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EEV. A. J. RYAN, Editor
AUGUSTA, Ga., MARCH 20, 18697
IST ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS AND
BUSINESS LETTERS FOR THE “BAN
NER OF THE SOUTH’ 1 SHOULD BE
ADDRESSED TO THE PUBLISHERS -
L. T. BLOME & CO.
OUR NEW STORY.
In this issue we commence the publi
cation of our new story, entitled “ The
Last Days of Carthage; or, A Sister of
Fabiola.” It will be found interesting
and instructive, and free from that senti
mental trash which abounds in the North
ern publications of the day.
TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS-
We hope our friends will renew their
subscriptions at once. Those who do not
intend to renew will please notify us of
the fact. All who don’t renew in two
weeks will have their papers discontinued.
WAS THE CONFEDERATE GOVERN*
NENTADEFACTO GOVERNMENT?
This is a question of some importance
to many interests connected with or
growing out of the great struggle for
Southern Independence ; and it is ably
handled in a communication which we
publish this week from “ FauntLe Roy,”
of Texas. That the Confederate Gov
ernment was a dc facto Government seems
to us so plain and palpable a truth that
we never dreamed of its being doubted
or denied; but it has suited Northern
Radical politicians and Radical lawgivers
to deny this plain proposition, and hence
the rejoinder oi our able Texas corres
pondent.
That Government existed for four
years. It resisted nearly all that time,
successfully, the efforts of the United
States Government to overthrow it. It
made war. It established offices. It
exchanged prisoners. It did “ all and
singular’ what a dc facto Government
has a right to do; and its acts must and
will stand as the acts of a de facto Gov
ernment, despite the cavilings of North
ern politicians or the decisions of Su
preme Court Judges of the Radical
stamp. This is the view that the world
must hold, and it is the view in which it
is important to the people of the South
that it should be held. We, therefore,
invite an attentive perusal of our corres
pondent’s article.
THE INFAMY OF RADICALISM.
. If there was anything wanting* to com
plete the infamy which must attach to the
dominant party in this country, it has
been supplied by the passage of the 15th
Amendment bill by Congress and its re
quired adoption by the States of the South.
The President of the United States has
endosred it; and the Governor of Geor
gia deems its adoption by the Legisla
ture of this State as essential to the re
cognition of our reconstruction by Con
gress. It is an infamy, because it re
quires an unnatural, an unjust, and an
unconstitutional thing of the people. It
forces them to give to Negroes not only
the right to vote, but to hold offices of
honor, trust, and profit. It affects the
North but little, for they have too little
ol the Negro element there to make it a
question ot any importance to them.
But it does affect the South, and very se
riously too, lor it gives power and strength
to an ignorant, pliable class of people
and acids numbers to a corrupt and.tyran
nical party, which thus seeks keep
the people of the South in chains and
slavery.
Oi course, this 15th Amendment will
fed. The Southern tools of Radi
calism have already jumped at the glit
tering morsel, and swallowed it without
salt or butter. Iu their indecent haste to
bow their necks to the Northern Gesler,
they did not even wait to be asked to
vote for it, but no sooner was its passage
by Congress announced, than they fol
lowed suit, and fastened it as a yoke upon
their unhappy States. It will then be
come a law, and the Cuffiies and Guui
boes of the South will forsake their
plantations and their daily labor, and
seek in the cities and towns for the
offices which Congress has so gener
ously opened to them. Labor will thus
be reduced in force, and a class of idle
vagrant people thrown upon overjt/ com
munity, to support and contend "with as
best they can. And thus, one by one,
are the rights of the States and the lib
erties of the people being torn away and
trampled upon, and submission and apa
thy are the only results.
True, we of the South cannot resist it.
We must submit, and bear the yoke now
as patiently as we can. But we need not
show any indecent hasto to give in our
submission. We need not endorse the
cowardly action of an unconstitutional
Congress or a traitor Legislature. We
must submit only because we cannot
help it. We must submit because we
can hope and pray that God, in His own
good time, will relieve our sunny land
from the yoke of the tyrant and deliver
it from the wickedness of its enemies.
RECONSTRUCTION.
As Reconstruction does not yet seem
to be “ uufait accompli ,” notwithstand
ing the abject compliance of some of the
Southern States to adopt all the require
ments of their Radical masters, would it
not be well for the States thus threatened
to be reconstructed—or rather we mean
the conservative people of these States
—to send representatives to Washington
to lay before the Congress the true state
of facts as they exist here ? That body
has had pretty much only ex parte state
ments, and those from the enemies of
our section. Why not make an effort to
get the truth before them ? Perhaps it
might have some effect, for there was a
time when there was force in the pro
verb, “Truth is mighty, and will prevail.”
