The Dixie Book of Days
[Illustration: FOUNDING THE FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH COLONY IN AMERICA AT
JAMES TOWNE, VIRGINIA, 1607]
The Dixie Book of Days
MATTHEW PAGE ANDREWS
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO.
1912
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.
Preface
In the preparation of this volume of quotations illustrative of the
history and literature of the South, the editor wishes to acknowledge the
kindness of publishers in granting permission to make selections. He
desires especially to express his appreciation of the courtesy of the
following firms: D. Appleton & Co.; Bobbs-Merrill Co.; The Century Co.;
Doubleday, Page & Co.; Harper & Brothers; Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; B. F.
Johnson Publishing Co.; P. J. Kenedy & Sons; J. B. Lippincott Co.;
Longmans, Green & Co.; Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Co.; The Macmillan Co.;
Martin & Hoyt Co.; The Neale Publishing Co.; G. P. Putnam's Sons; Charles
Scribner's Sons; Southern Historical Publication Society; Alfred M.
Slocomb Co.; Small, Maynard & Co.; Stewart & Kidd Co.; F. A. Stokes Co.;
State Company; Stone & Barringer Co.; and the Whitehall Publishing Co.
M. P. A.
Baltimore, Md., April 30, 1912.
Introduction
This volume of brief selections from a wide range of Southern expression
in prose and verse leads into fields of American history and literature
which, perhaps, are not well known to the general public. The reader is
not offered stacks of straw to thresh over; on the contrary, it has been
the aim of the compiler, in a most congenial and delightful task, to
afford others easy access to grain that he has already garnered. Generally
speaking, the genius of literary production in the Old South did not
aspire to an outlet in the field of professional endeavor. There were,
however, many gifted writers who regarded production in prose and verse as
a pleasant recreation rather than an end, or as an accomplishment common
to cultured minds, to be called forth as occasion offered, or when some
emotion prompted expression.
By way of illustration, William Henry Timrod may be regarded as
potentially a greater poet than his better-known son. Yet he was one of
the occasional poets of the old régime. John Laurens composed a sonnet as
he lay dying of wounds and fever incurred in defence of his country; and
Stuart, in a later struggle, wrote verses while engaged in riding around
McClellan's army. These and many others like them never seriously
considered revising or publishing their work. They sang from time to time
because to them "singing itself is so sweet." This peculiar diffidence is
a relic of the past; and at the present time, one need but review the list
of leading American novelists to find that a remarkably large proportion
have come from the South and write on Southern themes.
Thus, while the very nature of the South lends itself to sentiment and
romance, her history is yet to be written. This little volume attempts,
therefore, with particular care, to treat of historical events as their
anniversaries bring them to mind. Comparatively few are the enduring works
of Southern historians; and yet from the beginning of colonization the
South has thrilled with the record of daring achievement. In the work of
her soldiers and statesmen, the South led in shaping the Republic out of
rebellion, revolution, and jarring elements. During and after the struggle
with the mother country, Jefferson, Henry, Clark, and Virginia gave to the
Nation the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and
Wisconsin. It was Jefferson who secured to the Republic peaceful
possession of the vast original tract of Louisiana; and it was he, with
Lewis and Clark, who made good the claim to the Oregon territory.
Furthermore, the mighty empire of Texas and the far Southwest was brought
in under the initiative of the South and the leadership of Polk and Tyler.
So did the South mightily assist in making a common government great and
strong; but she was likewise building up a power which later overwhelmed
her. In truth, she forged the fetters that for forty years chafed her
people under an increasingly oppressive legislation; since it was a son of
Carolina who first brought forward a tariff for protection, not for
Carolina, but for New England and the Nation; and it was Clay of Kentucky
who fostered the system until it involved the thirteen agricultural States
of the South in an indirect taxation more burdensome than any direct
impost ever proposed by Great Britain for the thirteen Colonies. In vain
the South protested. Opposing majorities grew against her. And when a
solidly sectional party became the dominant power, the Lower South
attempted to exercise the hitherto generally conceded right of
withdrawal, a right which had been particularly emphasized in New England
when that section felt its interests to be in peril. The Upper South
opposed coercion; and both prepared for the fight that followed. Such is
the principle for which the South contended. She failed not in valor or in
honor, but fell through exhaustion; yet glory stood beside her grief, and
she endowed the Nation with the stainless names of Lee and Jackson.
With the failure of the South to establish her independence, there fell
also, as an incident of the struggle, that which most made her a separate
section, politically, economically, and socially--the tutelage, in the
most beneficent form of servitude ever known, of a child-race. That race
was largely thrust upon her; and yet she raised its people from cannibal
savages to civilized beings, whose devotion and faithfulness became the
marvel of invading armies. Rather than interpret such a record to her
shame, as some would have us do, let it be proclaimed as an everlasting
tribute to the lofty character of Anglo-Saxon Christianity.
The South, after fifty years, is more intimately a part of the Union than
ever before. Her interests are national and her destiny great. In the
youthful Bagley she was the first to give her blood in the war with
Spain, therewith cementing the tie that now, without fetters, binds in a
steadily growing amity and understanding. To-day, a true Southerner has an
abiding love and loyalty for the section that has seen tears and grief, as
well as sunshine and flowers, beyond the measure of any country of modern
times; but he is also doubly true to, and proud of, the mighty progress of
a reunited Republic. Surely it is due to the South and due to the Nation
that the story of the South be told. And the highest aim of the compiler
of these selections is that he may contribute something to promote that
steadily expanding knowledge of historical truth which alone can fully
allay the spirit of sectional strife, and from which alone we may look for
perfect amity and understanding to ensue.
