mother and other kindred. The old familiar schoolhouse, the humble, red-painted building, where I learned my letters and began the ascent of the ancient hill of knowledge, rises up as clear and vivid as when viewed in the first fresh hours of childhood. I see the chimnev. one at each end of the long structure. 170 ICSSAVS AND ADDRKSSKS. T sec the two doors in front and the s'lass sash of the two windows hcyond which I sat and with 1)oyish (hHgence and anxions heart conned my lessons for the lioin-. I scan ai;ain (he inside of the schooh-ooni, with its l(»n.t;' writinj;--desks fastened to tlir walls of llie hnildini^, and the long henches in the rear of them, each with its row of pupils facing- the wall. There, too, still stands at the front the larqe post-oak with its scarred tnnik and tortuous stem, seated under whii'Ii oft I took my repast at noon. There also apjiears the s])rin_i;- that received its crystal wa- ters from the hillside, with the chin(|napiu [vvc overshad- owint;' it, as when till with ni\' playmates 1 loitered there with hoyish dalliance. There, 1 si'i' hai'il 1)\- the old fashioned mt-etin^-house, lar.y'e and commodious, which Methodism, in its hold and ])ioneerin<;- spirit of i)lantini;' the ( iospt'l, had reared in the early settlement of the country. 1 enter the door of this huildini;' and hchold the venerahle ministers of God in the pulpit. I a,L;ain hear the ( iospel in soothinf^ strains of the old lime ipreachers, and 1 dcvoutlv ])raise Clod that T re- ceived into my youns.;' lu-art the story of salvatiou through a crucilied RedetMUcr that fi'll from their li])s, and having reali/A'il its di\iui' powei' in after years, the religion of Christ has heen my stay and comfort through the lapse enst> of bis obligation as teacher to make tlu' ])Upils learn their lessons and to (tbscrvc g(^o(l belia\M()r lie ac- ciuired reputatiiui as a hkkIi'I tt'acher, and taught not only in Georgia, but also for many years in Alabama. Tlu-re arc still living in both Slates some of his pupils, luuv quite My First vSchoolmas'i'I'-.r. 173 ^gcd, who rciiK-mbcf liim and will rca.l this skclch with interest. , Twenty years after this period of his schoolboy Hie and its incidents had passed far hack into memory the wnlcr of this article was traveling on the train from l^alnanue to Macon, Ga. When ^i:ii\uii: off at Atlanta to chan^-e cars amon^^ the passenj^an'S on board that came throngmj^^ out, 'his attention was attracted to one of them who was quite tidily dressed. As if by intuition, the thouf^ht came in mind that this person was his old school-teacher. As he walked into a restaurant near by and came midrr llie lamplight (it l)eing: then 12 o'clock at ni.i-ht), and glanced up from the shadow of his hat brim, the ficrci' blue eyes and the low em])hasis of voice in which he spoke con- firmed the fact of his identity. The writer, approaching him in a courteous manner, inquired his name, lie replied, "My name is C"hristopher Flanagan." The respon.se from the writer was, "I am glad to see you, Mr. hdanagan ; you are my old teacher." "But who are yon," said he. The answi'r was "b.lm Greene." "Ah! John, T know you by your voice," was his reply. The writer again said, "Mr. Managan, I have for a long time desired to meet with you." "I don't know why, John; I used to Hog you sharply," he rejoined. "That's all forgotten now, Mr. l-'lanagan." This meeting with his old teacher and the interview of two or three hours that followed were to the writer a pleasing incident. In the ha])py constitution of things time had effaced from memory the sharpness of the .smi- dry taps and strokes of the feride and switch, and now in the light of thoughtful manhood and his own experience as a teacher for i^everal years, he 'could survey the ])re- ceptor of his first school days. The im])ortant service ren- dered and the high and delicate relations sustained seem to have established it as a fixed princi])le and sentiment of society, that there should exist strong bonds of attach- ment between preceptor and pupil. It is said that the an- cient Athenians regarded their obligations to Corridas, who had taught their king 'Hieseus the ways of virtue and truth, to be so great, that they yearly sacrificed a 174 Essays and Addresses. ram to his manes. Philip, king of Macedon, congratulated himself that he lived in the same age with Aristotle, as if he had a prevision of the suhlime career of his heroic son, and that the training he received from this eminent philosopher would prepare him for it. Over sixty years have passed since that hour in child- hood when the writer of this article first stood by his old master's side with Webster's blue-back spelling-book in hand, and, as portrayed in frontispiece, for him to guide his young feet up the steps into the temple of Knowledge. Now, in the twilight of age, as in lonely thought he stands by the mound that covers the moldering dust of the teacher of his boyhood, in the spirit of gratitude he would render just and noble tribute to his memory. Peace be to his ashes, and may perpetual spring breathe into his urn and the early crocus crown it with clusters of its golden blossoms. CHAPTER III. At the epoch mentioned in this sketch (1836 A.D.), Georgia was in the first stages of its progress and devel- opment as a State. On account of the sparsity of its pop- ulation, schools were few, and these