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About The Columbia sentinel. (Harlem, Ga.) 1882-1924 | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1923)
Vol. 41 The Presiden Da v/sHlS?■ Confederate Episode. For many years, a report has circulated through the land in regard to certain and corre¬ Pope spondence between President Davis Pius IX. Strange to say, neither Northern nor Sou¬ thern journals published the facts in refer¬ ence to this incident, and no history of the War Between the States mentions it. Hon. Robert L. Rodgers, now of Beaumont; Texas, calls my attention to the letters written by Mr. Davis to Pius JX and the Holy Fa¬ ther’s reply. Col. Rodgers is perhaps the best informed Confederate scholar in America. He was a Confederate soldier until the close of the war, when his battalion disbanded, follow¬ ing the surrender of the Confederate armies. His battalion were the last Confederate troops on duty East of the Mississippi river, acting under General MeLaws. In 1886, Colonel Rodgers became a charter member of the Ful¬ ton County Confederate Veterans Association, in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1889, he was elected Historian for that Association, which office he conducted until 1904, when the Georgia Divis¬ ion of United Confederate Veterans elected him to the Historianship of that Association. He is now Historian for the National Associa ton of Blue and Gray Veterans and their Sons. I recite these facts in order to establish Colo¬ nel Rodgers’ right to treat the incidents re¬ ferred to in this editorial. The Sentinel is publishing this wonderfully "Ateresting South: letter from a noble son of the Old “Dear Editor: In the last issue, at hand yesterday, I observe Mr. Watson’s article on ihe mistakes of American Catholics. Inciden¬ tally, it rather reminds me of Bob Ingersoll’s lecture on the “Mistakes of Moses.” In the 'Hide Mr. Watson says: “Before the Civil Aar they never demanded that our Govern¬ ment receive an Ambassador from the Italian Pope. ’ ’ That may have been true “before the war,” hut may it not have grown up out of the events of politics during the Civil War? Do you not remember the reading of history of events, which occurred during the Civil War, of correspondence carried on between the Con ’edevate -Statee President, Mr. Jefferson Da¬ ns, and the “Holy Father” Pope Pius IX, md Secretary, G. Cardinal Antonelli, con serning the matter of effecting terms of peace In America, between the United States, and the Confederate States of America! How the pope was sorely grieved about the great war between the North and South, and the condi¬ tions which brought about the estrangement of members of the Catholic Church in the section¬ 'd strife, and how it was sadly deplored by the “Holy Father”, and his publication of bis famous letter to bis church in America, “in¬ viting the Catholic clergy of New Orleans and New York to use all their efforts for the re¬ storation of peace in our country. See the commission issued by Judah P. Benjamin, as Secretary of State, to “Hon. A. Dudley Mann, Esq. etc., Brussels”—Sept. 23,1863—as “spec¬ ial Envoy, to carry a letter of thanks to “His Holiness.” The letter of Pope Pius IX to the Catholic clergy was an interesting matter interesting it the time, and President Davis gave a very “letter of thanks,” at the Execu¬ tive Office, Richmond, Va,, September 23, 1863, tddressed to “Most Venerable Chief of the Holy See, and Sovereign Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.” “The letters which your Holiness addressed to the venerable Chiefs )f the Catholic clergy in New Orleans and New l r ork have been brought to my attention, and t have read with emotion the terms in which t-ou are pleased to express the deep sorrow with which you regard the slaughter, ruin and devastation consequent on the war now waged by the Government of the United States against the States and people over which I have been chosen to preside, and in which you direct them, and the clergy under their au¬ thority, to exhort the people and the rulers to theexereise of mutual charity and love of peace. I am deeply sensible of the Christian charity and twice sympathy with which your Holi¬ ness has appealed to the venerable cler¬ gy of your church, urging them to use and apply all study and exertion for the restoration of peace and tranquility. I therefore deem it my duty to your Holiness in my own name and in that give of this the people