Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/40

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

32 Southern Historical Society Papers,

lands and are seeking homes elsewhere. The South Carolinian, as he looks for the last time on the home of his ancestors, mournfully says:

" One look, one last look, to the cots and the towers ;

To the rows of our vines and the beds of our flowers ;

To the church where the bones of our fathers decayed ;

Where we fondly had hoped that our own should be laid."

The refugee from the Ethiopian fetich in Florida smites his breast as he exclaims :

•* Farewell to thy fountains, farewell to thy shades ; To the song of thy youth, the dance of thy maids."

The Louisiana and Mississippi planter, as he resolutely turns his steps towards the setting sun to seek a new home in the farther West, gives vent to the sad refrain :

'* Farewell and forever ; the franchised ex-slave May rule in the halls of the free and the brave. Our hearths we abandon, our lands we resign. But, Father, we kneel to no altar but Thine.'*

THE WHITE MAN MUST PREVAIL.

Comrades, you face not now a line of glistening bayonets. You confront an impending destiny. Jonah-like you are looking into the open mouth of the Ethiopian fetich. Without a constitutional amendment, and upon a free ballot and a fair count, nine sovereign States within ten years, freighted with all the hopes and fears of our race, will be drawn into the belly of the fetich. Let us see to it that the ** Lost Cause'* was not the cause of white supremacy, or of civil- ization, or the cause of Christianity itself Let us see to it that no cause has been lost but the cause of human slavery and the right of secession. With these questions once settled on just and sure foundations, our surviving comrades can glide hopefully down the stream of time to their rest, while our comrades who sleep in the graves where America has laid them, can peacefully sleep on until the dawning of the morning of the resurrection.

A Word with the Critics.

[The following editorial, from the Memphis Daily Advocate of the date of publication of the address, commends itself.]

Whatever may be the sentiment elsewhere, it is plain that this