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 6
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I present to you the Honorable Charles B. Aycock, Governor of North Carolina-your brother countryman .*
* Honorable Matthew Whitaker Ransom ; Born, 1826: graduated from University of North Carolina, 1847 ; Attorney-General, 1852-1:55; Legislature, 1859-1860; Peace Commissioner. 1861 : Lieutenant-Colonel. Colonel. Brigadier-General, and Major-General, 1861-1865: Lawyer and planter. 1865-1872; United States Senator. 1872-1895 : Embassador to Mexico 1895-1598 : Planter, 1898-1004 ; Died eighth day of October. 1904. at his home in Halifax County, N. C. The Reunion Address of General Ransom will be noted and read with more than ordinary interest because of the fact that it was his last public utterance. Its noble thoughts and patriotic sentiments were not less characteristic than the last private utterance which fell from the lips of this great Caro- linian. The Silent Messenger touched him in the absence of his loving and lovable wife, who had not returned from her summer home at Blowing Rock. N. C. His last words to the two devoted sous, who were with hiu at the sudden and peaceful end, were : " Do right, boys ; God bless your mother ".
-- EDITOR
Address of Welcome on Behalf of the State
By Governor Charles B. Aycock
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The Committee in charge of this celebration have honored me with the high duty of extending to you a welcome to your old home. If I could but find fitting words in which to set before you the breadth and depth of the gladness which stirs the heart of North Carolina today the duty would be transformed for me into the highest pleasure. We are glad to have you with us once more. You come to us, not as younger sons who have wasted your portions in riotous living, but as sons who left us with our blessing to seek the favors of fortune elsewhere, and having won your places in other States have come home at last to renew your acquaintance with old friends, and rejoice again amid the scenes of your youth. We shall, therefore, kill no fatted calves for you, no robes will be brought out, and no rings placed upon your fingers. You are at home again to share with us all the things which we have. The North Carolina look is in your eve; her speech is on your lips; her ideals live in your hearts. We rejoice in your presence; take delight in your prosperity; praise you for the things which you have done, and hope the utmost of your future. We wish you to feel that this is now again your State. We would awaken the memories of your early youth, and stir afresh the old-time affection. And this State of your nativity is worthy of your love. Her history is such as to justify your pride in her. Her achievements compare with those of any other State, and make her sons, wherever they be, proud to be known as North Carolinians. You can sing with us:
"Carolina, Carolina, Heaven's blessings attend her; While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her. Though scorners may sneer at, and witlings defame her. Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her."'
She was the first of the colonies to be settled, and although that settlement was not successful, it is a source of gratification that it was made under the patronage of the soldier, navigator, scholar, statesman, and martyr, Sir Walter Raleigh. On her soil the first white child born of English parentage came to bless the western world. Here liberty had its birth. and here it rejoices in its fullest beauty. North Carolina was settled by men who found the liberty of other colonies and States short of their desires. English, Virginians, French, New Englanders, Swiss, Germans, Huguenots, Scotch, Irish, of whatever nation- ality they might be, they sought this land in order that they might found a State which should be a fit home for "the freest of the free". "They were imbued with a passion for liberty", says Bancroft; and in their earliest days
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they secured for themselves and transmitted to us both "liberty of conscience and of conduct". "'With absolute freedom of conscience, benevolent reason was the simple rule of their conduct." "They were tender and open'', gentle to the weak, and fierce only against tyranny. They were led to the choice of their residence from the hatred of restraint, and "lost themselves in the woods in search of independence ". "Are there any who doubt man's capacity for self-government?" says Baneroft; "Let them study the history of North Carolina. Its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect sub- mission to a government imposed on them from abroad. The administration of the colony was firm, humane, and tranquil, when they were left to take care of themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppressive." Living far removed from contact with the government which sought to rule them, freed from the blandishments of power, "disciplined in frugality, and patient of toil", it is no wonder that our North Carolina ancestors resisted to the utmost the tyranny of provincial and colonial rule. They were in constant warfare with their Governors, and repeatedly turned them out of the province. When the struggle with Great Britain came, North Carolina was in the front.