OSTRACISM.
It is a frequent cause of complaint
against the South that a social ostracism
is exercised against those hyperboreans
who condescend to favor it with their
presence. But why not ? Is not a man’s
house his castle, and is it not a most
sacred right, and one never doubted
even among savages, that the freedom
of the fireside is for the owner of that
fireside to extend or withhold at his own
mere will and pleasure ? Much more
reason, then, is there that, when one does
not desire even an indifferent person
one should exclude a scoundrel who
comes fawning about for admission, with
the very life-blood of some dear one yet
red upon his skirt. But it is said that
this is ostracism , that it is a denial of
the right of opinion. Certainly it is os
tracism, and an ostracism that is always
most justifiable when most unrelenting.
Beyond all doubt it does deny the right
of opinion and it ought to deny that right,
when a man’s opinion is that he may per
secute me at pleasure, and yet, when be
wishes it, I must nevertheless open my
arms and take him to my heart.
Ostracism indeed! It must have
been some low person, with no concep
tion whatever of delicate, or even decent,
feeling, who brought that term into its
present use. It springs, we can see at a
glance, from the rage of some clown who
has either failed in gaining admission to,
or succeeded in being ejected from, a so
ciety neither inclined to receive nor tole
rate a boor. The memory of this ejec
tion the creature perpetuates by the cry
of ostracism, thereby revealing his mor
tification when he only seeks to glut his
hate. Ostracism! why how should these
hyperboreans allege the practise unless
they had experienced its operation in
their own persons, and when they do al-
lege it, is it not evidence of so total a
lack of gentlemanly instinct as would
seek admission to social circles on other
terms than the express assent and invita
tion of those circles ?
-But this only touches the domain of
good breeding and self-respect. There is
another view of this ostracism and when
we take it, we thank Heaven that the
gates are barred. It is this : Evil com
munications corrupt good manners, and
if social circles in the South were willing
to admit the cut-throats and slanderers
who afflict us, the prevalent immorality
of the “loil” social tone would soon exert a
most deleterious influence, if indeed we
could suppose a people who would re
ceive their brothers’ murderers and their
own oppressors, could possibly be made
any worse than that circumstances alone
would indicate them. For this ostracism ,
then, we have no word of reprobation but
many of approbation and defence. It is
but the old doctrine of every man’s house
being his castle, a doctrine sanctified by
the common assent of ages and now made
unusually holy by those tender affections
so ruthlessly outraged by past assassina
tions and present despotisms. That it is
so steadily upheld and so rigorously en
forced is a noble testimony alike to the
memory of departed worth and the value
of endangered liberty. So long as we
see ostracism we see virtuous recollec-
tion and patriotic hope, but should the
day come when he who may be a brother’s
slayer be invited to the fireside or enter
tained in the parlor, that brother’s spirit
will turn away its face and the wrath of
God leap forth to avenge its shuddering
cry.
Out in the world many nauseous asso
ciations are enforced by necessity, but
out of the world ostracis?ii embodies the
South’s protest that the altar of slain in
nocents shall never be profaned by the
presence of a foe.
THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AND THE
EDUCATION FUND.
At the last meeting of the Savannah
City Council, held on the third of March,
instant, the following communication
was received from lit. Rev. Augustin
Verot, Bishop of Savannah, on behalf of
the Catholic Free School Association, in
reference to the disposal of the Educa
tion Fund, which was referred to the
Committee on Education.
To the Honorable Mayor and City
Council of Savannah:
We, the undersigned, representing the
Catholic population of Savannah, beg
leave to submit the following reply to
the report of the Board of Education in
reference to our petition to obtain a part
of the public educational fund.
We regret that our petition was re
ferred to the Board of Education, for
our desires had twice before been pre
sented to that body and rejected by them,
and hence our petition to your honorable
body was a virtual appeal from the de
cision of the Board of Education.