MATTHEW PAGE ANDREWS
January
TO TIME, THE OLD TRAVELER
They slander thee, Old Traveler,
Who say that thy delight
Is to scatter ruin, far and wide,
In thy wantonness of might:
For not a leaf that falleth
Before thy restless wings,
But in thy flight, thou changest it
To a thousand brighter things.
* * * *
'Tis true thy progress layeth
Full many a loved one low,
And for the brave and beautiful
Thou hast caused our tears to flow;
But always near the couch of death
Nor thou, nor we can stay;
_And the breath of thy departing wings
Dries all our tears away_!
WILLIAM HENRY TIMROD
January First
Some thunder on the heights of song, their race
Godlike in power, while others at their feet
Are breathing measures scarce less strong and sweet
Than those that peal from out that loftiest place;
Meantime, just midway on the mount, his face
Fairer than April heavens, when storms retreat,
And on their edges rain and sunshine meet,
Pipes the soft lyrist lays of tender grace,
But where the slopes of bright Parnassus sweep
Near to the common ground, a various throng
Chant lowlier measures--yet each tuneful strain
(The silvery minor of earth's perfect song)
Blends with that music of the topmost steep,
O'er whose vast realm the master minstrels reign!
PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE
O'er those who lost and those who won,
Death holds no parley which was right--
JEHOVAH judges Arlington.
JAMES RYDER RANDALL
_Paul Hamilton Hayne born, 1830_
_James Ryder Randall, Laureate of the War between the States, born, 1839_
January Second
... In a word,
Mars and Minerva both in him concurred
For arts, for arms, whose pen and sword alike,
As Cato's did, may admiration strike
Into his foes; while they confess withal
It was their guilt styled him a criminal....
_From Epitaph by "His Man"_
In this epitaph we have what is in all probability the single poem in any
true sense--the single product of sustained poetic art--that was written
in America for a hundred and fifty years after the settlement of
Jamestown.
WILLIAM P. TRENT
_Nathaniel Bacon, "The First American Rebel," born, 1647_
January Third
The only calendar
That marks my seasons,
Is that sweet face of hers,
Her moods and reasons,
Wherein no record is
Of winter seasons.
MADISON CAWEIN
_Alfred Mordecai born, 1804_
January Fourth
The strange and curious race madness of the American Republic will be a
study for centuries to come. That madness took a child-race out of a warm
cradle, threw it into the ocean of politics--the stormiest and most
treacherous we have known--and bade it swim for its own and the life of
the nation!
MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY
_The Social Equality Bill passed in Louisiana, 1869_
January Fifth
What the cloud doeth
The Lord knoweth,
The cloud knoweth not
What the artist doeth,
The Lord knoweth;
Knoweth the artist not?
SIDNEY LANIER
January Sixth
Few have equaled the old time negro at repartee, and a true Southerner
heartily relished a clever rejoinder to his good natured raillery. The
rejoinder was frequently overwhelming, always respectful, and generally
worth an immediate acknowledgment in cash or old clothes.
"Is that you, Peter?" called an old Confederate to his former body-servant
on the road.
Peter grinned broadly as he doffed his hat. "Yas, suh, dis yer me."
"Well, well!" laughed the other. "I see that all the old fools are not
dead yet."
"Dat's so, Mars' Tom." Peter pulled his grizzly forelock appreciatively.
"I's monsus glad to see dat you's in such good health, suh."
January Seventh
A WELL-KNOWN TYPE OF SOUTHERN MATRON BEFORE THE WAR
Full well she knew the seriousness of life. Over and over the cares and
responsibilities of her station as the mother of so many children, the
mistress of so many servants and the hostess of so many guests, had
utterly overwhelmed her. * * * * * Into how many negro cabins had she not
gone, when the night was far spent and the lamp of life flickered low in
the breast of the dying slave! How often she ministered to him with her
own hands! * * * * Nay, had she not knelt by his lowly bed and poured out
her heart to God as his soul winged its flight, and closed his glazed and
staring eyes as the day was dawning? Yet the morning meal found her at her
accustomed seat, tranquil and helpful, and no one but her husband the
wiser for her night's ministrations.
GEORGE W. BAGBY
_Fort Marion, Florida, seized by order of the Governor of Florida, 1861_
January Eighth
Jackson's line, extending about half a mile from the river to the swamp,
was defended by a water-filled ditch and by a parapet of varying height
and thickness. The idea that it was built of cotton bales is an absurd
fiction that brings back the inspiring picture in Peter Parley's old
history of our childhood days....
PIERCE BUTLER
"What stopped you?" General Pakenham asked of a regiment of Scotch
Highlanders. To which their colonel replied: "Bullets, mon! bullets! Auld
Julius Caesar himself wouldn't have charged those devils."
_The "Hunting Shirt Men" of the South versus Wellington's Peninsular
veterans in the Battle of New Orleans, 1815; General Pakenham,
brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington killed_
_James Longstreet born, 1821_
January Ninth
Consider the lark! How he rises on wing,
And mounts to the sky through ethereal air!
He sings as he soars; 'tis his nature to sing,
To warble his notes though no listener be near.
I seek not for fortune, I sigh not for fame,
I follow my Muse into forest or street;
In sorrow, in gladness, I sing all the same,
I sing because singing itself is so sweet.
