Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/242

 236 Southern Historical Society Papers.

It has saved us that we believed in the sanctity of human nature, and built upon it as the corner-stone. No doubtful future can dis- may the man who feels that he is going" to do his best; no darkness of to-morrow can frighten him whose reliance is in God as his father and in himself as his son.

I sometimes hear that the South in these days is to express some sort of added patriotism a greater amount of patriotism than any other part of the country; that we are under a sort of a cloud which requires us to give some additional bond of security for good behavior ; that we are to be a little more extravagant in our utter- ances. Standing in this old Capitol, whose very walls, redolent of the utterances of history, have an interest almost as great as the men whose statues adorn your squares, and in the presence of the great men who have gone before, I claim for the South that she has always been equal to her duty, and gives to every other section the equality she claims for herself.

And as I look through the South to-day, my heart is filled with an infinite joy. There was a time when it seemed that you could not complain if our young men left us; if they talked about the teeming fields of the Northwest; if they spoke of the wider oppor- tunities of the Northeast; you could hardly put an obstacle in the way of your bright son, who wanted some broader field in which to labor. You yourself could not leave the graveyard and those who lay in it, the battlefield and those who fell on it; the memories of loved ones gone before tied you; but you could hardly say nay to your son who felt that the disasters of the war were permanent and the blight upon the land irremediable. Who now wants to go to a wider field than this South. Where is there a wider field than these old Confederates have made for their sons and younger brothers ? Do you want to go where industrial progress is richer than else- where ? Go to Alabama, Virginia, or over the river into Arkansas. Do you want to go where the country is improving? Go to our new waterways running to the sea, gradually getting commerce upon their bosoms which will not only whiten the rivers with their sails, but make those rich who settle in their vicinity. Do you want scien- tific agriculture as your vocation ? The rich lands of the South, worn out by the marauding agriculture of the past, beckon to you with new hopes to come and settle on them, and they will make you rich. Do you want a place to bring your children up where piety and religious influence will lead them up to higher life? Carry