We think it our privilege, and even
our duty, here to state that the Board of
Education has little if any jurisdiction
of this matter, for it was appointed by a
Legislature considered by some of doubt
ful authority, and particularly it was ap
pointed without any participation or even
knowledge of the inhabitants of the city
of Savannah, and especially without
cognizance of the parties interested in
the distribution of the educational fund :
namely, the heads of poor families which
the laws of Georgia intended to assist in
giving an elementary education to their
children. That Board was irregularly
appointed against the spirit and the
letter of the laws of Georgia, and it was
made permanent against all Republican
customs, so that the Board claims the
privilege of disposing forever of the
public edueotional fund, without any
mode of redress, if some parties consider
themselves injured by its adjudications.
The Board, however, does not reject
absolutely our application, but consents
to take our schools under its patronage,
provided we submit to the school regula
tions made by them, and our teachers are
found qualified after an examination by
them, and provided the city is willing to
grant at least twenty thousand dollars
instead of the usual gratuity.
It is with regret, and from sheer con
viction of duty, that we are compelled to
decline the offe. The school regulations
proposed by the Board introduce a prayer
and a Bible not in accordance with our
religious views. They ignore Church
holy days which it would be criminal in
us to set aside by keeping school on such
days ; they would put in the hands of
our children books in which their faith
and religion are misrepresented and as
sailed, and in which views and practices
hostile to their Church are inculcated ;
they would subject our schools to the
visits of Protestant ministers, who enter
largely iu the composition of the Board
and in the Visiting Committees appointed
by the Board. Finally, our Sisters of
Mercy, who devote their whole lives to
the education of young persons of their
sex, cou and not, without obvious impro
priety, be subjected to the examination
of a committee appointed by the Board.
We therefore submit to your honorable
body a plan which will not increase the
expenditures expected of the city, and
will be highly creditable to the liberality
of the City Council of Savannah, at the
same time it will be in keeping with the
spirit of the existing laws of Georgia, and
conformable to the practice of the most
enlightened nations of the new and of
the old world. This plan is to recognize
the Catholic schools as a collateral branch
of the public schools of the city, main
tained and supported at the public ex
pense. The public scnools already exist
ing meet with approbation of the various
religious denominations of the city, and
none of them have, as far as our knowl
edge extends, taken exception to them.
We would be sorry to disturb them in
the enjoyment of the privileges they
possess, and they do not ask or desire any
sub-division of the schools. That this
separate organization is imperiously
demanded with regard io the motives
upon which this separation is required,
rest upon liberty of conscience, the bill
of lights, and the inalienable privilege of
parents to educate their children in a
manner which will not be at variance
with their religious convictions. We,
then, ask of your honorable body that
you deliver a fair proportion of the twenty
thousand dollars mentioned above to the
President and Treasurer of the Catholic
Free School Association, which was
established in this city some years since
through the activity and exertions of a
member of the present Board of Public
Schools, tnus removing from the Associa
tion the unpleasant task of levying in
directly a school tax upon the heads of
Catholic families, who have already a
city and county tax to pay for the sup
port of the public schools.
We venture to say that the distribution
we respectfully ask of the City Council
of Savannah, will be an honorable step
taken in the right direction, and sup
ported by respectable authorities and
precedents. The Catholic teachers in
Columbus and Macon, including the
Sisters of Mercy in the latter place, have,
under the laws of the State, received
from the public funds a compensation
commensurate with the number of poor
scholars they educate in their schools.
The British Government, in Lower
Canada, as well as in Upper Canada,
where the Catholics are in a great
minority, has authorized and ordered
separate organizations for Protestant and
Catholic schools, with a proportionate
amount of the public taxes. The same
measure, under tiie same enlightened in
fluence, has been adopted in France and
in Prussia.
We leave it, gentlemen, to your fair
ness and enlightened appreciation, to
decide whether it is sound policy and
true liberality to ignore the distribution
of your gratuities to nearly one-half of
the children of the city of Savannah,
who belong to that class which the State
of Georgia wished to assist in a special
manner, when all know very well that the
present public schools cannot physically
accommodate them, being already full to
Kverflowing, as is seen from the report of
be Board to your honorable body.
You are answerable to nobody for your
gratuities except in an indirect way to
the tax payers of the city, who we ven
ture to say will support you in this liberal
measure. In recognizing the Catholic
Schools, with the Catholic Clergy as the
regular Board of Commissioners, an
office for which their classical education
naturally qualifies them, you will inaugu
rate in Savannah an honorable policy,
which will be a noble example of liber
ality to other places, and will maintain
peace and harmony on a point which
may otherwise engender dissentions and
discord. We think it our duty to state
that the true interest of the city will be
highly promoted by the measure we
respectfully suggest, as our youth, if de
prived of the moral and religious train
ing which they receive in our Catholic
schools, would more than probably prove
a disgrace and curse to our beloved city.