of the Confederate States to expression of our sincere and cordial appreciation of the Christian char¬ ity and love b ywhich your Holiness is actuated and to assure you that the people, at whose hearthstones the enemy is now pressing with threats of dii'e oppression and merciless car nage, are now and ever have been earnestly de¬ sirous that the wicked war shall cease; that we have offered at the footstool of our lather who is in heaven prayers inspired by the Kame feelings which animate your Holiness; that (Contineud on Page Three.) ill® idiwi ♦ £ f a- & ■ hi S Price $1.50 Per Year THE WISE MAN AND THE SILLY KING. By Thos. E. Watson. The Wise Man. | Have you read of the Seven Wise Men of Greece ? One of these was Solon. Towering capacity above the common run of men in natural and in service to the State, he was made the: chief : So magistrate great of the his esteem people. in which he j was was, held that he could have become king, could have founded a dynasty, perhaps; and thus 1 handed down to his descendants the power which the people had entrusted to him. Instead of this, lie thought only of public welfare. He was so much of a man, clear in his ideas of true glory, counted and true nothing no-j bility, real worth, that he as the accumulation of money and the holding of office. ] Therefore, when Solon, as law-giver • Athens, had reformed the abuses of which the people complained; had broken up the monopoly of wealth and power which the few! had grasped for themselves; had put back into the hands of the people the reins of govern-, ment, he went away " into foreign lands, leaving Athens free. ' How did Solon restore democracy to the people of his country’ By ve 03 ing in the popular assem Or y decis-1 the j as to laws and as to judicit ions. In our day, we would call this the Refer-; enduni; and the average Congressman and judge would have to ask somebody what was meant by Referendum. The initiative in legislation, Solon vested in a Council of State, to which the lowest order of citizens had the right to send one hundred delegates. The other three orders sent each a like number. Thus the lowest order had a share in the Initiative, and they had absolute control of the Referendum. Moreover, any citizen whomsoever could at any time bring any offender, public or pri¬ vate, before the popular assembly, and have any breach of law passed upon by the people. Thus you see, the humblest man. in the State could compel the proudest to come be¬ fore the mass-meeting of the people and give an account of himself-. ! In practice, this probably amounted to the same thing as would be accomplished by what is known as the Imperative Mandate and Right of Recall. * Such was Solon’s idea of democracy, 2,500 •years ago. By giving the popular assembly the right to pass on the conduct of citizens, to nullify the decisions of judges, democracy was made supreme. The people ruled themselves, in fact, as well as theory. Fool decisions got knocked in the head. High-rolling rascals were brought to taw. Common sense got a chance to be heard, and common right an opportunity to assert itself. Corrupt judges could not make decisions which shocked gods and men, without i aiming against the wrath of an outraged people. Solon effected another great reform. -He found his country brutalized by the bloody Code of Draco. The punishment of death was inflicted with frightful facility. Even idleness was punished with death. In fact, Athens was about as barbarous as the England of two hundred years ago, when more than one hundred crimes were pun¬ ishable by death. One of these English chimes was the shooting of wild animals, game, in a noble¬ man’s park. therein. Another was the cutting down of a tree Another was the larceny of linen from a bleach tree. Solon did for Athens what Samuel Romilly, and Henry Brougham did for England—hu¬ manized its code. Yet another reform this great Democrat accomplished. He found the finance in the control of the few. These greedy seekers of gain had so fixed the laws that, in the race of life, the poor man had no chance against the rich. The laws all favored the creditor class. The debt¬ or class was kept under the wheels. The situ¬ ation had become so bad that a revolution was about to break out. The masses of the people will endure a great deal—are wonderfully patient under ty¬ ranny and robbery, when Hie tyrant and the robber can give his crimes the sanction of a written statute. But there is a