The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870, March 21, 1868, Page 4, Image 4

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4 ,4^ IMISBI REV. A J. RYAN, Editor- AUGUSTA, GA„ MARCH 21, 1868. SALUTATORY. With no little diffidence in ourselves, but with a deep faith in the principles which we intend to maintain, and with a love fully as deep for the two sacred causes which we are proud to espouse, we send forth, to-day, “The Banner of the •South,” to do humble, yet faithful, duty in guarding the truths of Religion, and in defending the rights and interests of Native-land. \V e know not what welcome, if any, we may receive ; but we know our motives—and they are high and pure ; we know the object we Lave in view’—and there is none more honorable; and, if we know ourselves at all, we are sure that, in our efforts t*> reach that object, we shall never stoop to the use of unworthy means. We have no high-sounding promises to make, for it is as far from our wishes, as it would be unjust to our friends and patrons, to arouse expectations which we might fail to realize. Nit by our promises of to-day, which arc easy to be evaded as they are to bo made, but bv our course in the future, do we wish to be judged. This, and this only, we can and do promise—that we shall do our best. No more could be asked of us—no more expected. We shall be found wanting, no doubt, in many things, but never, we trust, in zeal and energy. Without, flourish of trumpets, or vain glorious boasting—without useless display or vulgar parade—but quietly and unob trusively. we enter the field of journalism, where fiercer often than the battles of men with men, and far more important in their results, though more slowly decided, are fought the battles of ideas. The last in the field, wo know our cause, our friends, our foes—-we choose our side—we take our place— the humblest one—in the ranks of those who are struggling for the True against the False, for the Right against the Wrong; and though for a time we may not possess the skill, and drill, and strong* h i>f the older and more experienced combatants v.'ho have entered the field be fore us, and who have borne hardships and won honors in many a campaign already, we shall, at least, have the courage to stand firm to our colors to the last; and if we be not among the bravest, we shall certaiuK not bo cowards in the contest. The difficulties which wc must encounter —th«; viwpropitious time.-—the precarious condition of the country—-the poverty of our people—the uncertainty of all things in the present—the dark aspect of the future—all this, and more, we have de liberately considered; yet, spite of it all, trusting to the many kind friends who hare encouraged, and who, we know, will asset us, and hoping that thousands who share our sentiments will rally to our side, and greet us with glad welcome, we lift, to-day. "The Banner of the South’’ over the ruins of our Land, and its folds, as long as they may float, we pledge to the high and holy causes of Religion- and Country. A. J. K. OUR PRINCIPLES AND POSITION, 'the I’ublie, on this our iirst appearance, has the right to question us as to the prin ciples which we profess and the position which we intend to hold. It is our dutv, irankly and clearly, to answer such ques tion. li Religion, by the grace of God, and by < eviction too deep for doubt, we are Ro; an Catholics. This announce ment, wt know well, will deprive, na of the patr nage of many, who, w ere we any thing eh c, would willingly give us their Mipport. Well—be it so—if men are afraid to read ns because we are Catho lics, we are willing to do without their support and that very fear we accept a« | an homage paid to the mysterious power jof our Religion. For us the teachings of | our Church, in the spiritual order, are the ; teachings of God. As such we accept i them, believe them, submit to them, will ! live by them—will die in them—and we would regard it as the highest of crimes* on our part, to gainsay or contravene them. With the light of evidence shining across their dim mysteriousness, the doc trines of our Faith are as clear to us and as imperative as a mathematical demon. j stration—and they are so real that, were * ; we to abate one iota of that Faith, we | would be offering violence to our reason ; for our Faith is intelligent submission to the proved truths of God—not an imrea. soning servility to the mere assertion of men. Holding, therefore, to the Faith of the Catholic Church, guiding our thoughts and life according to its authori tative teachings, we cannot, consistently with conscience or duty, allow anything to appear in our columns in opposition to the doctrines or morals of our Church. Knowing, too, what erroneous ideas are entertained by many in regard to our Church, we shall take frequent occasion to explain them and to place them in their true and proper light before our readers. And