[These lines, typifying so much of the poetical expression of the old
South, were written by former Surgeon H. M. Clarkson, C. S. A., who,
on January 9, 1861, as a corporal of artillery, fired a single shot
from Fort Moultrie to challenge the _Star of the West_ in its attempt
to reinforce Fort Sumter. On the same occasion two other shots were
fired by the State cadets stationed on Morris Island, driving the
transport from the harbor. It is not improbable, therefore, that, as
the challenger of the hostile steamer, the writer of these verses
fired the first shot of the war between the States. Corporal Clarkson
was in charge of gun No. 13.--EDITOR]
_The United States transport "Star of the West" attempts to reinforce Fort
Sumter, 1861_
_General John B. Gordon dies, 1904_
_Mississippi secedes, 1861_
January Tenth
SECESSION: A SOUTHERN VIEW, 1861
A State, finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has judged
she is--in which her safety requires that she should provide for the
maintenance of her rights out of the Union--surrenders all the benefits
(and they are known to be many), deprives herself of the advantages (and
they are known to be great), severs all the ties of affection (and they
are close and enduring), which have bound her to the Union; and thus
divesting herself of every benefit--taking upon herself every burden--she
claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of the United
States within her limits.
JEFFERSON DAVIS
(_Farewell Address in United States Senate_)
SECESSION: FROM THE NORTHERN STANDPOINT, 1814
Whenever it shall appear that these causes are radical and permanent, a
separation by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by
constraint, among nominal friends, but real enemies, inflamed by mutual
hatred and jealousy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and
aggression from abroad.--_Journal of the Hartford Convention_
_Florida secedes, 1861_
_The "Bonnie Blue Flag" first sung in public at Jackson Mississippi, 1861_
January Eleventh
The States of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were engaged in practical
movements for the gradual emancipation of their slaves. This movement
continued until it was arrested by the aggressions of the Abolitionists.
GEORGE LUNT
(Massachusetts)
And if the secrets of all hearts could have been revealed, our enemies
would have been astounded to see how many thousands and tens of thousands
in the Southern States felt the crushing burden and the awful
responsibility of the institution which we were supposed to be defending
with the melodramatic fury of pirate kings. We were born to this social
order, we had to do our duty in it according to our lights, and this duty
was made indefinitely more difficult by the interference of those who, as
we thought, could not understand the conditions of the problem, and who
did not have to bear the expense of the experiments they proposed.
BASIL L. GILDERSLEEVE
_Thomas Jefferson Randolph's resolutions on the abolition of slavery
introduced for extended debate in the Virginia Assembly, 1832_
_Alabama secedes, 1861_
January Twelfth
We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil,
Fighting for our liberty, with treasure, blood, and toil.
And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far:
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star!
HARRY MCCARTHY
January Thirteenth
FIFTY YEARS AFTER--THE VIEW OF A FEDERAL OFFICER OF '61-'65
In case of direct and insoluble issue between Sovereign State and
Sovereign Nation, every man was not only free to decide, but had to decide
the question of ultimate allegiance for himself; and whichever way he
decided he was right.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
(Massachusetts)
January Fourteenth
LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE
Maury furnished the brains, England gave the money, and I did the work.
CYRUS W. FIELD
(_At a banquet in New York_)
After a little while
The cross will glisten and the thistles wave
Above my grave;
And planets smile.
Sweet Lord, then pillowed on thy gentle breast,
I fain would rest,
After a little while.
JAMES RYDER RANDALL
_Matthew Fontaine Maury born, 1806_
_James Ryder Randall dies, 1908_
January Fifteenth
A Northerner, who had purchased an estate in Virginia, noticed that smoke
always emanated from the chimney of a cabin near his woods where an old
negro lived. One day, on meeting the old colored man, he asked: "Where do
you get your wood, Uncle?"
The latter eyed him with an expression of great reproach and replied: "My
pa was coachman at the Gret House, and he pa, and he pa; 'whar I git my
wood?' That ain't no question for one gen'l'man to ax an'er!"
_Fort Fisher, North Carolina, captured, 1865_
January Sixteenth
When wintry days are dark and drear
And all the forest ways grow still,
When gray snow-laden clouds appear
Along the bleak horizon hill,
When cattle all are snugly penned
And sheep go huddling close together,
When steady streams of smoke ascend
From farm-house chimneys--in such weather
Give me old Carolina's own,
A great log house, a great hearthstone,
A cheering pipe of cob or briar
And a red, leaping light'ood fire.
JOHN HENRY BONER
(_The Light'ood Fire_)
_Forcible resistance to British Stamp Act under Colonel Hugh Waddell, of
Wilmington, N. C., 1766_
January Seventeenth
VALLEY FORGE EXCEEDED
Starvation, literal starvation, was doing its deadly work. So depleted and
poisoned was the blood of many of Lee's men from insufficient and unsound
food that a slight wound which would probably not have been reported at
the beginning of the war would often cause blood-poison, gangrene, and
death. Yet the spirits of these brave men seemed to rise as their
condition grew more desperate.... It was a harrowing but not uncommon
sight to see those hungry men gather the wasted corn from under the feet
of half-fed horses, and wash and parch and eat it to satisfy in some
measure their craving for food.
GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON
_Tarleton routed at the battle of the Cowpens, S. C., 1781_
January Eighteenth
While the Confederate soldiers were in the trenches, the ingenuity of the
Southern women was taxed to the utmost to supply their household needs.
