Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/339

Rh people knew their great unequaled resources in climate, soil, rivers, seacoast, rainfall, iron, coal, timber, agriculture, and everything necessary to make a people rich and prosperous. They knew that they had every condition essential to success. They realized that the race question was settled possibly for a time, and with discretion on their part, passion and prejudice must necessarily die out. They knew that with patriotism, patience, and fidelity and good principles, success might be assured. They were conscious that in the ordeal through which they had passed, they had preserved their self-respect and honor, and there was nothing to be ashamed of in their conduct. And they now determined to enter with courage and skill the great future before them, relying on their strong arms and hearts and on their own meager resources, for it has been shown that there were no friends at hand to aid them materially. The only friends they had politically were the Democrats at the North, and these friends had never deserted them from the time the war closed.

Before showing what rapid strides the South made after the white people got control, in material development, in educational progress, social restoration, and in reinstating prosperity in every line of progress and industry, it is not inappropriate to show that the same pluck, energy and push which had always animated the people of the South still existed, and that those who now led in this restoration of prosperity were the same people who in antebellum days made the South the richest section of the great republic. Her record before the war in all branches showed her sons abreast not only with the citizens of any other section, but with the citizens of any other country in the world in every respect, in energy, thrift, and progress. There are those who would have the world believe that her citizens were slothful, that they were