less observer of that field can easily see and comprehend them; and so that the children of the South can readily grasp them, and with them confound the maligners of their fathers and their native land whenever occasion calls for their defense. The material for this purpose being too abundant to be comprised in a single article of appropriate length for the columns of a daily paper, this will, if you please, be followed by other articles in refutation of the Britannica's slur upon the South, and exposing its general worthlessness as an encyclopedia for Americans, and especially for Southern people.

I will begin, then, the purposed refutation and exposure of the Britannica with the following simple statement of historic facts:

The first President of the United States, and the most illustrious American-"the man first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen;" the commander-in-chief of the army, under whose leadership the colonies won their independence, and on whom, by common acclaim, is bestowed the title, "the father of his country,"-was a Southern

man.

The commander-in-chief of the Continental navy in the war of the Revolution was a Southern man,1 so was the first President of the Continental Congress,2 and a Southern member of that Congress was the author and mover of the adoption of the resolution declaring the Colonies free and independent States.

3

1. James Nicholson. 2. Peyton Randolph. 3. Richard Henry Lee.

The greatest American orator-the man whose words most inspired the American heart and nerved the American arm in the struggle for independencewas a Southern man.

The world's greatest Democrat, the author of the Declaration of Independence-the most famous production of an American pen-was a Southern man, and when the peoples of the United States met to celebrate the Centennial of that Declaration it was a Southern man who was selected to write the poem for the opening of that Centennial.1

"The father of the Constitution" was a Southern man; its greatest expounder-the greatest American jurist was a Southern man; and when, in the fulness of time, the peoples of the Union came to celebrate the Centennial of that immortal instrument, it was a 'Southern man who was the chosen orator of that memorable and imposing occasion.*

For more than half the period of its existence the Government formed by that Constitution was administered by Presidents who were Southern men, and the years of their administrations mark immeasurably the happiest, most illustrious and beneficent eras of the Union. But nine men have been twice elected to the office of President of the United States; six of them were Southern men and six were slaveholders, and the only administration during which there was but one

1. Sidney Lanier. 2. James Madison.

3. John Marshall.
Samuel F. Miller.

4.

defaulter and he for a very small sum-was that of John Tyler, a Southern man.

It was the statesmanship of a Southern President,1 seconded by the ability of a Southern diplomat," that extended the boundary of the United States from the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean on the northwest, thus adding to them a territory greater in extent than their original limits; it was Southern valor and Southern statesmanship that carried the boundary on the southwest from the Sabine to the Rio Grande, and added Texas, New Mexico and California to the United States-an addition of 20,000 square miles more than the original thirteen States had; it was the prowess of a Southern soldier3 that secured to the Republic all that territory northwest of the Ohio river, of which the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, were afterwards made; the policy that made that territory public domain-the common property of all the States-was the policy that has done more than any other to build up the Union, and it is indebted for that policy to the wisdom and patriotism of the Southern States of Maryland and Virginia, to Maryland for proposing and urging it, and to Virginia for acceding to it, for that territory belonged to her, and in giving it to the United States for the sake of the Union (the gift of the South to the North) Virginia furnished the crowning proof of her devotion to that Union and became

1. Thomas Jefferson. 2. James Monroe.

3. George Rogers Clark.

men.

the "mother of States" as she was already the "mother of statesmen"; and the men who blazed the way for civilization in that vast region beyond the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains-the most famous American explorers and adventurers-were Southern Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Virginians-Southerners-both, were the first white men who crossed the continent of North America,-"the first to break into the world-old solitudes of the heart of the continent." Writing of them, Noah Brooks, the historian, says: "Peaceful farms and noble cities, towns and villages, thrilling with the hum of modern industry and activity, are spread over the vast spaces through which these explorers threaded their toilsome trail, amid incredible privations and hardships, showing the way westward across the boundless continent which is ours. Let the names of these two men long be held in grateful honor by the American people!”

For nearly two-thirds of the period of its existence has the Supreme Court of the United States-the sheet-anchor of the government-been presided over by Southern men, and their decisions constitute by far the wisest, purest and most luminous pages of the record of that august tribunal.

The writer of our national anthem was a Southern man;1 of the three contemporary American statesmen known as "the great trio," two were Southern men, and it was one of these two whose statesmanship and

patriotism twice saved the Union from dismemberment.

The author of the Emancipation Proclamation was of Southern birth and lineage, and his biographer, who was his intimate friend and law partner, records that Abraham Lincoln said that all his better qualities came from his Southern ancestry.1

The first shot in the second war of the United States with England was fired by a Southern man," the most distinguished soldiers of that war were Southern men, the most complete and overwhelming defeat that any English army has ever experienced was inflicted by Southern troops commanded by a Southern man;3 the man who performed what Admiral Nelson called "the most daring act of the age," and who received the thanks of all Europe for overthrowing the Barbary powers and putting an end to their inhuman cruelties, was a Southern man; the most distinguished soldiers of the war with Mexico were Southern men, and it was a Southerner who, amid unutterable cold and hunger and desolation, with his Fahrenheit thermometer at 49° below zero, planted the "Star-Spangled Banner" nearer the North Pole than any other mortal has ever

1. "He said, among other things, that she (his mother) was the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred Virginia farmer or planter, and he argued that from this last source came his power of analysis, his logic, his mental activity, his ambition, and all the qualities that distinguished him from the other members and descendants of the Hanks family. His theory in discussing the matter of hereditary traits had been, that, for certain reasons, illegitimate children are sometimes sturdier and brighter than those born in lawful wedlock; and in his case he believed that his better nature and finer qualities came from this broad-minded, unknown Virginian."-Herndon's Life of Lincoln, vol. 1, p. 3. 2. Capt. John Rodgers, of Maryland.