Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/527

 Address Delivered by Governor Z. B. Vance. 521

tures, without ships, shut out from all the world and supposed to be effeminated and degenerated by African slavery, yet waged a four years' contest against four times their numbers, and ten times their means, supplementing all their necessities, and improvising all their material almost out of the dreary wastes of chaos ; how that their generals wrought out campaigns not discreditable to the genius of Hannibal, Caius, Julius, Marlboro, and Napoleon; whilst their gently nurtured soldiers fought and marched and endured with the courage of the Grecian phalanx, the steadiness of the Roman Legion, and the endurance of the British Line — and all because the Southern people had preserved the lofty souls and gallant spirits of their an- cestry; had treasured up the traditions of chivalry and personal honor which their fathers had bequeathed them as the highest glory of a race, instead of the heaping together of dollars; the great lesson which this age is striving to forget, that States will be as their men are, that men will be as their souls are, sordid or lofty as they are taught. And if there be any man among us. North or South, who feels that the truth of this cruel war should not be known ; or that it is dangerous to honor that courage and patriotism which extend ta the giving of life in its support, in any cause which a Christian sol- dier could maintain; or that unfaithfulness to present duty is bred from a reverencing of the memory of those who died to preserve their faith ; with such I have no desire to harmonize, the good opinion of all such I can afford to despise. We know that the glo- rious profession of arms is of the highest importance to a State ; and a skill to wield the sword and the manhood to fight battles are cardi- nal elements of successful civilization. All peace and mental culti- vation produce effeminate Greeks of the lower Empire. All war and physical development produce the Goth and the Hun. But when the martial and the civil spirit are judiciously combined, the highest types of human progress are brought forth.

Note. — It is but justice to state here that the idea of. obtaining supplies in the way mentioned on pages 512 and 515, was suggested to me by Gen- eral J. G. Martin, then Adjutant-General of the State. It was his practical ability which shaped the outline of the scheme, though he had returned to active service in the Confederate army before its fruits were reaped.

Z. B. V.