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EEV. A. J. RYAN, Editor-
AUGUSTA, GA., JULY 4, 1868.
THE FOURTH OF JULY.
What lofty aspirations, what pleasing
hopes, what patriotic impulses, once at
tended this great anniversary, and what
noble inspirations were drawn from its
glorious memories and hallowed associa
tions 1 For it was not alone the birth
day of a Nation, but the birth-day, on
this continent, of great principles—the
principles of Constitutional Liberty, Free
Government, and the Popular Will It
was associated with memories that very
justly filled the American heart with
pride, and gave some excuse for the
rather extravagant boastings in which
our people so freely indulged. But, alas !
where arc all those aspirations, hopes, im
pulses, and aspirations to-day ? Where
is the South, and what is she to-day ?
Can she share in the general jubilations ?
Can she rejoice in the memories and asso
ciations of this day ? Alas ! “ her people’s
hopes are dead !” What have they to do
with jubilations and rejoicings ? Their
land is filled with lamentations over
dead heroes who have fallen in defence of
that Lost Cause, which was but the cause
of the principles to which this day gave
birth—over fathers, husbands, sons, broth
ers, lovers—men in grey—gallant
“ sleepers in the dust,” who went down
to Death, battling for those principles and
that Cause; their land, too, is peopled
with the widows and orphans, of the dead
heroes ; it is filled with desolated house
holds, deserted firesides, and uncultivated
fields: and their land, too, is filled with
ruin and desolation ; while military Sa
traps lord it over an oppressed and down
trodden people; and that banner which
was once hailed as the
*• Flag of the free hearts’ hopes and home,
By Angel hands to Valor given,
now waves, as the symbol of tyranny and
oppression, over this ruin, woe, and
desolation. Can wc, then, rejoice to-day,
as we have done in the past? Can w r c
look up to the stars of that banner, and
see any hope or glory in their brightness
for us? Can we look upon its folds, and
feel that it is a symbol of honor and pro
tection ? Alas, no ! But we can see in
its stripes the emblems of our degradation
and humiliation ; we can say with the
poet:
“ Cold arc those hearts that warned for thee,
And all their love-born hopes are fled ;
No more tliou’rt standard of the free,
Thy sons of valor all are dead !
Grim horror claims the free heart’s home,
To Vandal hordes for rapine given,
Whose flames did light the welkin dome
And shamed the genial glow of heaven !
Go! float above yon Bastile’s towers,
Where late the despot bade thee wave,
And as the night of Freedom lowers
Henceforth the standard of the slave.”
And so we can have no part or parcel
in the rejoicings of this day. It brings
back, it is true, memories of which the
South may w r ell be proud, but, overshad
owing these, come inemories—later
memories—around which it would be well
if the curtain of Time could be drawn,
and their bitter, galling woes be hid for
ever
Still, we must not despair. In the far
off North a gleam of sunshine comes to
day, to light our hearts with hope and
confidence. In the city of New York
conservative men from every section of
the country will meet together to-day and
take counsel on the best means of de
feating corruption, and restoriugthe Gov
ernment to its Constitutional purity and
greatness. They will meet together to
day, and we hope, place before the people
a standard-bearer—a Democratic David,
who will go forth to battle with the Goliah
of Radicalism ; and he will be armed,
wc also hope, with a platform of princL
pies around which all j;ood and true men
can rally, and which, it is to be hoped,
they will proudly and nobly bear to a
glorious victory. Let us pray God, then,
to bless the labors of these men to-day,
and guide them so that they will act with
harmony and prudence, justice and dis
cretion, wisdom and moderation, t
Acting in this spirit, and guided by
Divine Providence, they will take such
action as will make this Fourth of July
what other Fourths of July have been—a
day of grateful and happy recollections, a
day of rejoicings—a day of National Jubi
lee—a true and real “ Independence
Day.”
OUR WIDOWS AND ORPHANS.
In struggling for our rights, may we
not, at times, lorget the sacred rights of
our Widows and Orphans ? In our great
sorrows, are we not disposed to be selfish
and forget others ? May not our own
poverty blind us to their destitution ? Wc
fear so. And, therefore, wc deem it our
duty to keep before our people the blood
bought claims of the Widows and Or
phans of the Confederacy. There is no
need of argument to sustain their claims.