Let me briefly give you two short pages of history. The first shall be devoted to Massachusetts, and is taken from Bancroft. "On the sixteenth day of December, 1773, the men of Boston assembled in the Old South Church. They remained in session until after dark. The church in which they met was dimly lighted. At quarter before six, Roten appeared and satisfied the people by relating that the Governor had refused him a pass, because his ship was not properly cleared. As soon as he had finished his report, Samuel Adams rose and gave the word, 'This meeting can do nothing more to save the country'. On the instant a shout was heard on the porch. The war-whoop resoundedl. A body of men. forty or fifty in number, disguised as Indians, passed by the door, repaired to Griffin 's wharf, posted guards to prevent the intrusion of spies, took possession of the three tea ships, and in about three hours all the tea was emptied into the bay." This is the account of the great Boston Tea Party. It is world-famous. Daniel Webster, in his reply to Hayne, thinking of this great transaction among others, says, "I shall pronounce no eulogium on Massachusetts. She needs none. There she stands; behold her, and judge for yourselves. "'
Now let us look at the other page, taken from a speech of Honorable George Davis. "On the sixth day of January, 1766, the sloop of war Diligence arrived in the Cape Fear, bringing the stamps. She floats gaily up the river, with sails all set and the cross of St. George flaunting apeak. Her cannon frown upon the rebellious little town of Brunswick as she yaws to her anchor. In his palace at Wilmington sits the royal Governor of the State, whose proclamation had just been issued, announcing the arrival of the stamps, and directing all persons authorized to distribute them to apply to her commander. As the sloop rounds to her anchor, there stand upon the shore Colonel John Ashe and Colonel Hugh Waddell, with two companies of friends and gallant yeomen at their backs. By threats of violence, they intimidate the commander of the sloop, and he promises not to land the stamps. They seize the vessel's boat. and hoisting a mast and flag, mount it upon a cart, and march in triumph to Wilmington. Upon their arrival the town is illuminated. Next day, with Colonel Ashe at their head, the people go in crowds to the Governor's house, and demand of him James Houston, the stamp master. Upon refusal to deliver him up, forthwith they set about to burn the house above his head. Terrified, the Governor at length complies, and Houston is conducted to the market house
Honorable E. Y. Webb, of North Carolina Representative in Fifty - Eighth Congress
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where, in the presence of the asembled people, he is made to take a solemn oath never to execute the duties of his office." "I shall pronounce no eulogium" on North Carolina. "She needs none. There she stands; behold her, and judge for yourselves." Mark you. "this was more than ten years before the Declara- tion of Independence; more than nine years before the Battle of Lexington, and nearly eight before the Boston Tea Party". You will not fail to remember that it was on the twelfth day of April, 1776, that the Provincial Congress, in session at Halifax, instructed her delegates to the Continental Congress to concur with the other Colonies in a Declaration of Independence. This was more than a month before action was taken by Virginia, the home of Washing- ton and Jefferson, the zeal of whose people had been inflamed by the words "of living fire that leapt from the impassioned lips of Henry". With these facts of authentic history, known and admitted of all men, it should occasion no surprise anywhere to hear that it was this State, which on the twentieth of May, 1775, at Charlotte, in the County of Mecklenburg, issued the first Declara- tion of Independence. Men may doubt that the patriots of Mecklenburg used the very words which have been handed down to us, but certain it is that Governor Martin, whose seat of government at that time, for reasons of safety. was aboard a ship in the Cape Fear, knew that they had severed the bands which bound them to Great Britain, for in a proclamation which he issued in August, 1775, he used these words: "I have also seen a most infamous publica- tion in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be resolves of a set of people styling themselves a Committee for the County of Mecklenburg, most traitor- ously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, government, and constitution of this country, and setting up a system of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and subversive of His Majesty's government".
