The Henry County weekly. (McDonough, GA.) 18??-1934, June 07, 1918, Image 1
The Henry County Weekly VOL. XLIV. Jefferson Davis The following address was de livered by Rev. H. S. Smith at the Jeff Davis birthday celebration last Monday, and is published by special request of the U. D. C’s. Part I. The Hebrew prophet expressed the value of a man to the world for defense and inspiration in those immortal words, “A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shadows of a great rock in a weary land.” Much of our insipiration comes from a study of the achievements of the great men and woman who have made history. They are also the beacon lights to guide us across the angry and tempestuous seas. When Napoleon would in spire his soldiers to greater deeds of valor when standing beneath the pyramids, he said, “Soldiers, forty centuries are looking down upon you.” Where is the heart that hasn’t been stirred by the story of Leonidas and his brave men who defended the pass of Thermoplyae with their life’s blood. The world will never for get the inscription of their memo ry, “Stranger, tell the Lacedae monians that we lie here in obe dience to their orders.” What school boy is it that doesn’t know of the charge of the light brigade into the vally of death, into the mouth of hell while the cannon roared to the right of them and to the left of them? Who can lis ten to this story as immortalized by Tennyson in verse without hav ing his blood flow faster ? A nation’s wealth is in its man hood and womanhood. America is the wealthiest nation in materi al resources on the globe; not on ly that, but the wealthiest nation that ever inhabited the earth. What gives it its wealth ? The manhood and womanhood of America. There were vast re sources here when the red man wandered over mountain and plain, but they were undeveloped. Manhood and womanhood Jve permanence and stability to soci ety and to government and there by increase material values. What has given to Greece her high place in history ? Why will her influence be felt in literature and art and philosphy as long as the world shall stand ? Not be cause of her broad expanse of ter ritory or material greatness, but becausefshe nurtured great souls. It is because she gave the world artists like Phidias, Praxitiles and Appelles; writers like Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sopho cles and Euripides; historians like Herodotus, Thucydides and Xeno phon ; statesman and orators like Pericles and Demosthenes; philos ophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Palestine is a little rockribbed country on the west coast of the Mediterranean. Why has this little country influenced civilization beyond any land in the world’s history ? Because it nur tured prophets and poets, men and women to whom were given an exceptional knowledge of God and soiritual realities. The glory of the South is in her manhood and womanhood. This has been true of her past, is true of the present and will be true of A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of McDonough and Henry County. Awake! Awake! Awake! Patriotic Rally at McDonough on Friday the 14th at 4 p* m. Lieutenant Walter Terrell Halton, who had a command in the famous Princess Pat Brigade will be the principal speaker of the hour* Lieutenant Halton was wounded in the third battle of Ypres in France, and was later invalided on account of being gassed* He played a very distinguished role as a soldier, and as a speaker he never fails to arouse interest and enthusiasm* He is a wounded British soldier, having been 41 months on the Western Front and will tell you of some battles in which he participated If you don't hear him you will always regret it* The old and young, large and small are invited, and if perchance there is a slacker in your community capture him and bring him along, and when he returns home he will be a Patriot* the future. This is the only glory that cannot be dimmed or tarnish ed. She has an abounding pros perity today in her growing cities, humming factories and fertile fields of cotton nnd corn. But back of this lies her citizenry. More than that, she had this wealth of manhood, her true odory, in the days when her fields were bare, her granaries empty, her homes charred ruins and nothing was left save honor. She gloried in her Grady, Hill and Calhoun and Lee and other stars of the first magnitude. Yea, and there were thousands of men and women just as true as noble, who, wearing jeans and homespun, gave them selves to the rebuilding of the South. If we are ever poor again, may it be in material resources, and not in glorious manhood and womanhood. “God give us men—the time demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and willing hands; Men whom the lure of office does not kill; Mm whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor and will not lie; Men who can stand before a a demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men. suncro<vned, who live above the fog In public duty and private thinking ” The measure of a man’s great ness is the overplus of strength with which he feeds the hiddden springs of life and thought of oth ers. There are few who are pre eminently great, for genius is widely distributed. “Not many Platos —only one, and then a thous and lesser minds look up to him and learn to think. Not many Dantes —one, and a thousand poets tune their lyres to his and catch its notes. Not many Raplaels — one, and a thousand aspiring art ists look up to him and are lifted by the look. Not many royal hearts —great magazines of kind ness. Happy the country or com munity blessed with a few great hearts and a few great minds.” McDonough, Georgia, Friday, june 7, 1918 Such a Jefferson Davis. We need to sweep away the mists of indifference and depreci ation and calumny that obscure the life and character of this great and good man. We have honor ed the memorv of Robt. E. Lee and placed him among the immor tals. He was worthy of all the honor that he has received. Peo ple pay homage to military heroes more readily than to those who are equally great and noble in civilian life. So Jefferson Day’s has not yet been appreciated at his true worth by his own people. It has even been taught in our schools by Southern teachers tiiat Abraham Lincoln was “a greater man, a man of more exaited pur pose than was Jefferson Davis, and that the cause for which Davis stood was an unworthy cause.” It is fitting today that we get the facts about this great leader so that he may be known and appre ciated by us all. Such a study will bring us to agree with the late Bishop Chas. B. Galloway when he said of Davis, “he had extraordinary gifts and radiant virtues and a brilliant genius that rank him among the greatest men of the centuries.” Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808. He was sent away from home at a very tender age for educational advantages. Then at twelve years of age he entered .Transylvania College in Kentucky. Here “he was consid ered the brightest and most intel ligent of all the boys as well as the bravest and handsomest.” “Jefferson Davis began life well. He had clean boyhood, with no tendency to vice or immorality. That was the universal testimony of neighbors, teachers and fellow students. He grew up a stranger to deceit and a lover of the truth. He formed no evil habits that he had to correct, and forged upon himself no chains that he had to break. His nature was as trans j parent as the light that shone about him ; his heart was as open ias the soft skies that bent in ben . ediction over his country home; and his temper as sweet and cher ry as the limpid stream that made music in its flow through the neighboring fields and forests.” He went to Wed Point for his military training where he dis tinguished himself “for his manly bearing and his high-toned, lofty character.” At West Point he; studied R.iwle’s “View of the Con stitution,” which taught that a state had a right to secede, and if a state did secede a soldier’s duty reverted to his state. Acting up on this instruction Davis, Lee, T. ,1. Jackson, the Johnstons and others cast their lots with their native states in 1861. So when the question of a trial for Jeffer son Davis was being agitated in 1865 Chief-Justice Chase said that a trial would condemn the North and in consequence no trial was ever held. He graduated from West Point at twenty years of age and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the regular army where he spent seven laborious years. He had a conspicuous part in the Black Hawk War. In 1835 he resigned from the army and married the daughter of General Zachry Taylor and retired to his Mississippi plantation to live the luxurious literary life of a cultur ed Southern gentleman. The un timely death of his bride after three short months was a crush ing blow to his hopes and life plans. “After seven years, spent mostly in agricultural pursuits and in literary study, especially the study of political philosophy and constitutional history, he entered public life, and almost immediate ly rose to trusted and conspicuous leadership.” He was elected to Program Woman’s Club for June 18. Mrs. H. B. Carmichael will be hostess. Music, Charlemagne. Mrs. Whit Turner Reading. Mrs. Fred Carmichael Contest. Mrs. Hendley Daniel Music. It is expected by the Club to shortly have a demonstrator to instruct in using the new substi tutes in conserving. All the la dies of the county are invited. Meeting of Needlecraft Club. The Stockbridge Needlecraft Club met last with Mrs. Grady Moseley Wednesday afternoon, May 29, with nine members pres ent and one visitor, Mrs. Minnie Harrel. The officers elected for the new year are as follows: President, Mrs. U. R. Hinton; vice-president, Mrs. Charles Murphey; treasurer, 1 Mrs. C. M. Power ; secretary, Mrs. Grady Moseley; press reporter, Miss Josephine McWilliams and Mrs, Claude Moseley custodian. A most interesting report of the Griffin Convention was given by Mrs. C. M. Power. Delightful refreshments were served by Mrs. Grady Moseley. The meeting then adjourned to meet with Mrs. Claude Moseley June the twelfth. Press Reporter. For sale: Potato and tomaf > plants. $2 per 1,000. State vari ety wanted. J. Q. Dorris, Flani' Farm, Valdosta, Ga. congress from Mississippi in 1844. Great questions were agitating th i nation when he entered the halls of congress. He soon entered tl e lists and bv his mastery of the e questions attracted national atten- lion. Ex President John Quincy | Adams, then a member of the; House and called the “old mr i eloquent,” was greatly impressed with Davis’s ability and predicted! his brilliant parliamenty caret r. In regard to his first speech i congress a recent recent biogn pher makes this suggestive obst - vationl “He manifests here .1 his early efforts as a legislat r some of the larger views of r. 1- tional life and development whi hi have been persistently ignored by those who have chronicled his career.” In that first great speech of statesmanlike qualities he made this broad declaration from the principle of which he never reced ed : “The extent of our Union has never been to me the cause of apprehension ; its cohesion can only be disturbed by violation of the compact which cements it.” . He believed in the righteous ness of our war with Mexico and in conseauence not only advocat ed a liberal supph of means and | men, but offered his services cn ! the tented field. He was elected j a colonel of a regiment of Missis ' sippi volunteers organized at Vicksburg. He resigned his seat ■in congress to join the regiment. He rendered heroic service in this 1 war and won renown for himself on the plains of Beuna Vista by turning almost certain defeat into* victory. On his return with the remnant of his brave regiment he was everywhere received with great enthusiasm. (Continued next week.) $1.50 A YEAR