Out of the graves, where husbands and
fathers rest, come pleadings which stoniest
hearts cannot resist, in favor of those who
were bound to them by earth’s sacredest
tics. Those brave men left home, and
wife, and children, for our sake—and
died in our defence —and those who were
dear to them should be dear to us. They
are a sacred legacy—a sad inheritance
bequeathed to our care—left to our pro
tection ; and, if we fail to protect those
whose protectors died in order to protect
our land and cause, *we prove ourselves
unworthy of our dead, and recreant to the
highest duty of patriotism. Had we tri
umphed, the dead soldier’s orphan would
have become the grateful people’s child—
and our love for the child would have
been measured by its father’s love lor our
cause; and the warrior’s widow would
have become the nation’s ward, and her
husband’s blood would have been the
bond between her poverty and our riches.
But, while the conquered can make no
national provision for the care of their
widows and orphans, still is it their
bounden duty not to forget nor neglect
those whose claims are so sadly sacred.
AVhat would have been a national duty,
becomes an individual obligation; and
though, in our collective capacity as a
people, we may not reward, as should be
rewarded, the relicts of our dead, wc can,
each and every one, out of our poverty,
contribute our mite. Wc might, if we
wished, plead their case on the higher
ground and before the loftier tribunal of
Religion, but wc are willing and satis
fied to present it to the lower court of
Patriotism, well assured that the grand
testimonies—“ my husband died for the
cause”—“ my father was killed in our
army—will plead powerfully enough in
favor of the poor Widows and Orphans.
Alas! our land is tilled with them.
Thousands and thousands of them are
utterly destitute. They lift their sorrow
ing faces to us, and beg for help. And
can any one, who loves the South, resist
their pleadings and refuse their petitions ?
True, we have done much for them ; poor
as our people are, they have divided their
bread with the hungry. Associations
have been formed throughout the land
whose special purpose was to come to the
assistance of those who were made needy
and destitute on our account. And down
to us, from noble men and generous
women in the North, came most munifi
cent contributions for our poor—all
honor to their charities ! But, still, the
relief, in the main, was only temporary
and partial, while the destitution was as
wide as the South. From all parts of
the country we are in receipt of letters
which are very histories of woe. Just
before us lies one sent to us from a family
once in afilucnce and ease, now victims
of most utter destitution. When riches
stoop down to take the poor by the hand,
it is beautiful. When Poverty divides
her own pittance, and gives half away to
the poor, the moral beauty of the act is
beyond the power of words to tell. Poor
though we be, and poorer though wc may
become, let us never forget our Widows
and Orphans. The holiest tribute to the
memories of the dead, is to protect those
whom they bequeathed to our care. It
is better to let their graves run waste
than to neglect their Widows and Or
phans. It is best, when Patriotism goes
out to their graves to watch and weep ;
and when Charity goes into their bereaved
homes to comfort and assist.
A DAY OF HUMILIATION.
A proclamation, signed “ Rufus B.
Bullock, Governor elect of the State of
Georgia,” notifying the members elect
of “the General Assembly of this State”
to convene at Atlanta, on the 4th day of
July, (to-day) appears in the daily papers
of the past week. And so, to-day, the
world will be called upon to witness the
absurd folly of American Republicanism,
and the humiliation of the unhappy State
of Georgia. Will the world care ? Oh,
no! It will not stop to give us even one
tear of pity, one kindly word of sympa
thy. It will go on with its toil, itsgaity,
its sorrows, and never care that to-day
the humiliation of a great State and a
noble people has reached its culminating
point. But, we shall feel it—we, of
Georgia, and South Carolina, and Ala.
bama, and Louisiana, and our other
Southern sister States. We shall taste
the bitter gall of woe, and feel the pains
of the oppressor’s fetters, as “ Rufus B.
Bullock, Governor elect of the State
of Georgia,” takes the chair this
day, and calls the “ General Assem
bly of this State” to order. Yes, the
misery of oppression and the desolation
of tyranny is complete. The tyrant has
accomplished his work. The voice of the
people has been stilled, and yet the mock
ery of freedom will desecrate this holy
birth-day of American Liberty. Yes;
to-day, the day of all others, in the civil
order, which should be dear to every
American—dear to every patriot—dear
to every lover of Liberty, has been set
apart for this mockery, this desecration.