Medicine had been declared contraband of war by the Federal Government,
and salt works were made a special object for attack. Remedies were
improvised from herbs of all kinds; the dirt floor of the meat house was
boiled for the salt it contained; soap was made from china-berries and
lye; candles out of resin or waxed rope wound around a corncob; thorns
were used for pins; shoes were fashioned out of canvas, and supplied with
wooden soles; buttons were made from persimmon seed; tumblers out of glass
bottles; tea out of berry leaves; and coffee was made from sweet potatoes
and dandelion seed.
[Condensed from accounts of war times--Ed.]
January Nineteenth
ENGLISH TRIBUTES TO AMERICAN GENIUS
LEE--One of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all the generals who
have spoken the English tongue.
COL. G. F. R. HENDERSON, C.B.
POE--How can so strange and fine a genius and so sad a life be expressed
and compressed in one line?
LORD TENNYSON
(_From letter in Poe Memorial Vol., 1877_)
_Robert Edward Lee born, 1807_
_Edgar Allan Poe born, 1809_
_Georgia secedes, 1861_
January Twentieth
No truth is lost for which the true are weeping,
Nor dead for which they died.
FRANCIS O. TICKNOR
January Twenty-First
The following lines are remarkable in that they represent a boy's estimate
of Stonewall Jackson before the war between the States. They were written
by William Fitzhugh Lee when a cadet under Jackson at the Virginia
Military Institute:--
Like some rough brute that roams the forest wild,
So rude, uncouth, so purely Nature's child,
Is "Hickory," and yet methinks I see
The stamp of genius on his brow; and he,
With his mild glance and keen, but quiet eye,
Can draw forth from the secret recess where they lie
Those thoughts and feelings of the human heart
Most virtuous, good, and free from guilty art.
There's something in his very mode of life
So accurate, steady, void of care and strife,
That fills my heart with love for him who bears
His honors meekly and who wears
The laurels of a hero! This is a fact,
So here's a heart and hand for "Jack!"
_Stonewall Jackson born, 1824_
January Twenty-Second
Wherein, then, lay his strength, and what was the secret of his influence
over all this land? I answer in one word--character. And what is meant by
character? Courage? Yes; courage of his opinions, and physical courage as
well; for he had a Briton's faith in pluck. Pride of race? In a limited
sense, yes. Honesty? The question is almost an insult. Love of truth? Yes,
undying love of it.
GEORGE W. BAGBY
("_The Old Virginia Gentleman_")
January Twenty-Third
I reckon hit's well we wuz all set free,
I s'pose dat's de way folks wuz meant ter be,
But I kain't see w'y dey's no manners lef'
Jes' kase dey happens ter own deyse'f.
I dunno rightly how ol' I is,
Hit mought be eighty, I reckon 'tis,
Yit I nuver gone now'ers, I tells you true,
But I tucken my manners an' breedin', too.
ANNE VIRGINIA CULBERTSON
January Twenty-Fourth
Dem sassy young niggers, dey plum' disgrace
De res' uv de' 'spectable cullud race.
Dey got dey books, dey kin read an' write,
But dey dunno 'nough fer to be perlite.
I kain't see how dey gwine git erlong,
Hit seem lak sump'n have done gone wrong.
I gits wo' out wid'em, dat's de fac',
But I orter mek 'lowance fer how dey ac',
'Kase de times an' de doin's is changed a lot,
An' dey ain' had de raisin' dat I done got.
Dar's nuffin lef' me but lookin' on
Twel me an' de ol'-time ways is gone.
ANNE VIRGINIA CULBERTSON
January Twenty-Fifth
Ah, only from his golden throne,
Upon his golden lute,
He touched the magic note; then Poe was known,
And so was quelled dispute.
Open thy portal, Fame! Let soar
That sombre bird, whose song is heard forevermore.
DANIEL BEDINGER LUCAS
(_Referring to first publication of
Poe's Raven, 1845_)
_George E. Pickett born, 1825_
January Twenty-Sixth
THREE VIEWS OF SECESSION CONNECTED WITH LOUISIANA; 1803-1811-1861
Resolved, that the annexation of Louisiana to the Union transcends the
Constitutional power of the Government of the United States. It formed a
New Confederacy to which the States united by the former compact are not
bound to adhere.
MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE
(_Upon Purchase of Louisiana Territory, 1803_)
_Louisiana secedes from the Union, 1861_
_Virginia readmitted to the Union, 1870_
January Twenty-Seventh
If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a
dissolution of this Union, that it will free the States from their moral
obligations, and as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of
some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if they can,
violently if they must.
JOSIAH QUINCY
(_Representative from Massachusetts in Congress, opposing statehood
for Louisiana Territory, 1811_)
_Richard Taylor born, 1826_
January Twenty-Eighth
The rights of Louisiana as a sovereign State are those of Virginia; no
more, no less. Let those who deny her right to resume delegated powers
successfully refute the claim of Virginia to the same right, in spite of
her expressed reservation made and notified to her sister States when she
consented to enter the Union.... For two-thirds of a century this right
has been known by many of the States to be, at all times, within their
power.
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN
(_Farewell Address in the United States Senate_)
January Twenty-Ninth
It was Lee who suggested the capture of Stony Point, and it was a band of
North Carolinians who formed Wayne's head of column in the assault upon
that fortress. Three hundred Virginians followed Lee in his successful
dash against Paulus Hook on the Jersey coast, August, 1779.
