Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/17

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adventurous help for 'I '( -\.i- rendered by Lainar, Houston, Fannin, Crockett and other like spirits from Tennessee and (ii-orgia. when the blood of the South crimsoned the Alamo, and afterward freely flowed in all battles from Palo Alto to the ancient city of the Monte- zumas, and in which the troops of the American Union were led to victory by such men as Pierce, Butler, Zachary Taylor, Wingfield Scott, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. In that war of so much importance to the Republic the reports show: Northern volunteers, twenty-three thousand and eighty-four, and Southern volunteers, forty-four thousand six hundred and forty. Thus, while the South has multiplied the stars on the flag of the Nation, it has deepened the crimson of the stripes with its blood. Having done its best in every battle, having given its Washington to lead the armies of the Colonies, its Jackson to win the second victory over England, its Taylor and Scott to bring Mexico to terms, and having shown in all wars that the chivalry of the South means in part the readiness of its natural born soldiery to fight, we may say to our countrymen and the world that no legions truer or more gallant than the sons of the South will ever follow the starry flag into battle at the call of our country to arms.

III.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM.

I will ask for the South a just and generous concession of its full share in the successful Colonial efforts which established on this con- tinent the fundamental principles of individual liberty, and put them in operation through a government of republican-democratic form. It will not be claimed that political virtues were all centered in Southern Colonies and descended from Southern sources alone. North of the dividing line drawn by King James, in 1606, there lived a host of men in whose own brave hearts burned the inextinguish- able flame of civil and religious freedom. I know from the record that in 1630 the spirit of home rule stirred the soul of Plymouth men, and Massachusetts resolved to hold a Legislature for its Settle- ments. It is in happy memory that in 1639 the Connecticut settlers adopted the "fundamental orders" for their self government, said to be the first written constitution of America. With pride we read in the records of New Jersey for 1680, its brave resolutions against illegal and tyrannous taxation. We recall with delight the heroism of John Peter Zenger, of New York, who bravely printed in his paper the demands of his people for political rights, and went to prison