were confined to towns and thickly settled communities. Teachers were scarce, and these were principally foreigners or from New Eng- land, who came South to enlighten the land or a penny turn. Their foreign birth and manners placed them at an unso- ciable distance to the youthful throng they were to teach. Their reputed learning and the discipline they exercised rendered their persons and presence dread and august to their pupils. The rig(M-ous extent to which some of them carried their discipline and exactions in the work of the school- room rendered them grim ogres instead of genial guides to young and timid minds in the walks of learning. This should not be the case. That the great ends of educa- tion may be happily accomplished, it is highly important that the association of the teacher and ipupils, as far as possible, should be congenial and delightful. It should ac- My First Schoolmaster. 175 cord with the picture tliat the Latin poet I'ersius j^-ivcs of his school Hfe and experience in a [)oeni adch-essed to Annccus Cornutus, his preceptor. In expression of his gratitude and affection, he says to this teacher of his youth, "O, sweet friend, it deHghts me to show to thee how great thy part may be of my soul. In the period of youth when the path is uncertain, and error ignorant of life divides the trembling thoughts in the branching cross- ways, thou receivest me into thy Socratic bosom. The example apposite to my manners, skillful to lead imper- ceptibly, shows to me my faults ; and the mind as pressed by reason, yields to be overcome, and draws the artist a•^d his lineaments to thy molding touch. For I remember to consume long days with thee and to spend the first hours of the night with thee in philosophical conversation, away from the banquet table." The office of the school-teacher is highly responsible and sacred. He stands as preceptor to his pupils in loco parentis sancti. In his work and the results of it in train- ing the mind and molding the character of the young, he has been compared to the sculptor in the quarry, who with chisel shapes and carves the inanimate marble into sym- metry and beauty of life; or to the potter, with his revolv- ing wheel and deft fingers, who fashions from the plastic clay the Etruscan vase. This strong and figurative lan- guage and the illustrations given hardly exceed the fact of the potency of the influence and the impression that the teacher makes upon pliant child-nature. There are thousands of persons, no doubt, who bear in their own consciousness and ex])ericnce ample test of the power for good or evil the teacher exerts upon his pupils. This, not only in the direct work of instruction from text- books, but also from the unconscious tuition that flows from his ways, manners and personal traits of character. The writer of this sketch recalls to mind the unfortunate bias that the discipline of his childhood's teacher gave to his own notions of school government in after years, and he would gladly have the retrospect effaced from his mem- ory. Parents should be careful in selecting guides and preceptors for their children in the work of mental train- I'jG Essays and Addrk.ssrs. iui;- and lik'r.'iry culliirc. They should bo unvvilHnjr to ■dclc^-aU' Ihc liij^h and dcHcate duties of these offices to any one whose trails of character and personality they would not be willing to have transferred to their own chil- dren. At that (lay the school life of the child usually began at <_Mght to ten years of age, as custom in the ])ast had fixed, if no obstacles interj)osed. 'J'here arc those who hold against this early in\asion of childhood with the cold and harsh demands and tasks of mental toil and physical con- hnemcnt. They maintain that it should be a ])eriod sacred to innocent .si])orts and childish joys, and that its hours should be counted on a dial woven oi llowers. There is, and always has been, a disposition and tendency on the part of parents and teachers to ]>ress the infant mind too early into the artiticial realm of letters. An article from the pen of Mrs. ((ieueral) Lew Wallace, titled "Mur- ;SSl';S. Now amidst the years of time and the waniiip;- of his earthly life does the writer of this .sketch rejoice to do honor and reverence to the memory of iiis parents, who, in their parental love and devotion, ])rovided and even made sacrilice to give to liieir live sons and four daughters the full educational advantages of those times. This they did even at the risk of sneers and hting called proud and pa- trician in tlieir views and plans for their children in life. I ie would i)ause to render trihute of hlial gratitude to that father whose family i)ride and deep love for his ehildren prompted him to make them worthy of that ancestral line th.it ccinld proudly point to eight nuinhiTs of it from the "OKI J)ominion State" that served in the Jvevolutionary war (one of them heing his father), and three of them be- ing color-hearers. Now, after twenty-hve years since his decease, does he rise uj) to mind as he was in the meridian of his days, a man of massive frame, strong, native intel- lect, lofty integrity of character, a devout Christian, with heart and hand o])en to charity as the sun. A half century has not effaced from mind the features of a sainted mother, hut has dee])ened them, "as streams their channels deeper wear." She, too, was devoted to her chil-