HENRY A. WHITE
_Henry Lee ("Light Horse Harry") born, 1756_
January Thirtieth
UNCLE REMUS AT THE TELEPHONE
"Yer 'tis, Miss Sally," said Uncle Remus after listening a moment.
"Dey's a mighty zooin' gwine on in dar, en I dunner whe'er Mars John
tryin' ter scramble out, er whe'er he des tryin' fer ter make hisself
comfertuble in dar."
"What did he say, Remus?"
"He up en low'd dat one un us wus a vilyun but dey wuz such a buzzin'
gwine on in dar dat I couldn't 'zactly ketch the rights un it."
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
January Thirty-first
I wish I was in the land of cotton,
Cinnamon seed and sandy bottom;
Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.
Her scenes shall fade from my memory never;
For Dixie's land hurrah forever!
Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.
Chorus:
I wish I was in Dixie;
Away, away;
In Dixie's land I'll take my stand,
And live and die in Dixie.
Away, away,
Away down South in Dixie.
Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.
MARIE LOUISE EVE
(_Version of "Dixie"_)
February
TAMPA ROBINS
The robin laughed in the orange-tree:
"Ho, windy North, a fig for thee:
While breasts are red and wings are bold
And green trees wave us globes of gold,
Time's scythe shall reap but bliss for me--
Sunlight, song, and the orange-tree....
"I'll south with the sun, and keep my clime;
My wing is king of the summer-time;
My breast to the sun his torch shall hold;
And I'll call down through the green and gold
_Time, take thy scythe, reap bliss for me,
Bestir thee under the orange-tree_."
SIDNEY LANIER
February First
The Emperor of France made him Commander of the Legion of Honor; The
Emperor of Russia, Knight of the Order of St. Ann; the King of Denmark,
Knight of the Dannebrog; the King of Portugal, Knight of the Tower and
Sword; the King of Belgium, Knight of the Order of St. Leopold;
simultaneously with Tennyson, he was awarded an LL.D. by the University of
Cambridge, England; he received honorary membership from a score of the
world's leading societies of science and scholarship; the Pope conferred
upon him a noteworthy testimonial; the Emperor of Mexico gave him a
decoration; and Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Holland, Sardinia, Bremen, and
France struck medals in his honor as the greatest scientist of the New
World, and the peer of any in the Old.
The government of his own country, says Professor Francis H. Smith, has
"carefully omitted his name in official records of the departments he
created"; nor is it even given a place among the many inscribed in the
mighty mosaic of our National Library.
_Matthew Fontaine Maury dies at Lexington, Va., 1873_
_Texas secedes, 1861_
February Second
MAURY'S LAST WISH
"Home--bear me home, at last," he said,
"And lay me where my dead are lying,
But not while skies are overspread,
And mournful wintry winds are sighing.
"When the sky, the air, the grass,
Sweet Nature all, is glad and tender,
Then bear me through 'The Goshen Pass'
Amid its flush of May-day splendor."
MARGARET J. PRESTON
February Third
Snow! Snow! Snow!
Do thy worst, Winter, but know, but know
That, when the Spring cometh, a blossom shall blow
From the heart of the Poet that sleeps below,
And his name to the ends of the earth shall go,
In spite of the snow!
JOHN B. TABB
(_In welcoming "The Forthcoming Volume" of the poems of his fellow
soldier, fellow patriot, and fellow artist_,
SIDNEY LANIER)
_Sidney Lanier born, 1842_
_Albert Sidney Johnston born, 1803_
February Fourth
What a beneficent provision of the Creator it was, to roll our little
planet but one side at a time next the sun, that while one half of the
world fretted and stormed and sinned, the other half might repent and
sleep.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER CARRUTHERS
February Fifth
MAURY
The stars had secrets for him; seas
Revealed the depths their waves were screening;
The winds gave up their mysteries;
The tidal flows confessed their meaning.
Of ocean paths, the tangled clew
He taught the nations to unravel;
And showed the track where safely through
The lightning-footed thought might travel.
MARGARET J. PRESTON
February Sixth
GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON
Patriot, soldier, statesman,
Prince of the race of men;
Cypress and rue for his passing,
Laurel for sword and pen.
Dust for the hand that wrought;
But for the lessons taught
Life without end.
IDA SLOCOMB MATTHEWS
_John B. Gordon born, 1832_
_John Pegram killed near Hatcher's Run, 1865_
February Seventh
And there's Joe--my bully Joe--wouldn't I walk ten miles of a rainy night
to see them hazel eyes, and feel the grip of his soldier hand? Didn't my
rooster always clap his wings and crow whenever he passed our quarters?
"Instinct told him that he was the true prince," and it would make anybody
brave to be nigh him.
MAJOR CHARLES H. SMITH
(_Bill Arp_)
_Joseph E. Johnston born, 1807_
February Eighth
Hath not the morning dawned with added light?
And shall not the evening call another star
Out of the infinite regions of the night,
To mark this day in Heaven? At last, we are
A nation among nations; and the world
Shall soon behold in many a distant port
Another flag unfurled!
HENRY TIMROD
(_Ethnogenesis_)
_Southern Confederacy begins to assume definite form in a league of seven
Southern States, 1861_
February Ninth
The great change wrought by the States in resuming their sovereignty, and
in forming the Confederate States Government, was attended by no anarchy,
no rebellion, no suspension of authority, no social disorders, no lawless
disturbances. Sovereignty was not, for one moment, in suspension.
Conservatism marked every proceeding and public act. The object was to do
what was necessary and no more; and to do that with the utmost temperance
and prudence.
