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book, from the broad field of what experience, can I better gather for you lessons of high resolve than from the heroic endeavor and exalted ideals with which our fathers and mothers crowned with unexampled grace this land of the South?

Here in this old State, my native land, under the portal of this hoary University, listening to the heartthrobs of those whose blood flows with mine, feeling the touch of unseen hands, and hearing the music of a voice tuned to the choir of the Blessed, I am surrounded by the tender memories of the days that are gone. An angel winged its way to our earth to find here the sweetest and best to take back to the radiance of Heaven. There was wafted on the sunshine the perfume of the rose and it was garnered as worthy to enter the holy streets. Anon, under the shadows of the gathering evening, the smile of a babe as it slept in its cradle was clasped to the bosom of the messenger, and then, beneath the drooping eaves of an humble cottage, there was found a mother's love. When at the Pearly Gates the bosom of the angel was loosed of its burden, the perfume of the rose had wasted, the smile of the babe had waned, and the mother's love alone was left to pass the lintel of Heaven.

God bless my mother's love. Everything that I am is her honor and here at her old home, glorified with her love and ennobled by her sacrifices, I wish in this splendid presence to make to her memory my loving obeisance. God bless our mothers of our South, from

whose spotless souls came our earliest aspirations for good, who, when the cruse of oil was failing and the meal in the barrel was wasting, looked with eyes of hope beyond that of men, to that better land where the dews are distilled into plenty and where the prayers of faith are always answered!

God bless the mothers of the South! When our fair land was wasted and war had ploughed deep and broad the furrow which divided the affections of our country, it was the mother who, walking firmly and securely with Him who said, And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other," taught the sections those exalted humanities which bound again in love and confidence the peoples of this great nation.

With splendid resolve the men and women of the South turned their lives to the broken home and the desolate field, to the rebuilding of our prostrate civilization, and the song of the wheels is not their requiem but a pæan of victory.

These fields of plenty about us, this glory of completed endeavor, this marvellous re-creation and perpetuation of the life of the South attest to us the exalted patriotism of our fathers, which is of infinite importance to the country in the changes of the day. It is this patriotism of the South, and its influences upon the present, which in my homely manner I wish to present in this discourse.

From the very texture of its civilization, the origin

and habits of its people, and their political and social as well as local environment, the South has been beyond other people with whom I am acquainted controlled by ideals. The controlling ideal of the South has been patriotism, the patriotism of State and locality.

I do not apologize for the theme. It is old fashioned, but amidst the complication of the affairs of modern life, and considering the change of the texture of thought as to governmental direction, is it not best for us to recur to those fundamental ideals which controlled in the formation of our country's government?

Under the conditions of the day the patriotism of the South along its conservative lines as to governmental direction should have the amplest and fullest play. As the country grows in power it grows naturally along the lines of organization and concentration. That organization is directed largely to results. Those results, under the general ideals of the day, are peculiarly economic. The consequence is that the man becomes a mere unit in the sum-total of production. He looks at the marvellous results, and, in a way, is proud of his country, yet he is endangered of becoming lessened in his dignity, his aspirations, and his patriotism. The patriotism which I mean is not that which counts the glory of our country solely by the ships on the sea, the glowing furnaces, and the fertile acres, but the patriotism which cherishes and loves this wonderful combination of State and Union, and ennobles and glorifies the aspirations of the citizen.

As in economic life, such is the trend of the governmental conditions of the day. This great Union has dazzled the world by its accomplishment. It has waged successful wars on land and sea. It has covered the sea with ships and commerce. It has accomplished wonders of diplomacy among the peoples of the earth. By its laws it has dimmed the stars with the smoke of its manufactories. It is binding together the oceans and mingling the waters of the lakes. It has built harbors and deepened rivers. It has constructed a great system of judiciary. Through its Congress it has thrown the robe of its power over the whole people, and has touched with its strong hands every work and aspiration and sentiment. It has accomplished marvels, but, in that accomplishment, there is with many, especially of the South, an abiding fear that this has been wrought to the lessening of the influence and powers of the State under the Constitution. The most precious thing which we who are older can give to the young is experience. This experience teaches me the trend of the day and that it should be the supreme object of patriotism to guide the government into the old channels provided by the Fathers.

Thoughtful men believe that in the South abides that ideal of local patriotism which can accomplish this mighty work, and preserve unimpaired this marvellous combination of State and Union.

Can this Southern patriotism be successfully appealed to under the conditions of the present? Is it alive and

virile? Are the basic ideas of the South yet sufficiently strong to influence the direction of the whole people? Is the material power of the South of sufficient potency to dignify its demand for the return to these basic principles? To answer these questions we must understand the history and underlying principles of our Southern people.

It is interesting to observe that the vital characteristic of Southern patriotism had its written origin in a charter granted by a Stuart. The General Assembly which met for the first time in America had well defined rights as to local liberty. It is true its acts must be affirmed by the General Court, but in the Charter there was the great, vital, salient germ of constitutional government that no Orders of Court could be enforced without the approval and affirmance of the General Assembly. These principles of this Charter did not spring from the ground. Its great principle of local, representative government was not born fully developed from the head of the goddess. It was not evolved from the limpid waves, the smiling sun, the giant trees, and the fertile soil of Virginia. The old chroniclers say that the Charter was granted upon the insistent demands of the Virginians. The Virginians consisted at that time of not more than two thousand people, but even in this handful, in a new country and beside the waters of strange seas, the spirit of local liberty was rife, and they had brought with them the desire that the rights for which they were contending

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