The colored children, likewise, whom we
have undertaken to educate at great ex
pense, which has become almost insup
portable, will, under the parental care of
the Sisteas of St. Joseph, have their
part of the gratuity of the city, and will
it is hoped, increase the number of orderly
and industrious inhabitants of Savannah
Signed by Rt. Rev. Augustin Verot
President, and also by all the officers of
the Catholic Free School Association.
[For the Banner of the South 1
SOUTHERN CHIVALRY.
Not long since, there accidently came
into my possession a little book, entitled
in flaming yellow letters, “Old Hal Wil
liams ; or the Spy of Atlanta,” by J.
Thomas Warren. In this story a dark
thin, wiry ill-looking individual wearier
a slouched hat, gray coat and butter-nut
pants is introduced as a “Representative”
of Southern Chivalry, and in the course
of the narrative makes many speeches
termed ‘characteristic’ by the gallant
author —from which we select the follow
ing as a type:
“Well, then Miss Clarendon, yer must
have yer pride humbled a little. Es y er
thinks yer too good for me yer is mis
taken and its a insult to tell me so. lar
a captain in the army of confederacy, and
it ar a station of the highest honor.”
This from Captain Pete Bilgerofthe
Georgia cavalry ! Chivalry of "Georgia,
how do you like the picture of your
Representative ? Now this is all very
funny, ar.d such language from a Con
federate Captain, not at all remarkable
for unfortunately the lower offices were
very often assumed by or conferred upon
ignorant men, many of whom were, per
haps, efficient and deserving, because of
innate heroism and military tact, but for
such character and language to be
selected as a type or specimen of South
ern Chivalry is a poor joke at best, for
although this pamphlet is, in itself inca
pable of exerting much influence, thou
sands like it, and many that are witten
by authors of acknowledged ability, are
floating over this and other countries
creating prejudice and biasing the minds
and opinions of those who have no
accurate or personal knowledge of the
people, against whom these books bear
“false witness.” We are almost persua
ded by the ignorance which this author
displays, that he at the beginning of the
war selected a snug hiding place, and
emerging four years later sat down and
wrote what he had been dreaming about.
Just such misrepresentations as these
had, doubtless a full share in the down
fall of the Confederacy. The failure of
foreign intervention in which the people
had such implicit faith may be, in part,
attributable to these self-same falsehoods,
propagated by those who knew nothing
of what they wrote, but led by passion
and prejudice, sent forth false words to
poison the minds of men.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” printed in every
known language and read with avidity
by half the civilizod world, perhaps, did
the South more injustice and irreparable
wrong than any book ever written.
Treating of a subject then aditating the
public mind and exhibiting the darker
and exceptional phase of slavery in the
Southern States with never a glimpse of
the sunny side, it was peculiarly adapted
to give credence to a popular predisposi
tion to prejudice.
In “Maearia ; or altars of sacrifice’’
is found a representative of Southern
Chivalry in the person of her handsome
hero, Russell Aubrey, and to every can
did mind it is apparent that his qualities
are not overwrought.
Rose Rivers.
[For the Banner of the South.]
WAS THE CONFEDERATE GOVERN
MENT A DE FACTO GOVERNMENT 1
BY FAUNT LE ROY.
Belton, Texas, Feb., 1869.
Chief Justice Chase has decided that
the Confederate States were not a defacto
Government, and has resorted to a strange
mode of argument to support the por
tion. Indeed, he was compelled to make
anew way as the old one led to the 'f
posite conclusion ; and the very fact
his reasoning is extraordinary and strained,
proves the unsoundness of the conclu
sion at which he arrives. It is cunning,
but not clear or logical, and wid not
convince any unprejudiced and intelli
gent lawyer. The decision is not to be
taken as law because it is announced a
such by Chief Justice Chase. * ,! |j
science of jurisprudence is jealous an
resolutely defends its own integrity
is evident that the Chief Justice
ployed his powers of ratiocination, no
in order to form a conclusion, > IU ’ :
tify and sustain one already formed,
other words, he is trying to
judiciary follow and support the exei
and legislative departments to tJil
the Supreme Court sustain
administration and the Radical U ill = r .. .
The Judge does not put aside the p
cal bias of the individual. _ . ,
Let us see if we cannot find, by a sti l! - ‘‘
forward argument, based upon ' c
