USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > Greensboro > The history of the first North Carolina reunion at Greensboro, N. C., October eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, nineteen hundred and three > Part 13
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President E. A. Alderman, of Tulane University, Louisiana Former President of the University of North Carolina
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The words that I am about to speak today shall be few in number, and sim- ple ones of gratitude and affection and faith rather than of analysis or criticism or didactics. I have known some of the great emotions of life-love and ambi- tion and pride of toil and plain human sorrow --- but I know of no emotion stronger and more enduring than the emotion which binds you and me for all the years to this dear old community. I have, indeed, learned to love the good people with whom my days are now cast. It is a region of charm and gracious- ness and manliness and many virtues. It is a happiness to serve such people; but as the grown-up man, having his battle with life, finds himself seeing in the faee and life of his old father a beauty and dignity and a strength, which had, perhaps, not revealed themselves to him in his childhood. so, I think, the wan- derer who has straved from his oldl home has given to him a power to see the philosophy and deeper meaning of the life he has left. It is worth while to be expatriated if one may gain this new sense. I see in a new light the wholesome- ness of North Carolina, the rare and quaint qualities of its humor, giving out the odor of the woods and of quiet life. It may seem a trivial thing, but it is a serious loss to be away from the range of good North Carolina stories. They are human to the eore. I treasure as precious the few that I know; and I hereby beg to hear any that may be in your minds-especially Dr. Battle's mind. I see its sense of justice; its patient tolerance, until tolerance becomes unmanly; its grim steadfastness; its conservative progressiveness: and its tender eon- straining power to make of a man once a North Carolinian a North Carolinian forever.
The greatest single acquisition of North Carolina since I left the State is a sense of unity, a realization that community effort is the secret of growth, accompanied with a certain toleration of difference of opinion necessary to the process of truth-finding. I have learned this and realized this very vividly sinee I came here to this Reunion, and it gladdens my heart; for the power to unite is the power of the highly civilized one. Here I see less and less of East and West, of mountain and seaboard in this State, and more of North Carolina as a whole expression of common purpose. It reminds me of a story of an old English farmer who had been listening to a sermon by Bishop Howe. He went up to the Bishop after the sermon, and said, "Bishop, I certainly am glad I eame today. I certainly have larned something this day." "I am glad you've been benefited, my good man". said the Bishop, somewhat complacently : "what have you learned ?" "Well, I'll tell you", said the farmer, "I larned that Sodom and Gomorrah was places. Durn me, ef I aint been thinking for twenty year that they was husband and wife." My mental processes have just been the reverse of this. For twenty years I have thought of North Carolina as sections. Today I see that it is one region, married in unity of purpose.
I used to think over the dear old State, because it wouldn't do what I, for- sooth, wanted it do, as fast as I, forsooth, thought it ought to do it. That fretting was not wholly nnworthy; but I realize now that it was a mere waste of nervous force incident to the tumults of emotional youth. The old State, immobile and unhasting, was making up its mind. It has now made its mind. The State of North Carolina has been born into the serene consciousness of its strength, its responsibility, its proper part in the great democratic movement of modern society. I go nowhere, North or South, that I do not hear praise of North Carolina. If I go to some community in the Southwest struggling to adjust itself to democratic needs in education, I am sure to hear some speaker sav. "Look at North Carolina. See the courage and resource which she is display- ing in this great problem." My dear friends, you may be sure that it makes
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good music to my ears to hear this, especially since I know it to be God's truth. It is the same if the endeavor be to advance some community in industrial efficiency. The great North Carolina leaders are called by name, and their achievements recited. it is the same if the question be some question of racial entanglement or human justice. North Carolina's leadership is adverted to, and praised. I do not believe the State has bulked so largely in the public imagina- tion in the two hundred and forty years of its history. Let us have sober pride in this; and let ns give sober praise to those who have brought it about. The struggle of this State after statehood and self-consciousness is one of the most interesting stories of the great Republic. It is right to honor the Hoopers and Harveys and Caswells and Johnstons and Ashes who guided the footsteps of the young State in its dim beginnings. Honor is due to the Grahams and Mangnms and Badgers who gave dignity and stability to its growing youth. All honor should go to the Vances and Pettigrews and Battles and Ransoms and Jarvises who bore the burden of war and reconstruction. Let ns not forget. however, to praise and honor the fighters of the present, nor to strengthen with sweet appro- val the hands of those whose work has made all this possible. You know who they are. If I were to name them I should begin with Charles B. Aycock, and nse up all of my time in calling the roll. They are men who are at work in education, in manufacturing, in railroads, and in press and pulpit. They are men and women who look to the future, while not forgetting the past. They are under no sort of bondage. Their passion is for constructiveness; their method is education; their faith is in the people; their purpose, as grim and stern as any that ever moved their fathers, is to put this State where it belongs in this national life of ours; to heal its sectional differences. to recall its sons scattered about the continent and bathe them in just pride of State and home, and, finally. to place this State, through training and self-sacrifice, in the front of. American life and American hope and American destiny. It is the work of men and patriots. It will demand the exercise of faith and patience and enthusiasm and energy and love. God give them strength for it. Let us mor- tals, and brothers to them. give help and love.