yet, though we are thorough Catho lics, bigotry is not & part of our religion —prejudice is no element of our faith. We love the truth deeply and dearly which we have learned from the Church, and on which rest all our hopes for eternity, but we hate no man who differs from us. Ileuce, we shall assail no man or men. Bitter religious controversy we shall sedu lously avoid as productive of more evil than good. We do not believe in bitter words—they always bear bitter fruit- Honest convictions, wherever and in whom sover found, we feel bound to respect. To wards no one is it our intention to assume an offensive attitude, unless indeed the fact of our being Catholics constitute, in itself, an offence. And as we treat others so do tve wish, in all fairness, to be treated If we do not assail, we do not wish to be as sailed. If attacked, we claim, and to the utmost will exercise, the right of defence. We shall not be the first to commence hostilities ; but if commenced against our selves we shall give blow for blow, nor shall we yield the field without a manly struggle. Our intention*, however, are pacific, aud v;e trust that our work shall be a work of peace. Indeed, w r e deprecate that religious animosity which, but too frequent ly, is regardless of the laws of courtesy as well as of the spirit of charity, and which is so apt to substitute abuse for argument and violent vituperation for logic. We eau confidently say that such shall never be our course, and we are sure that, when called upon to defend or discuss re ligious principles, charity shall control our thoughts, guide our pen and frame our dswor, so that the feelings of all, differ they ever so widely from us, shall meet with respectful consideration, and the feeling's of none be intentionally wounded. We hope to have many readers, especially through the South, whose belief differs from our own, and we feel that in justice to them aud to ourselves we ought thus frankly explain our religious principles and position. In Politics, we shall be independent. We belong to no party. Mere partisans we shall never be, but, holding ourselves aloof from party and party prejudices, we shall take the liberty to discuss all public questions, public measures and public men—not in their relations to party, but in their relation with principles and the welfare of society. By birth aud senti ment we are of the South. Dearer than aU other interests, of this world, to us, are those of our own land. Over these interests we shall watch, 1’ irmly and faithfully we shall defend them, and more so now than ever when those interests are such sore need of brave defence and i ue defenders. Believing, as we do, that Iu South had right, and reason, and prin ciple, on her side in the late war, wc feel j that we should not let the traditions and memories and glories of the struggle pass 1 iuto oblivion. We must keep them alive and aglow —we must pass them down— we must, make our children proud of them There is not a day nor a deed of the strug gle of which we may feel ashamed. We owe it to the past to preserve the story of our struggle, and the future will not for give us if we fail to record it. And in recording it we must not use words of apology, as though we doubted of the righteousness of our cause ; but. plainly aud fearlessly, true to ourselves, to our cause, to our country—true to the dust of the dead at our feet—true to the spirits of those who were so true to us—true to the living in their terrible loss—true to the Future which is coming down to ask of us the vindication of our course and the story of our past—we must declare, and stili declare, and never cease declaring, in words as brave as our warriors were, that in the dread struggle in which our Flag went down with not a stain of dis honor on the virgin purity ot its folds, Justice stood on the side of the men who wore the Grcv. And Justice has not , changed sides because we have been de feated. Unconquered and unconquerable, Justice is still with the conquered. The success of our cause has been lost—not its right ; for failure can never make right wrong; nor can success transform the iniquity of wrong into the sacredness of right. Brute force goes down into battle ✓ fields not to test the rightfulness of causes but to try the strength of combatants. The success of the sword is no argument in favor of the cause for which it has been unsheathed. The surrender of the sword is no argument against the cause which drew it from the scabbard. Shot and shell do not reason—they slaughter—and slaugh ter, be it more or less, is only slaughter —it is no argument for or against the rights of those who kill or are killed. Bullets may mangle flesh —spill blood— slay men—but they can never reach the vital principles for which men contend. These principles are beyond the range of musket and cannon. Battle-fields may be the burial-places of men—never of rights. Above