limit. Man is an animal, after all, and when driven too far, he breaks through the shell which civilization has mold¬ ed round him, and he becomes again the fierce brute lie used to be, when he lived in the woods and ate raw meat. At Athens, the creditor class had almost got to the dead line. Solon with one sweep of his pen relieved Thomson, Georgia , Mon Jay, July 16, 1923. the tension, and saved his country. How ? By cheapening money. The historian says, he depreciated curren" T What he did was this: he found that the existing . supply of money bad been gathered nto the hands of the few. Therefore, money vas hard to get. Therefore, the demand for money was constantly increased. Therefore, 'he price of money constantly rose. Therefore, were harder to pay at maturity, had been when contracted. The poor had to buy money to pa his debts with; and the amount of labor or of property required to buy enough money to pay the debts, grew greater and greater all the time. This was unjust. Solon expanded the cur that is, he increased the supply of uoney. In the language of today, money harks had “cornered” the market, and Solon smashed the “corner. He also lowered the rate of interest on loans, and abolished imprisonment for debt, ' he result of these reforms was most Debtors found mat more money meant cheap or money, and were thus saved from ruin; whereas the creditor lost nothing bu: an unfair advantage which they had been harshly 10 oppress their fellow-men. The Silly- King. ] n those days, there lived a oertain king whose name became a synonym for riches, just as the name of Solon became the synonym of wisdom. This king was Croesus, and he ruled over Lydia, iu Asia Minor, an exceedingly rich and fertile country. In the eyes of Croesus, there was nothing so beautiful as gold, silver and precious stones. In his pbiloso; , the purpose of living was to get rich. Money, according to his belief, was the all in all; whoever had the greatest amount of money was necessarily the happiest man, Hie strongest man, the man to be most loved, feared, courted, and admired. So the Lydian administration, king bethought him not of just laws, honest nor the wel¬ 'Neither fare of his subjects, and of future generations! was he diligent in the seeking after knowedge, nor in the study of problems, “What makes a State? What is true pros¬ perity? What is real strength? What is the right road to happiness? What are the things which a man should do all the days of his life, witli whatever strength the gods have given him, in order that, when the evening is here, he may look with serene and fearless eyes upon the Shadow that comes creeping on, creeping on, to throw the shroud of eternal night over him I” No; Croesus gave no thought to such things. Far and wide he sought gold, silver, pre¬ cious stones. Day after day, year after year, Croesus heaped up gold, silver, precious stones. By fair means or foul, by straight ways and crooked, by lawful methods and lawless; Croesus added talent after talent, until his treasury was choked with gold. And it came to pass that the King of Lydia prided himself upon his wealth more than upon any other thing, that he possessed. He did not claim that he was the wisest man, nor the strongest man, nor the bravest man., nor the noblest man, nor the most in¬ dustrious man, nor the most useful man. He did not pride himself upon having the best mihd, body, character, and purpose. He did not boast of anything that he could think, speak, write, or do, that was better than what other men could think, speak, write or do. He simply thought that lie was the happi¬ est, greatest man on earth, because he had scraped together a larger quantity of a cer¬ tain sort of metal than any other living man. So it came to pass that whenever a trav¬ eller of distinction reached Sardis, the capital of Lydia, the king would take the traveller to see his treasure,—his gold, silver, and pre¬ cious stones. When the traveller came into the treasure house, and looked upon those vast heaps of riches, greater than he had ever dreamed of before, his hands would, of course, fly up and his eyes open out, and his mouth spring apart and he would make exclamations of wonder, admiration and reverence which would cause the silly king to chuckle and chortle and puff himself up with unspeakable pleasure and pride. Then traveller as the went upon his way into “other lands, he would naturally tell the tale to all whom he met—the wondrous tale of Croesus and his gold. Thus the fame of Croesus waxed exceeding¬ ly great Of in all the Croesus countries round about. course, had counted upon that result hen he showed the travellers his (Continued on Page Three.) issued Weekly Watson's £ * ;• n of France And a Little ! Suflive. W. G. Sut ■ a small part of Chatham Countiv’ ; - m ion to the Geor gia Legislature. Initials (The W uid for William Gom William Goat vo *!io f years gracefully washed Roman Catholic Bishop oi ’■ . G. him.se: t is not t Romanist • . .. >re, the head of ’he SuL.vo A: !ed o n looker, :.i 1 W;o A .A IS not jPf in a, ‘<7 (lh t .Vs* —an eminent:;- iv..g — .