J. L. M. CURRY
_William H. Harrison born, 1773_
February Tenth
You say we shall submit to your construction. We shall do it, if you can
make us; but not otherwise, or in any other manner. That is settled. You
may call it secession, or you may call it revolution; but there is a big
fact standing before you, ready to oppose you. That fact is freemen with
arms in their hands. The cry of the Union will not disperse them; we have
passed that point. They demand equal rights; you had better heed the
demand.
ROBERT TOOMBS
(_Farewell Address in the United States Senate_)
February Eleventh
Equality does not exist between blacks and whites. The one race is
inferior in many respects, physically and mentally, to the other. This
should be received as a fixed invincible fact in all dealings with the
subject.
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS
(_Vice-President of the Confederacy_)
I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between
the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two
races living together on terms of social and political equality.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
(_President of the United States_)
_Alexander H. Stephens born in Georgia, 1812_
February Twelfth
Those who would shiver into fragments the Union of these States, tear to
tatters its now venerated constitution, and even burn the last copy of the
Bible, rather than slavery should continue a single hour, together with
all their more halting sympathizers, have received, and are receiving
their just execration; and the name and opinion and influence of Mr. Clay
are fully and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly arrayed against
them.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
(_Eulogy on Clay, 1852_)
The abolitionists were always the fiercest opponents of colonization. The
practical improvement of the negro, in his native country, did not suit
them so well as the impracticable idea of equalizing black men with white
in a strange land.
GEORGE LUNT
(Massachusetts)
_Abraham Lincoln born in Kentucky, 1809_
_Gradual emancipation of slaves discussed at Maysville, Ky., 1849_
February Thirteenth
SAINT VALENTINE'S EVE
Thou wouldst be loved? then let thy heart
From its present pathway part not;
Being everything which now thou art,
Be nothing which thou art not.
So with the world thy gentle ways,
Thy grace, thy more than beauty,
Shall be an endless theme of praise,
And love a simple duty.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
_Florida admitted to the Union, 1845_
February Fourteenth
A Northern Tribute to the College of Jefferson,
Monroe, Tyler, and Marshall
As a matter of comparison we have lately read that from William and Mary
College, Virginia, thirty-two out of thirty-five professors and
instructors abandoned the college work and joined the army in the field.
Harvard College sent one professor from its large corps of professors and
instructors.
GENERAL CHARLES A. WHITTIER
(Massachusetts)
_The charter of William and Mary College granted, 1693_
February Fifteenth
DETERMINING THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE NEW BOARDER
"I will illustrate by an incident," said Mrs. Paynter.
"As I say, this young man spends his entire time in his room, where he is,
I believe, engaged in writing a book."
"Oh, me! Then he's penniless, depend upon it!"
HENRY SYDNOR HARRISON
(_Queed_)
_Cyrus Hall McCormick born, 1809_
February Sixteenth
A chicken that had done duty at a previous repast was set before the Rev.
Scervant Jones, the first Baptist preacher of Williamsburg, Virginia, at
the tavern of a Mr. Howl. Upon which the Reverend gentleman pronounced the
following blessing:
"Good Lord of love
Look down from above,
And bless the 'Owl
Who ate this fowl
And left these bones
For Scervant Jones."
_Fort Donelson surrenders, 1862_
February Seventeenth
A NORTHERN VIEW
* * * It was the most monstrous barbarity of the barbarous march. There is
no reason to think that General Sherman knew anything of the purpose to
burn the city, which had been freely talked about among the soldiers
through the afternoon. But there is reason to think that he knew well
enough who did it, that he never rebuked it, and made no effort to punish
it.
WHITELAW REID
(_Ohio_)
_Sherman burns Columbia, 1865_
February Eighteenth
We have changed the constituent parts, but not the system of our
government. The Constitution formed by our fathers is that of the
Confederate States, in their exposition of it; and, in the judicial
construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its true
meaning.
JEFFERSON DAVIS
(_Inaugural Address_)
_Jefferson Davis inaugurated, 1861_
_Federal forces enter Charleston, S. C., 1865_
February Nineteenth
Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free
Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea!
Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun,
Ye spread and span like the catholic man who has mightily won
God out of knowledge and good out of infinite pain
And sight out of blindness and purity out of a stain.
SIDNEY LANIER
February Twentieth
After the passage of the Anti-Ku Klux Statute by the State of Tennessee,
several instances occurred of parties being arrested in Ku Klux disguises;
but in every case they proved to be either negroes or "radical" Brownlow
Republicans. This occurred so often that the statute was allowed by the
party in power to become a dead letter before its repeal. It bore too hard
on the "loyal" men when enforced.
J. C. LESTER and D. L. WILSON
As the young German patriots of 1812 organized their struggle for liberty
under the noses of the garrisons of Napoleon, so these daring men, girt by
thousands of bayonets, discussed and adopted under the cover of darkness
the ritual of "The Invisible Empire."
THOMAS DIXON, JR.
_Governor Brownlow of Tennessee calls out the militia to suppress the Ku
Klux Klan, 1869_
_Federal troops defeated at Olustee, Fla., 1864_
February Twenty-First
The Ku Klux Klan was a great Law and Order League of mounted night
cavalrymen called into action by the intolerable conditions of a reign of
terror.... It was the old answer of organized manhood to organized crime
masquerading under the forms of government.... Women and children had eyes
and saw not, ears and heard not. Over four hundred thousand disguises for
men and horses were made by the women of the South, and not one secret
ever passed their lips!