It can occasion no surprise then when we are told by Mr. Bancroft that "the first voice for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came, not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, or the planters of Vir- ginia, but from the Scotch Presbyterians of North Carolina".
It was another great day for liberty when the patriots of this State, on the twenty-seventh of February, 1776. gained the signal victory at Moore's Creek over the Tories who were seeking to unite their forces with those of Sir Henry Clinton. The result of that early victory for American arms broke the back- bone of Toryism, and gave to the patriots a zeal and confidence which stood them in stead in the darkest hours of the war for independence. It was your ancestors again who, in conjunction with their neighbors, won the great victory at King's Mountain. It was your ancestors who, in this very county, fought the great fight of Guilford Courthouse, and. while suffering a defeat, so crippled Cornwallis that he was compelled to yield his sword to Washington at York- town. When she had won her independence, North Carolina set such store by it that she declined to join the American Union until the sovereignty of the State and the liberty of the individual had been provided for by the proposal of the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States. But, once in the Union, this State loved it. The government was one of our own formation. and our people have ever been willing to yield obedience to the laws of their own enactment. Even when the people thought the Constitution had been violated, and their rights infringed, their love for the Union was so great that with singular unanimity they determined to remain in it, and secure, if possible. under the stars and stripes that protection to which they felt themselves entitled. But when the other Southern States went out of the Union, and we were brought face to face with the necessity of taking sides, then our people
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in convention assembled. without a single dissenting vote, went out of the Union, and sought at every cost to secure again that independence which our fathers had won. Late in going out, this State offered the first life on the altar of the Southern Confederacy. Having made up her mind to fight for independ- ence, she sent to the front more soldiers than there were voters within her borders. She lost more men in killed and wounded than any other Southern State; charged farthest at Gettysburg; laid down the greatest number of guns at Appomattox; and quit the fight with as deep regret as any of her sisters. I care not on which side one fought in that great contest; the achievements of North Carolina soldiers were too great to excite bitterness in any breast that loves heroie sacrifice and daring deeds. Her men won for humanity a still higher place for stubborn courage than had theretofore been gained. They went into the fight reluctantly, because of their deep love for the Union which their fathers had cemented with their blood. They weut to the front well clothed, well fed, in high spirits, certain of success. They left at the end in tatters and rags, footsore and hungry, but their tears watered the ground where the greatest leader of soldiers, the highest type of Christian manhood, the purest and truest and the best of men, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered his sword. They came back to the State weary, worn, and sorrowful. They found the population depleted. Their farms had gone to ruin, their fences were dowu, their ditches were filled, their stock were slaughtered, in too many instances their houses were burned. But they did not sit down in the desolation of their despair. With a courage worthy of the great men who fought during the Revo- lution, they turned their faces to the morning, put their trust in God, and reso- lutely determined to build again their homes and do honor to their mother for whom they had suffered so much. And right well have they wrought. To lay our fields abound with harvest. From the mountains to the seashore there is abundance. There is not, from Hatteras to Murphy, from Virginia to South Carolina, a man, woman, or child who is hungry today. North Carolina and South Carolina manufacture sixty per cent. of all the cotton manufactured in the South, and of this sixty per cent. this State claims over half. Within this county the forty furniture factories, giving employment to thousands of skilled laborers, sell their furniture in Grand Rapids, and take tribute to their superior workmanship from every State in the Union. The census shows that we more than doubled our investments in manufactures in the last decade. We grow more cotton on less acreage than ever before, while our tobacco crop in value exceeds that of any State in the Uniou. Our vegetable gardens have grown into fields, and we feed the crowding multitudes of the Eastern cities. In every. department of human activity your brothers here are forging to the front. We stand in the morning, with our faces to the light. and gladly hear the command that "we go forward".