-A i • atie daily paper >.v used •i red by the scholarly g ex tlena&n U Stovall, whose •-Li¬ o: fully inter; = u: ■■ lu 30i- Illb ret nrn from Switzerland. Hr. Stco •.:! no t displayed any us go amount of . ■> : , public a I'.rii due hugely to Woodrow v'is-.m’s rotiiement. The rulint genius of 7, P >, l- William Sut live In -the course of accidents, Sutlive was elected to the Georgia Li Jslatmv He was recently elected President. <4 the Atlanta Far* mers’ Political Astoehrion. h: addition io his legislative non->4ivifies, gob Pal wire-pulling, and Pappy era tic foot-lickinv. Viliam G. sends daily news-]ett,' - > from . tlanta to the Sa aannah Pres*, i—• • letter contains little real news. Pardon.me for the foregoing preliminary remarks: I wanted you to know the leading points in Sutlive’s awe-inspiring and soul lifting his career, July as legislator and reporter. In 3, letter to Thr Savannah Press, Sutlive uncorked’ his Romanized sarcasm, as follows: Watson Memorial foe Glorious Fourth. “Tomorrow, the Watson’s great and glorious Fourth, will be Tom Day in the House. The State is promised a wealth of oratory on this occasion. Members who have been figuring or having the House adjourn for the Four . will not get their wish. It will be in session an hour or so anyway. It is provided in a resolution adopted today that the day shall be given ov<*r to eulogies oi Tom vYatsbft. *A joint committee has been provided to make the arrangements. The Senate will join with the House in this observance. The bars have been let down for this event. Any¬ one who cares to do so may . peak. Lind¬ ner of Jeff' Davis county got the resolution through the Hou.-c. A committee of five has been named to make the final arrange¬ ments. No doubt the friends of the dead Senator will say a great many good things about him. In connection with Senator \ Watson, there is a story going the rounds > now about his bool :, “The Story of \ France.'’ It has been generally under - stood that the booh had, been accept, l in \( France as a textbook in the public schools there. It is now declared an inquiry was made direct to the head of the locational , department- of France if this mas true, the reply war that the official in question » had never heard of the book; that- it was not used in the public schools of France and he doubted very much if it had ever been translated into French. Copies of the " resolutions to be adopted tomorrow by the General Assembly will'be'.sent to the late Senator’s grand children. - 7 Watson’s “Story of France” is the great¬ est contribution to French letters ever penned by an American scholar, and is so recognized by literary men the world ov u\ Of course, Sutlive has never read tho book, couldn’t un derstand it if he read it, and the Bishop .of Savannah will not permit the Sutlives to read the works of Protestant authors; therefore, Sutlive’s knowledge of the “Story of France” is hearsay. Waiaon’s j “Story of France” was first ' published in 1902; republished that year, to , meet a general demand from all papts of the world; and the work was reprinted May, 1902; January, 1906; July, 1903January, 1908; 1905; December, December, 1916; January, 1910; July, 1913; December, 1920. Millions of English, speaking people have read Watson’s “Story of France,” and that work alone, to say nothing of his “Napoleon I > , fixed Thomas E. Watson’s place in the World of Letters. It is not possible for little men, like Billy Goat Sutlive, to steal Watson’s fame As official to the alleged statement from the French reported as saying that he did not know that such a book as Watson’s “Story of France” had been published until his at¬ tention was called to it, that may be true. There are many ignorant Catholic officials in France. Americans living in France, and Ameri (Continued qn Page Three.). **• IYo, 40