I have said I did not come to criticize or analyze or reform my Alma Mater, and I apply the noble endearment as well to the State at large as to that dear spot yonder among the hills of Orange. Neither have I come to rhapsodize or to revel in self-satisfaction or vain boasting. That, perhaps, has been one of our fanlts-the tendency to over-praise and over-rate the little man, to over-esti- mate the unmeaning thing, to see ourselves abnormally and provincially as unrelated to the great national movement. The spirit may well be pardoned today. It is a day when the heart flows like the sea-especially the heart of one who went away but yesterday-toward these well-remembered faces, glow- ing with sympathy and friendliness-men whose love was won and to whom love was given, amid the unselfish dreams of golden yonth. But the supreme thing to do in this world is to see a thing steadily and to see it whole, as Matthew Arnoldl said. The absent, at least, may contribute their perspective, and tell how it seems to them. You-may I not say we, for I tried to do my share in my day-have done mneh, but it is the work of the pioneer, and a very world of things needs to be done.
Among American States no better spot exists than this spot upon which to work out the problems of a livable and lovable democracy. I thank God for the inextinguishable breath of democracy breathed into me by birth in this State. By democracy, I mean no party or creed or war-ery, but a blessed spirit which wills imperiously to give to every soul a chance to know and be the best. It is
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Honorable H. B. Varner Commissioner of Labor and Printing of North Carolina
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a narrow view which beholds democracy as a mere thing of ruggedness and homeliness. It is the business of democracy to make out of itself an aristocracy. There is nothing too good for a democracy. Surely its primal needs are strength and virtue and simplicity and freedom. Does it not also need beauty and dig- nity and grandeur, if you will, and all the things which minister to the spirit ? Else it perish of vulgar strength. This spirit will not come by observation. One can not say lo! here, and lo! there, and the spirit is achieved. It comes by obeying the law of things. The law of things is training as a result of sacrifice. Sacrifice means vast investment of love, energy, and wealth in human life. Twenty years from today North Carolina will be a State of imagination and faith in men of all creedls and races and conditions. It will liave quadrupled its investment in them. Its type of men will be efficient and knowing, free and sympathetic, acquainted with facts, able to do, free to speak, and sympathetic with every man's aspirations, whether he be white or black, high or low, bond or free. This is democracy; and nothing else is democracy. All history is the shifting of the mental and moral moods of nations and communities, and the interesting time-the time for men-is the period of shifting. We can see now the romantic note of our past, its exaltation of personality, its care for indi- viduals' dignity, its impulses, its enthusiasms, its deep loyalties. We are at work upon the note of the future, deciding that it shall be social, collective, efficient, sympathetic with all, so that every man may earn a dignity to cherish. To bring this about we must spend money and time and heart's blood, for the day of small things is past, and the thing we seek is above all price. The State of North Carolina needs just now to realize the supreme value of humanity in the mass. All the machinery of her civilization should be for the advancement of men in the aggregate, not men in the classes. Is this mere crude optimism ? If so, let it go at that. I dare to believe all that I can hope for. I dare to hope for all that I can dream. I once dreamed with many others for an effective public school system. That dream is almost true; and the spirit which has made it true is the spirit which has made this noble gathering, and which will unite the sons of North Carolina all over America for service in her behalf.