And by what authority ? Not by the
authority of the Constitution ; not by the
authority of a legal Government; not by
the authority of the true people of Geor
gia ; but, as “ Rufus B. Bullock, Gov
ernor elect of the State of Georgia” tells
us, in his little proclamation, by the au
thority of “ an Act of Congress to admit
the States of North Carolina, South Caro
lina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, to
representation in Congress” !—that is,
by the authority of a Congress which has
no legal authority itself—-nay, which has
not even a Constitutional existence !
by the authority of a farce of an elec
tion ; by the authority of Northern ad
venturers, Negroes, traitors, and bayo
nets ! This is the authority for the con
vening of a General Assembly at Atlanta
to-day. And will not such authority
mantle the cheek of the “ Governor elect”
with the blush of shame ? Will it not
make the members of that Assembly,
whose interests are Georgia’s interests,
whose love is Georgia’s love, whose honor
is Georgia’s honor, refuse to take part
with the enemies of their State, with the
tools of oppression ? Oh ! the shame of
this day !
And, by what authority does “ Rufus
B. Bullock, Governor elect of the State
of Georgia,” issue this, bis proclamation,
convening “ the General Assembly of
this State ?” lie is not the choice of the
legal voters of this State ; he is not the
lawful Governor elect of Georgia ; he is
not even yet inaugurated—and yet, part
and parcel with the stupendous fraud
and corruption, he summons his unconsti
tutional and illegal conclave to meet in
General Assembly in the city of Atlan
ta to-day, then and there, we suppose, to
put Georgia back into a Union from
which, we are told by the Governor
elect’s own party, she never could go
out, and never was out! back under “the
best Government the world ever saw;’’
back under the dominion of an unconsti
tutional and lawless body, the Congress
of the United States. “ Oh, the shame !
the shame !”
And will the day of deliverance of the
unhappy States of the South never come ?
Yes; we believe it will, ere long, if we
be but true to ourselves, and to the great |
and holy cause of Constitutional Liberty
—taking no part in the councils of our
enemies ; but giving all the aid and en
couragement in our power, little and
humble though it be, to those gallant
men at the North who are so nobly and
so patriotically struggling, not only for
our deliverance, but for their own, Irom
the chains and dungeons of the oppressor.
N. YORK DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
The political salvation of the People of
this country (if there be virtue enough
left in the land to save it,) rests with that
party, which, spite of its faults and blun
ders during the war, and its shortcomings
and want of manliness since, clings with
much of its old devotion to such fragments
of the Constitution as have survived the
shock of sword and musket. If the Con
stitution be the foundation of a pure, free,
prosperous Government; and if such a
Government be the very basis of the
people’s welfare—to weaken that Consti
tution is to ruin Government and people
—destroy Liberty and right—and to fling
open the gates of lawlessness, through
which anarchy or despotism is sure to
enter.
The Radical party have battered at that
Constitution for more than a few years—
have broken it into fragments —and the
grand temple of American Liberty, built
by the hands and cemented by the blood
of men great, pure, and true, is to-day a
mighty Ruin. That crime history shall
lay to their charge. Aud now that same
party sits enthroned amid the ruins it has
made—and glories in the deed. Its re"
presentative is a man of slaughter—its
symbol is a sword gory with the blood of
the bravest ; its law is brute force ; its
history is three hundred thousand graves,
and a beautiful land laid waste; its spirit,
is anarchic ; its aim is “ rule or rum”;
and its merciless motto, “ Vce Victis .”
It stands before the altar of Liberty —
and blasphemes. Into the sanctuaries of
sacred rights it has entered and made
them scenes of terrible sacrilege. It laughs
to scorn the majesty of Law, and it bids
the people kneel down and adore its own
dread will. It believes in the power of
money to corrupt the many,’and the power
of steel to awe into submission the incor
ruptible tew. Its lips are livid with
falsehoods ; its heart is void of mercy ; its
hands are red with murder. It has tasted
blood—the pure fresh blood of Southern
hearts—and, like the wolf, it howls for
more. It has corrupted the North, and
the glorious South, which it could not
corrupt, it has robbed of all things, save
honor. In the darkness of secret soeie"
ties it concocts the usurpations which the
bayonet completes. It has dug the grave
of Liberty, and has chosen the man who
is best fitted by Dature, and best able by
his power, to drag the corpse to its rest
ing place, and to bury it deep there for
ever. Four more years let that Party
rnle, and the epitaph of Liberty, on this
continent, shall be written. Against the
usurpations of that Party, the Democrats
of the North meekly protested in babbling
words, while the men of the South, braver f
went out to battle, and grandly protested
with their blood. From the first boom of
Beauregard’s cannons to the last volley of
Lee’s muskets, we protested, not coward
ly, on paper—-not weakly, in mere words
—but, as true men should protest, in
the clashing ol sword with sword—in the
waving of banner against banner—in the
shock of steel with steel—in the conflict
of armies with armies—in deeds of brave
ry, and in deaths of sublimest sacrifice.