the smoke and storm and shock of battles, unaffected by victory or defeat, calm, and immovable, Justice sits on her eternal throne, and in her eyes right is right forever—wrong is eternally wrong —and trampled right is grander than tri- j umphant wrong. From the decisions given against us in the court of battle, we therefore appeal; and these decisions we carry up to the high tribunal of Justice for reversal. This, and this alone, was settled by battle—that we were the weaker party. We had less brute force on our side and we were obliged to yield to the superior strength of our assailants. The armies and government of the Confedc racy were but the mortal flesh and blood of an immortal cause. They are gone— it is living. Nor steel, nor lead, could touch its life or take it away. It is living in the loves ot Southern hearts—it is living in the memories of the Southern dead—it is living in the stories which Southern mothers are telling their little children —it is living in the sorrows and 1 tears of our widows and orphans. And we shall keep it alive. The right of our cause did not fall with Richmond. It exists to-day as clearly as it did when the first boom of our guns sounded across the Carolina waters, and when the Pal metto flag—mid the ringing of bells, and the rapture of gladdened hearts and the sounding of cheers which the shore sent over the sea—waved in triumph over l: muter. And on that April day when Lee gave up his sword bright and un blemished as when he tirst girded it on, he yielded merely, and only, the policy of further resistance—not the principle which had lifted that resistance into a right and sanctified it as a duty Right began our struggle, right justified and ennobled it, right animated our soldiers, right made them strong to suffer, strong to endure ; right made them brave to dare, and, bravest of all, to die ; right marched with them, step by step, info every gory field; right flashed in the sheen of their swords, and thundered in ! the boom of their cannons in every fray ; right wreathed a glory around ban ners wherever their banners were e ; right consecrated their victories am n soled them in their defeats; right lit in their hearts the flames of that heroism which blazed out into deathless deeds ; right nerved them to every sacrifice they made, to every hardship they endured : right lit beacon-fires of glory on the plains of Manassas, on the heights of Fredericks burg, in the swamps of the Chickahomi ny, in the trenches of Richmond, on the mountains of Tennessee, in the battle plaees of Kentucky, on the soil of Georgia, on the seaboard of the Carolinas, in the wilds beyond the Mississippi ; and, now ? right stands amid our ruins and graves, and pointing to the glories of our cause and waiting in hope for the terrible re tribution of the future, lifts towards the heavens the manacled hands, which, there at least, have never pleaded in vain, and solemnly protests against the oppressions of victorious wrong ; and we, for one, join now and always in the pro test. We stand by the Past of our coun try and cause, and we accept no Future which will not accept that Past. There are men who bend their principles before the bayonet. There are men who desert the altars of a Lost Cause round which they once stood with the blood in their hearts panting for libation, and who kneel to offer homage at the altars of successful wrong. There are men who trample under foot the very standards that once floated proudly over them. There are men base enough to lift their hands against the very l ights for which they once up lifted swords. We are not such. For us, principle is principle, right is right— ye stc rda y —to-day— l< >-m or row—fore ve v . j Submission to might is not surrender of right. We yield to the one—but shall never yield up the other. We shall do our best, therefore to save from oblivion the memories and traditions of the Confederacy. Whoever in the South is ashamed of these had better not read “ The Banner of the South.” Amid the questions which agitate the present, we should never lose pride in our past. It is too grand to be forgotten. PaRvS down its memories—they should live forever. A. J. R. GIVE GOD HIS PLACE. Man’s faith in men is going down. Trust in the merely human has been tried, on a colossal scale, by our age ; and that trust has been proved a cheat and a delusion. The human must lean upon the divine. The weight of this world needs something mightier than this world to sustain it. Mere man is not sufficient for men. God is You may as well think of thrusting •Him from His throne in the Heavens as of ousting Him from human history. In history as in Heaven—in the civilizations of men as in the courts of angels—in the annals of time as in the annals of eternity, He must and He will have His place—and that, the supremest place of all. This world is Ilia place as well as man’s —and more than man’s. He has a