I have thought it not inappropriate to tell you these things on your return to your old home, for it is the right of one who has gone out from underneath the shade of the family tree to hear when he comes back what the folks at home have been doing. Above all. it is your right to know what we are. Whether we are sustaining the ideals of the past; what sort of structure we are rearing upon the foundation laid by your ancestors. In your travels you may have run across "' the scorners who seoff at and the witlings who defame" this State. You may have heard that she is ignorant and provincial, but I have the pleasure to inform you what your affection already knows, that there can be found nowhere within her borders a man known out of his township ignorant enough to join with the fool in saying "There is no God". There is no man
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amongst us whose hand is so untrained that it does not instinctively seek his hat iu the presence of a woman. There is no car so untaught that it does not hear the cry of pity: and no heart so untutored that it does not beat in sympathy with the weak and the distressed. Illiterate we have been; but ignorant, never. Books we have not known; but of men we have learned, and of God we have sought to find out. "A gentle people and opeu", frauk and courteous, passion- ate when aroused, and dangerous in conflict; capable of sacrifice, among warriors the first-praised by me as warriors only because of the high courage manifested there, giving promise of the wonderful achievements which lie before us in peace. These are your people; they are my people. I am proud of their history; proud of their character; and glad to introduce you to them again. Your brethren all wish you to stay amoug us to the utmost limit of your time, to see us and know us as we are. If you find our material condition better than it was when you left us. we claim no praise for it. If we have done well, it is because we were taught aright by those who went before us, taught at their expense; and credit belongs to them alone. We think we hold on to the truths which our fathers taught us. We believe that we still maintain a passion for liberty; that we love independence. and set more store by honor than by wealth, and that we seek wealth only in order that the kind promptings of our hearts may find a better way in which to express themselves; that our deeds may keep pace with our wishes, and that the earth may grow better by what we do. In log cabin, in frame house, in moderu mansion, each and all of you will find a welcome. The latchstring hangs outside the door-but not for you. The latchstring is for the stranger only; the door stands open for you.
To the representatives of those cities whose North Carolina population is large enough to justify the organization of North Carolina Societies, I am directed to express the appreciation of my people for the manifestation of your continued affection which has brought you together in your distant homes under the name of the dear old State. It is delightful to us to be thus remem- bered by you. It inspires us to our best efforts, to maintain that affection which is so beautifully expressed in your act. It deters us from doing anything to bring dishonor upon that fair name in whose honor you associate. It has been my pleasure once since I have been Governor of this State to be the guest of a North Carolina Society in a distant city. It was to me a great happiness. I rejoiced in their prosperity. I delighted in their manifest joy whenever the old mother State was mentioned. They tried to sing for me The Old North State, but they broke down before finishing the first stanza. Gentlemen, you can not sing the songs of Zion in strange lands. The music of The Old North State is for home. Like our seuppernong grape, it is racy of the soil, and can not be brought to perfection elsewhere.
Again I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming among us. I greet you in the name of the whole people. I extend to you all the liberties of the State, and invoke that pious benediction of Tiny Tim, "God bless us everyone".
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Colonel James T. Morche id (); e of the Leading Members of the North Carolina Bar
Address of Welcome on Behalf of the City of Greensboro By Colonel James T. Morehead
At the invitation of all the people of our common mother, extended by their representatives in the General Assembly, you have left your homes, here to meet again under her sunny skies. and you have just listened to her hearty welcome expressed by her Chief Executive.
I have the honor to welcome you, specially in behalf of the people of his- torie Guilford and her capital city, and to assure you that we yield to none in genuine, heartfelt pleasure in greeting Carolina's "Scattered-abroad".
I hope I may be pardoned for repeating what has been said by others, that it was a happy suggestion that this location was the most appropriate selection for this first Reunion.