The greatest dreamer this nation has known was Thomas Jefferson, and he has been its greatest spiritual force-with his ennobling lesson of faith in men. Many of his dreams have come true, and many are yet unfulfilled. Let us dream on, and work in our time and place as he did in his earlier day. It can not hurt for us to have a vision before our eyes always of this land of our birth and love. lovable in its very limitations, and elad from its hard-beset childhood in the garments of common-sense and clear manhood-grown strong and majestic and spiritual and free-a mighty home of beneficent laws and true democracy, stain- less still in honor, fruitful still in noble deeds.
Address by Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D., of Boston, Mass.
It has been said that Israel got out of Egypt in forty-eight hours, but it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel; and a North Carolinian can get out of his State in twenty hours, but all time and eternity can never take North Caro- lina out of him.
In some respects, there is no country on this globe that equals in beauty the dear Old North State. I have been under Italian skies, but they are not as blue to me as the skies of North Carolina. I have stood under no stars as bright
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as the stars of North Carolina. I have walked through some of the art galleries of Europe, and they have simply suggested the pictures that I carried from the top of Mount Mitchell and King's Mountain and other places, more beautiful than were ever placed upon canvas by the skill of artist.
I have gone out of the dear old State rather slowly. I went to Baltimore first-half Yankee and half Southron, and then to Brooklyn-not quite so great a mixture of the Southron, and then to Boston. (A "B" line, you see.) I bring the greetings of Boston. I have met some men up there who have seen some of you before. They have assured me that they had some little dealings with North Carolina several years ago. And they were a brave lot.
I live near Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill; and next year I would like to bring about one thousand of the high-minded sons of Massachusetts. that have in their texture of character the granitic solidity of Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill monument, down here, and let them see Guilford Battle Ground, and have them taught what many of them do not know (or they have forgotten), that there was a Southern tea party before there was a Massachusetts tea party, and that there was fighting here on the side of liberty before the battle of Lexington fired the shot that rang around the world.
My heart has been stirred as I reread the records of the battle of Guilford. We are told that God sent an angel, you know, before the Israelites, as they were led by the pillar of fire by day and the pillar of cloud by night; but that he sent hornets to look after the Amalekites and the Hittites and the Amorites. Now a hornet does not take a person up and lift him out by main force; but just makes him willing to get out. I hope you see the point. The battle of Guilford didn't fling the English out of this country; but it made them willing to get out. It was the beginning of the end that gave us the result in the Stars and Stripes.
After one of the great battles of Virginia, a man in blue, Colonel of a regiment, was riding across the battlefield, amid the wounded and the dying, and, hearing a groan, he went to see what was the matter. There was a Con- federate private, mortally wounded. That man in blue got off his horse, and asked him if he would have a drink of water out of his canteen; and he gave to the man in gray the water that quenched his thirst. The man in gray looked up into the face of the man in blue, and said, "Do you know how to pray?" He said, "Yes, I am a Christian". And they knelt there together with their hands upon each other's shoulder, and repeated the Lord's Prayer. For once there was no North and no South. There were just two men that had knelt together, and their hearts were fused in common sympathy. I thank God that that exper- ience is coming to our great country. We may love one part of it better than another; yes, I like to find a man that loves his own family a trifle better than anybody's else family. If he tells me that he loves every family equally well, I do not think he loves any very much; but we have come to a point where. fused in a common patriotism, and facing common problems, we can stand together and work together until the Stars and Stripes shall mean to the world a thousandfold more than they have ever meant in history.
As I pass across Brooklyn Bridge, I see Bartholdi's statue; and you know the best of that statue is its face has the features of his mother, holding out the light of liberty; and I can see that light, flash across the Atlantic and into Africa and into Armenia and all over the earth. This country is teaching the world what liberty means. There is one thing that I have learned since I have been in Massachusetts, and that is that these Massachusetts and New England people are beginning to trust the South as they never did before. They are
Honorable Francis D. Winston Ex-Judge of the Superior Court, and Lieutenant -Governor
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saying, . You have your problems; we have ours. You can settle yours, and we'll settle ours. We would like for you to help us in some respects; we'll help you, if we can." The difficulties of both are appreciated, and we can stand together.