THOMAS DIXON, JR.
The View of a "Reconstructionist"
The Ku Klux Order was a daring conception for a conquered people. Only a
race of warlike instincts and regal pride could have conceived or executed
it. Men, women, and children must have, and be worthy of, implicit mutual
trust. They must be trusted with the secrets of life and death without
reserve and without fear.
JUDGE ALBION W. TOURGEE
(Ohio)
February Twenty-Second
First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,
he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life;
pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and
commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the
effects of that example lasting.
HENRY LEE
(_Father of Robert E. Lee_)
_George Washington born, 1732_
February Twenty-Third
Won in the Name of Virginia; Governor Patrick Henry to Colonel George
Rogers Clark:
"You are to retain the Command of the troops now at the several posts in
the county of Illinois and on the Wabash, which fall within the limits of
the County now erected and called Illinois County.... You are also to take
the Command of five other Companies, raised under the act of Assembly
which I send herewith, and which if completed, as I hope they will be
speedily, will have orders to join you without loss of time, and are
likewise to be under your command.... The honor and interest of the State
are deeply concerned in this."
_George Rogers Clark appears before Vincennes, 1779_
_Battle of Buena Vista; Col. Jefferson Davis wounded, 1847_
_Mississippi readmitted to the Union, 1870_
February Twenty-Fourth
The importance of this brilliant exploit was destined to be far greater
than even Clark foresaw, for when the treaty of peace was being negotiated
at Paris in 1782, our allies, France and Spain, were both more than
willing to sacrifice our interests in order to keep us out of the
Mississippi Valley, and the western boundary of the United States would
undoubtedly have been fixed at the Alleghanies instead of the Mississippi,
but for the fact that this western region was actually occupied by
Virginians.
S. C. MITCHELL
The vast Northwest had been thus won by a heroic band of volunteers, led
by one of the most dauntless warriors that ever risked life for country.
THOMAS E. WATSON
_George Rogers Clark stipulates to Governor Hamilton the terms of
surrender of the Northwestern territory, 1779_
February Twenty-Fifth
From Inscription on tablet in St. Michael's Church, Charleston, South
Carolina.
"As a Statesman
he bequeathed to his country the sentiment,
'Millions for defence
not a cent for tribute.'"
_Charles Cotesworth Pinckney born, 1746_
February Twenty-Sixth
IN THE PETERSBURG TRENCHES
Winter poured down its snows and its sleets upon Lee's shelterless men in
the trenches. Some of them burrowed into the earth. Most of them shivered
over the feeble fires, kept burning along the lines. Scanty and thin were
the garments of these heroes. Most of them were clad in mere rags. Gaunt
famine oppressed them every hour. One quarter of a pound of bacon and a
little meal was the daily portion assigned to each man by the rules of the
War Department. But even this allowance failed when the railroads broke
down and left the bacon and the flour piled up beside the tracks in
Georgia and the Carolinas. One sixth of this daily ration was the
allotment for a considerable time, and very often the supply of bacon
failed entirely....
HENRY A. WHITE
February Twenty-Seventh
We follow where the Swamp Fox guides,
We leave the swamp and cypress-tree,
Our spurs are in our coursers' sides,
And ready for the strife are we.
The Tory camp is now in sight,
And there he cowers within his den;
He hears our shouts, he dreads the fight,
He fears, and flies from Marion's men.
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS
_Francis Marion dies, 1795_
_Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, N. C., 1776_
February Twenty-Eighth
The war began, the war went on--this politicians' conspiracy, this
slaveholders' rebellion, as it was variously called by those who sought
its source, now in the disappointed ambition of the Southern leaders, now
in the desperate determination of a slaveholding oligarchy to perpetuate
their power, and to secure forever their proprietorship in their "human
chattels." On this theory the mass of the Southern people were but puppets
in the hands of political wirepullers, or blind followers of hectoring
"patricians." To those who know the Southern people nothing can be more
absurd; to those who know their personal independence, to those who know
the deep interest which they have always taken in politics, the keen
intelligence with which they have always followed the questions of the
day.
BASIL L. GILDERSLEEVE
February Twenty-Ninth
THE LAND WHERE WE WERE DREAMING
Fair were our nation's visions, and as grand
As ever floated out of fancy-land;
Children were we in simple faith,
But god-like children, whom nor death,
Nor threat of danger drove from honor's path--
In the land where we were dreaming!
* * * * *
A figure came among us as we slept--
At first he knelt, then slowly rose and wept;
Then gathering up a thousand spears,
He swept across the fields of Mars,
Then bowed farewell, and walked behind the stars,
From the land where we were dreaming!
* * * * *
As wakes the soldier when the alarum calls--
As wakes the mother when her infant falls--
As starts the traveler when around
His sleepy couch the fire-bells sound--
So woke our nation with a single bound--
In the land where we were dreaming!
DANIEL BEDINGER LUCAS
March
I hear the bluebird's quaint soliloquy,--
A hesitating note upon the breeze,
Blown faintly from the tops of distant trees,
As though he were not sure that Spring is nigh,
But fed his hopes with bursts of melody.
I would I had a spirit-harp to seize
The bolder tenor of his rhapsodies
When apple-blossoms swing against the sky.
On every dark or blust'ring wintry day
That airy harp the bluebird's lilt should play;
And as I held my sighs and paused to hear,
The wand'ring message, with its full-fed cheer
And ripe contentment, to my life should bring
The essence and fruition of the Spring.