word to say about its affairs as well as man. He has rights in it as well as man. He, as well as man, has a work to do here, and lie will doit. Men and nations, aforetime, tried to do without Him ; they put Him out of their calculations, or they put Him in them only as a valuable cypher ; they thrust Hun aside as an obstacle, or they flung Him away as an encumbrance ; and on they went, insensate, in the pride of their hearts—light of step and buoyant because the grand burden of the divine did not press upon them ; but sudden, a? the rush of the storm by night, a footstep was heard that was not man’s; a thunderbolt, not hurled by human hands, flashed across the firma ment of history ; men, startled and stunned, looked up—and the forgotten God was there—tight in their midst where he had always been, though un seen —where he always is and shall be —not with folded arms, a passive spectator —but with lifted hands, to bless or curse their works. Nor men nor na- tions can get rid of Him. He goes down into the domain of history—and he rules it gently as a mother, or terribly as an avenger. Into every question of earth He enters. lie is part of every problem. He stands related to every event—in the fall of a snow-flake, as in the crash of an empire ; in the fading of a flower-leaf; as in the ruin of a nation ; in that happens between the dust and the stars, He must be taken into account. Truly, “in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” With out interfering with their free-will and agency, He will, and lie does, and He must, shape men’s courses to H s own ends; He will and He does control the destinies of the nations ; He will and He does sway the fates of the world ; He will and He does write His own great name, in letters of love, or wrath, in every chapter, upon every page and in every line of the chronicles of time. Try as it may, this world efci never be God less. Out of eternity, through the gates of creation, He enters the world- -moves across it ; men may or may not see His footprints—butif£hey are there—marked and ineffaceable ; men may and may not, see His shadow when he passes—but that shadow moves beside them ; men may or may not hear Lis voice—but 'tis sound ing, nevertheless, amid all their tumults ; men may not see His hand till the bless ing falls from it, or the malediction—but the hand is always there ; men may not see Him working in their midst till He has built a monument, graven His own name on it, and passed ; men may not know that He is walking on their way till they meet Him treading in the dust a proud people or an unholy nation ; but, always—always—seen or unseen—felt or unfelt, He, with man, is making and moulding human history. Man, from day to day, records the events of that history, and too often He, who bolds that history in the palm of His hand, is utterly ignored—but never ignored with impu nity. It is then not only religion—not only true wisdom—but it is men’s and nations’ interest to give God His place in human affairs and to recognize and adore Ilis presence and His power in the work ings of this world. The civilization that is false to Him cannot be beneficial to man. The developments of individuals and peoples which ignore ITitn must lead straight to destruction. The progress which goes not towards Him, is not pro gress. Human fabrics, without the divine cement, must totter. Sink their founda tions never so dee}), let them tower ever so high—they must fall. There can be no salvation for the individual, without. Him ; there can be no social ameliora tion for the nation, without Him. Neces sary for man isolated, he is necessary for men in their collective capacity. Woe to the nations that forget and ignore Him. Are they strong ? lie can shat ter their strength. Are they proud ? He can belief their brows to the very dust. Are they prosperous ! With a wave of His hand He can bla.it their prosperity. Boast they of their gran deur ? He can dig it a grave. Do they lift tip their heads vainly exalted ! In the cloud lurks the lightning to strike and scathe the lofty oak. Do they boast of their security ? lie can change the calm into the tempest. The powers of life and death in his hands, he wields them in justice and in judgment over the nations and the centuries, in accordance with their relations to Him and I!is laws and truths. How stands our age towards him? how, our people? Are we for Him or against Him, that we mav know whether He is for ns, or against us ? What is the measure of ouv Faith in Him—our fear of Him—our love for Him ? Is the face of our century turned towards llim to adore, or to deride '( Are we giving them room and place, or are we crowding Him out In the pro gress we are making are we moving towards Him, or from Him ? What are the signs of His presence among us ? Is the nineteenth century kneeling before Him for a blessing, or has it turned its back upon Him, and challenged His