I went once with a party up Mount Mitchell, nine miles, rising higher and higher; and when we got about half-way up, we saw what was a sublime specta- cle-a battle of the clouds. The clouds began to break away on one side toward the sun in the West, and there was battle between cloud and cloud. until finally there was no cloud on the western side at all; and then the battle began to rage between light and cloud, battalions of cloud marching up and met on the crest by battalions of light. They fought, the white arrows of light piercing the black clouds as they came up, until by and by the light conquered; and when we stood on the top there stretched out the most magnificent view I ever saw. There has been going on a battle in this country, cloud against cloud, and then again light on one side and cloud on the other. The day is dawning when the clouds will have vanished, and the sunshine of love and fraternity will fill the land.
Remarks of Judge Francis D. Winston, of North Carolina and Resolutions Which Were Unanimously Adopted
The sons of North Carolina, residing in other States, view with admiration and gratitude the battlefield of Guilford Courthouse, redeemed from waste and oblivion, beautified and decorated by the patriotic efforts of the Guilford Battle Ground Company.
One hundred acres of this historic field, artistically laid off in walks. drives, and avenues, and handsomely decorated with twenty-one com- pleted monuments, is now the property of the company. The two monuments which Congress recently voted as memorials to the bravery of Generals Francis Nash and William Lee Davidson, will soon be added to the galaxy of immortal mementoes. The park is a rare blend- ing of nature's majesty and beauty with man's heroism and devotion ; groves of primeval oak, flower-elad meadows, placid lakes, sparkling springs, hills and dales, dotted with monuments of heroic dead. It is the one battlefield of the revolution which has been reclaimed. adorned, and preserved in its entirety. Its history, its heritage, and its glory are the common property of the whole country. Across its sacred soil the heroic sons of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, side by side with North Carolinians, fought and died for the freedom of the colonies. On this field North Carolinians have cherished the memory of those dead heroes of her sister States, who marched to glorious death on her soil and helped to drive the British from her borders.
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A gallant soldier of the Civil War, General H. V. Boynton. has fitly enlogized this park and the patriotic services of those who established it: "The vast body of the Revolutionary patriots in the North should take notice of this North Carolina work, carried to snecess without commotion, or noise. or tumult, or the sound of saw or hammer. Here is a field purchased and paid for, with its history collected and pre- served on tablets and monuments. Those who have brought it to suc- cess are at the sunset of life. It would be in every sense fitting if the National Government should receive its finished work of patriotism and provide for its future eare."
The Guilford Battle Ground Association is willing to donate this park for perpetual preservation by the National Government. Having performed the labors and incurred the expense essential to its creation. and feeling that the park is the heritage, not of the State, but of the Nation, they will cheerfully resign its guardianship to those to whom it belongs. Concurring in these views, the sons of North Carolina, residents of other States. now enjoying a Reunion on this battle ground do resolve :
That we cheerfully commend the purpose of the Guilford Battle Ground Association to turn over to the National Government the patriotie work of preserving this park.
That we request the Congressional delegations from the various States represented here, to give their active support to any measures that may pend in Congress accepting this work, and pledging the Government to its completion and preservation.
That we further ask the Congressional delegations from other States to assist in this patriotic endeavor.
The Guilford Battle Ground Association makes this peace offering to the nation in the dawn of the Twentieth Century. Well may the nation receive it. with its treasures of patriotism-emblem of a united country, a country based upon those enduring principles of liberty for which heroie sons North and South shed their blood on this hallowed spot.
Resolutions Complimentary to the Late Judge David Schenck
Immediately before the adjournment of the exereises, General Ran- somi requested the great audience to hear him for a moment. He spoke of the great success of the Reunion, saying the beginning of the move- ment had been glorious, its fulfillment had been sublinie. The mana- gers of the Reunion had performed a great duty to the country, but in
Honorable David Schenck, LL. D. First President of the Guilford Battle Ground Company
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our just exaltation we had omitted a sacred duty. and he begged the attention of the audience to what he had to say.