We did our best to save Libert}' —but,
overwhelmed by numbers, we lost all -all
save the proud consciousness of a duty
grandly done, and the sure reward of
some of the brightest pages of history that
the generations of the future shall ever
read. From the going down of our flag
until this present hour, every day has
brought its own burden ol wrongs Too
proud a people to sue for mercy, we asked
for justice, and it was refused. Not
craven enough to kiss the feet of our con
querors, we stood amid our ruins and ap-
pealed to their humanity—but in vain.
We gave up our muskets —they demanded
the surrender of our manhood ; we re
fused, and they who feared us, when
swords were in our hands, cowardly
taunted us, and mercilessly crushed us,
because we were unarmed. One by one
our rights were invaded and destroyed—
link by link our fetters were forged and
fastened upon us—until, to-day,'our beau
tiful land, by the common tie of sorrow,
is the sister of Poland and Ireland. And
meanwhile, every blow struck at our rights
rebounded on the people of the North,
and the shadow of tyranny hanging over us
has deepened and widened, till now its
gloom is cast over the entire country.
There is but one hope, and that, though
bright to others, seems faint to us. By
the deliberations and nominations of the
Democratic Convention, that hope shall
be made a reality, or its light shall go
out forever. The Party to he repre
sented by that Convention, is the only
Party that can save the country. While
many of that Party stood arrayed against
us during the war—some on principle
some without principle—it gave us many
friends, who proved their friendship by
their fidelity under trials and persecu
tions. Whatever of sympathy we have
received in our sufferings, we owe to that
Party. Whatever principle still lives in
the North, is found in that Party. If a
proper man be nominated—if the old
principles be enunciated—if the welfare
of the whole country shape their deliber
rations—if love of true, legitimate Liberty
control their action—and if the people,
awakened to the dangers of a coming
despotism, will rise, and rally, and, gath
ering up the scattered fragments of the
broken Constitution, restore it, in all
its integrity and pristine purity, and
place as a guard over it a faithful
freeman, then shall South and North
be saved. But, if the Convention, through
want of harmony, or other cause, slioul!
prove itself a failure—or, if the people
should not respond to its action—then
over this country a night of despotism
shall settle, whose to-morrow may nut.
for ages, dawn.
Therefore, it is, with some hope, with
much of doubt, and with great anxiety
we wait for the meeting of the Demo
cratic Convention. We hope that its
members will have but one object, and
strain every nerve, and make every con
cession, short of principle, to reach it—
the welfare of the whole people. For our
selves of the South, we have no advice
to give—we have no favors to ask—
we have no suggestions to offer—
we have no names to propose. Deeply
interested as we are, bound up as our
weal or woe must be, with the succe."
or failure of the Convention, we are
obliged to stand by as passive specta
tors. We hope for the best, and we
pray that our hopes may not be vain:
but we have learned, in the ordeal cl
sufferings, to be prepared for the worst.
To that Convention, Southern delegates
will go, because they'have been invited
—but they represent a people crushed by
military despotism. They go, not to ask
pardon for the past—not to beg for
pity—not to abate one iota of the prin
ciples their picople maintained in the
war, and maintain, though crushed, to
day—not to confess the sin, though they
do accept the failure of secession ; they
go with honest hearts, and in manly t* *nes
they say to the true Democrats of the
North: ‘‘ Give us the right hand w
brotherhood ; trust us, as we trust you:
restore the Union, by restoring the Con
stitution ; and thus first save yours -Ives
from the coming ruin, and do us justice
THE DECLINE OF SOCIETY IN THE
SOUTH—ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY-
No one cau travel through the S " I '|
since the late war, and not he struck " ■l.
the great change in the whole tone
society, the loss of private honor, ana
of public virtue. To the eye, one
no apparent change, except the
property, and a greater sprinkling or t ; '
Puritan element. Did the war alone
the clash of arms, the marshaling