As this city, then a village, was the gateway through which thousands of emigrants, who in the last two decades of the first half of the last century sorrowfully passed, emigrating to the then-new states and territories, their caravans of white-covered wagons freighted with their household goods and their household gods lining its unimproved streets; so now it is the Gate City through which the great majority of those who from time to time return to visit the scenes of their early childhood and youth pass to almost every section of the State. Within forty miles, and little north-east of the center of the State; almost equidistant from the blue mountains, from whose valleys and recesses poured the patriot bands to destroy Ferguson at King's Mountain, and the birthplace of Virginia Dare, washed by the Atlantic; from her southern border, where Andrew Jackson first saw the light amidst the muttering of the storm which was soon to break the power of Britain in America, and her northern border, the birthplace of Nathaniel Macon, the great commoner, and friend and adviser of Jefferson; in the heart of that part of the State largely settled by the Scotch-Irish race, one dogma of whose religion was "Resistance to tyrants is the will of God", and who "educated, elevated, and dominated" every people among whom their lot was cast; the central county of that section which first met in armed resistance legalized oppression, at Alamance; the scene of the labors of Caldwell, one among the greatest of those who led the people to maintain their rights, and of the labors of Caruthers, his successor, who first preserved in written form the traditions of those stirring times, the result of whose labor and learning is one of the important bases of the histories of the Commonwealth. Where you now sit-then in original forest-could be heard the guns fired at old Guilford Courthouse -- the beginning of the end at Yorktown.
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These facts, I repeat, made the selection of Greensboro for the first Reunion peculiarly appropriate.
History teaches us that wherever on the globe one of the Gallic race has settled, whatever his environment, his heart is ever turning to vine-clad France, and the ambition and hope of his life is "some day" to return again to look upon the scenes of his youth, and bask in her glorious sunlight; and equally true it is, as is now a common saying, that "Once a North Carolinian, always a North Carolinan''.
When the Cherokees were invited by the Federal Government to leave their mountain fastnesses, and move beyond the Father of Waters to a more fertile and better game-stocked huuting-ground prepared for them, one band in our mountains declined the offer, and "remain until this day". It is told of their Chief, Junaluski, that when he realized that the days of his pilgrimage were numbered, and he felt that the Great Spirit was beckoning him, he caused his tribesmen to lay him in his cabin door, that the last object upon which his eyes might rest should be the grand old mountain in whose shadow his childhood was passed, over the slopes of which he had chased the bear and the deer, and in whose sparkling water which flowed at its foot he had fished for his favorite trout in his youth and manhood.
Though of a different race from us, he was a typical North Carolinian, in his love for the land of his nativity.
Let me give you an illustration which came under my personal observation. Sometime in the Forties among the emigrants from North Carolina were some of our brethren of Scotch descent, who finally landed in Missouri. Thirty years afterwards, a young man from Guilford, seeking to better his fortune, "after Appomattox" made his home in Missouri, and married a daughter of one of our Scotchmen born to him in that State. In the course of time, the young man returned with his wife and one son, a child of six or eight years. I congratu- lated him on his return, and expressed a hope that he had "come to stay". "Not exactly", he replied, "my wife's parents from her infancy had spoken so often and so lovingly of 'God's Country', and especially of the old home in Guilford, she longed to visit and see for herself the glories of which she had heard. At a family council, it was decreed that the boy could never grow up to be the right sort of a man unless he drank out of the old spring at the old homestead." Accordingly, they had brought the boy to Guilford, carried him to the old homestead, and he had been nearly water-foundered at the spring, and he was going to return to Missouri before the week was out.
You have heard and read how the stay-at-home Tarheels, by their grit and perseverance since "all was lost save honor", have rebuilt the waste places. have added manufacturing to agriculture, until today the Old North State is forging to the front abreast with her more fortunate sisters. This improvement is marked in all her counties-villages have become cities, her highways have been improved, and railways cross each other in all sections. She is rapidly progressing in education, and in fact in everything that goes to make a great, happy, and prosperous commonwealth, as you will realize when you visit your old homes in every part of the State.
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