We are standing here in the center of the Battlefield-of Guilford Courthouse, very beautiful. and adorned by art to perpetuate the great event. The truth of history must be spoken. For nearly a cen- tury the battle of Guilford Courthouse had been shrouded in ignor- ance, prejudice. and blunder. A worthy. North Carolinian, with great labor, at much expense and trouble. has rescued the name of his coun- trymen from doubt and misrepresentation. He has gone to the very bottom of the facts of the battle: to its very roots. He has developed and demonstrated that the militia of North Carolina did its whole duty on. that day in obedience to the orders of the Commander in Chief. He has vindicated their title to honor and immortal gratitude, and has removed every cloud from their great brave names: and he. General Ransom, should ask this great audience to resolve that its thanks were eminently due to the late Honorable David Schenck for his patriotic, diligent, and successful labors in presenting the true history of the battle, and in demonstrating and proving the faithfulness and bravery of North Carolina on that field.
He would. therefore. ask for a vote upon his resolution returning thanks to Judge Schenck. and it was unanimously so decided.
RESOLVED, That this convention puts upon record its profound con- viction of the inestimable service which the late Honorable David Schenck has rendered to historical truth, in vindicating and establish- ing by incontrovertible evidence and unanswerable argument that the soldiers of North Carolina did their whole duty in the battle of Guil- ford Courthouse and that we will cherish all gratitude and honor to the memory of this devoted patriot.
General Ransom then asked Dr. Moore. of Richmond. to conclude the exercises with the benediction, and it was done .*
* The reader will share regret with the editor that he has been unable to secure for publication in this volume a copy of the notable and profound address of the brilliant non- resident North Carolinian, Mr. Walter H. Page, the learned and able editor of "The World's Work". He looked the part of the careful, hard student that he is. On this occasion, he gave his hearers, as he always does, something to think about. He spoke like a man who has a fixed purpose in life, and is battling for a goal. Among other things lie said :
" North Carolinians leave the State because they belong to that world-conquering race. It is a good thing for the United States. The outside world needs what we can give ; and we have plenty of it to spare.
There are but two sources from which the Americans spring nowadays. We have one. and New England the other. There are two kinds of men in this world : those who lead, and those who are willing to be led. We can be the leaders. It is mainly a matter of blood, of will. You are beginning to find the way, through education and industry. We will fulfill the greatest destiny that we have the good fortune to be here for."
It is also a source of regret that Senator Jeter C. Pritchard, who responded in a happy and eloquent impromptu sprech, had not reduced the same to manuscript, As he came forward, the great throng of people accorded hici a generous and enthusiastic ovation. and his declaration- that this occasion and the work, of Greensboro would ultimately bring government appropria- tions and protection to the Guilford Battle Ground touched a responsive chord and evoked prolonged applause.
-EDITOR
Brilliant Climax
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Honorable S. L. Patterson Commissioner of Agriculture
Brilliant Climax
The climax-and a fitting one it was-to the whole occasion was the "Reception", held from 9.30 p. m. to 12 m., in the spacious and impos- ing Smith Memorial Building, on Church Street. on Tuesday, under the auspices of the Ladies' Reception Committee of the Reunion. The building itself, beautiful in interior and exterior, was a revelation to those who had not seen it. There is no building of the kind in the whole South that approaches it in beauty of design, in the richmess of architectural expression. and in the good taste and marvelous con- venience of its every appointment. Under its soft lights. and beneath the myriad forms of beauty that found expression in bammer, streamer, bunting, flag. flower. palm, and fern, there was gathered the most nota- ble and the most interesting assembly of North Carolinians, resident and non-resident. to be found in the annals of the Old North State. It was there that the real joy of the Reunion beamed in the face of the handsome men and in the smile of the beautiful women, who met, and felt as they met the joyous and unreserved freedom of home. It was there that everybody really felt at home, and realized what home-com- ing meant. The hours. freighted with genuine delight and with the free, joyous spirit of reunion, sped and Hled until the Chairman of the Board of Managers requested the Governor to make "the farewell speech". The Governor, moved by the generous applause, in his own inimitable style responded with speech that touched and thrilled. Following this. the audience joined in our glorious State song: after which Rev. Dr. W. W. Moore, of Richmond, Va., offered the following resolutions, which were warmly seconded by Mr. John Wilbur Jenkins, of Baltimore :
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