DANSKE DANDRIDGE
March First
In the deep heart of every forest tree
The blood is all aglee,
And there's a look about the leafless bowers
As if they dreamed of flowers.
HENRY TIMROD
March Second
At a garden party in Washington not long ago a Justice of the Supreme
Court said in response to some question I put: "It would take the pen of a
Zola to describe reconstruction in Louisiana. It is so dark a chapter in
our national history. I do not like to think of it. A Zola might base a
great novel on that life and death struggle between politicians and races
in the land of cotton and sugar plantations, the swamps and bayous of the
mighty Mississippi, where the Carpet-Bag Government had a standing army,
of blacks, chiefly, and a navy of warships going up and down waterways."
MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY
_Reconstruction Act put into effect in Louisiana, 1866_
_Texas declares itself independent, 1836_
March Third
Women, the most refined, the noblest and best cultured in the land, left
their homes, took up their residences adjacent to hospitals and became
Florence Nightingales, daughters of the Red Cross, for all who needed care
or comfort. It is reproachfully said by alien writers that the Southern
women are more "unreconstructed rebels" than the men. It is certainly true
that they did as much as the men in winning the battles, and they are now
foremost in building monuments and preserving the records of immortal
deeds.
J. L. M. CURRY
_First general convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, at
Nashville, 1895_
March Fourth
Stephens' bodily infirmity did not sour his temper. On the contrary, it
developed his capacity for human sympathy and strengthened his desire to
help others to reach the happiness he seemed unable to secure for himself.
After prosperity came to him, his works of philanthropy were constant and
countless. He was lavish of hospitality and gave to all who asked such
pity and sympathy as only a tried and travailing spirit could feel.
LOUIS PENDLETON
_Alexander H. Stephens dies, 1883_
March Fifth
From childhood I have nursed a faith
In bluebirds' songs and winds of Spring;
They tell me after frost and death
There comes a time of blossoming;
And after snow and cutting sleet,
The cold, stern mood of Nature yields
To tender warmth, when bare pink feet
Of children press her greening fields.
JAMES MAURICE THOMPSON
March Sixth
It is the spirit of the Alamo that moved above the Texas soldiers as they
charged like demigods through a thousand battlefields, and it is the
spirit of the Alamo that whispers from their graves held in every State of
the Union, ennobling their dust, their soil, that was crimson with their
blood.
HENRY W. GRADY
_Fall of the Alamo, 1836_
March Seventh
The opening of the University of Virginia was an event of prime importance
for the higher education in the whole country, and really marks a new era.
In the South this university completely dominated the situation down to
the war and for some time afterwards, being the model for most that was
best in the colleges everywhere, setting the standards to which they
aspired, and being the source of constant stimulus and inspiration.
CHARLES F. SMITH
(_University of Wisconsin_)
_University of Virginia opened, 1825_
March Eighth
BROOKE'S "VIRGINIA," THE FIRST OF IRONCLADS; 10 GUNS VERSUS 268
... The _Virginia_, that iron diadem of the South, whose thunders in
Hampton Roads consumed the _Cumberland_, overcame the _Congress_, put to
flight the Federal Navy, and achieved a victory, the novelty and grandeur
of which convulsed the maritime nations of the world.
CHARLES COLCOCK JONES, JR.
Confederate Tribute to the Commander and Men of the _Cumberland_: "No ship
was ever better handled, or more bravely fought."
VIRGINIUS NEWTON, C. S. N.
On Boarding the _Congress_:
Confusion, death, and pitiable suffering reigned supreme; and the horrors
of war quenched the passion and enmity of months.
VIRGINIUS NEWTON, C. S. N.
Confederate Tribute to the Commanders of the _Minnesota_, _St. Lawrence_,
and _Roanoke_, which vessels ran aground in flight from the terrible
_Virginia_:
I take occasion to say that their character as officers of skill,
experience, and bravery was well established at the time, and suffered no
diminution then or thereafter.
VIRGINIUS NEWTON, C. S. N.
_Battle between the "Virginia" ("Merrimac") and Federal men-of-war, 1862_
March Ninth
BROOKE
The men who manned the _Monitor_ made a grand fight, and her commander
upheld the best traditions of the American navy; but history must bear
witness to the fact that, if not overmatched or defeated, she at least
withdrew to shallow water, where the _Virginia_ could not follow her; and
later, under the guns of Ft. Monroe, she declined the subsequent battle
challenges of the refitted _Virginia_.
All honor to Capt. Worden and the _Virginia-inspired_ invention of the
Swede; but "America's glory for Americans." Let all Americans honor the
name of JOHN MERCER BROOKE, the inventor and designer of the first armored
war vessel of the world.--Ed.
_Battle between the "Virginia" and the "Monitor," 1862_
March Tenth
AN AFTERTHOUGHT
"Say, Judge, ain't you the same man that told us before the war that we
could whip the Yankees with pop-guns?"
"Yes," replied the stump-orator, with great presence of mind, "and we
could, but, confound 'em, they wouldn't fight us that way."
March Eleventh
TWO VIEWS OF VIRGINIA
(The latter is taken from a witty parody on the original poem. Presented
to a Virginia girl, it was indignantly tossed into the wastebasket. Later,
however, she copied it and sent it around for the amusement of many--_in
the family_!)
I. The days are never quite so long
As in Virginia;
Nor quite so filled with happy song
As in Virginia;
And when my time has come to die
Just take me back and let me lie
Close where the James goes rolling by,
Down in Virginia.