The state of Georgia : address delivered before the Literary Societies of the University of Georgia, June 20, 1900 / by Hon. Washington Dessau, of Macon, Ga.

STATE OF GEORGIA.
ADDRESS DELIVERED. BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, JUNE aora, 1900,
BY WASHINGTON DESSAU,
OF XfACON, GA.

But whether in war or peace, I can but bid you to be

mindful of your fathers. Learn from them how ditties ful

filled become honors after death.

Lord Lytton.

[Address before Associated Societies of the University of Edinburgh, January, 1854.]

GENERAL LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
MOORE PURCHASE, 1935
"THE STATE OF GEORGIA.'
ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, JUNE 20, 1900, BY WASHINGTON DESSAU, OF MACON, GA.
Gentlemen of the Literary Societies : This venerable hall and the buildings in the
immediate proximity, rich in reminiscence, the institution whose administration has been so often celebrated under circumstances so similar, the gathering in formality of its officers and instructors, these citizens rendering tribute to this hour when the University is about to put its official hand to the year's work, all seem to bring our thoughts to the consideration of one subject, "The State of Georgia."
It is nothing new for the people to gather at stated times and pay tribute in speech to the gov ernment under which they live, and the antiquity of this custom detracts nothing from its virtue. Indeed, so universal and so abiding is its observ ance and so unusual its breach, that the world affords no instance where a people has ever im pressed itself upon a present civilization without offering, at times, the perpetuation of its history through the function of the public gathering and the narration of public events on occasions similar to this. Without searching far into the records of

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the past, let us recall the oration of Pericles cele brating the bravery of those who fell in defense of Athens, and recounting the great honor which his country had achieved among the nations of the earth. I cannot forbear, even at the risk of ex posing myself to the most obvious and just crit icism, quoting this sentence from this great orator and wise man upon the occasion just referred to: " I would have you, day by day, fix your eyes upon the greatness of Athens until you become filled with love of her."
So let me say to you, let us fix today our eyes upon our native State ; let us lift up the veil which the past has dropped upon her ways, and glance at the course she has made along the great highway of the world; let us look at the history she has made and is making now, and when we disperse and go home, may our hearts, like those of the old Athenians, be full of the love of her.
I have looked in vain on the record of States, ancient as well as modern, for a parallel to that of our own in its formation and early development, and, even among her sisters, Georgia stands apart in the method and progress of her shaping into community, colony and statehood. Ours was the last colony established prior to the war with Great Britain; and, as we were the last in point of time in this regard, so, in point of geographical relation, were we the last of the great thirteen on the At lantic border. By these accidents of time and place, our State in the days of the great Revolution did not afford a theater for the conspicuous events, military or civil, which finally resulted in the

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establishment of the American Union. No gather ing of statesmen to declare public policies and shape the destinies of the people was had in her borders, nor were any of her citizens notablj* pre eminent in any of the great convocations where wisdom laid the foundation for national glory. Upon her soil there was no battle fought which either settled or influenced the great conflict of arms. Her patriotism was enthusiastic, clear and unstinted; the bravery of the men who shared in the struggle for independence stood in favorable comparison with that of any troops under the con tinental generals. But she had no Bunker Hill, no Lexington, no Yalley Forge; we had no Dela ware for Washington to cross, no Yorktown to wit ness the surrender of the enen^'s army. Inde pendence Hall was far from her borders, and she could only catch the echoes of Liberty Bell as they were borne by the sympathetic air down the land and across the rivers and along the sea to the little band of patriots that were scattered, eager and wait ing, through her broad domain. Yet while no de cisive battles were fought on Georgia soil and no civil act of prominence was comsummated in her halls of legislative deliberation, the great spirit which fired the patriots of the Revolution was burning and blazing fiercely in the hearts of her people, and, by devotion and courage, they made the great victories of Washington and his Generals as much theirs as if they had been fought and won on their oxvn plains. So, when we struck hands with our sister States in the formation of the Union and pledged our sacred honor to the per-

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petuity of its institutions, the State moved easily forward on its career, unillumined by any conspic uous national character, either civil or military, with no great occasion to glorify, no great orator to lead or statesman to counsel, but, in the main, a plain, patriotic community of liberty-loving citizens, binding their lives and energies to the building up of a great State on the trinity of virtues Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation. At that time the State of Georgia extended from the Savannah River west ward to the Mississippi, and embraced the territory which now comprises the States of Alabama and Mississippi. Early in the history of the Union that territory was ceded to the United States in consideration of a fund which is practically doing its part now towards the maintenance of this Uni versity. But before this act had been performed which demonstrated the settled purpose of the State to lay the foundations of an institution of higher learning, there had been engrafted in the first State Constitution a positive requirement for the establishment of common public schools in every County of the State. Our State had scarcely taken on the royal dignity of statehood before these splendid tributes to the advancement of her people had been made. Her citizens, though few in num ber and poor in the world's goods, determined that at the very inauguration of the institution they had fought to build, they would lay deep the founda tion and strong, so that coming generations, if they did not find a finished structure, would at least be enabled to take on the work where their ancestors had left off. Her resources as a State were of the

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most limited and inconsequential character. Be yond the land of which the State was possessed, and which was sold that the proceeds might bear the burdens of government, there was little or nothing on which she could rely. Her population was small, the aggregate wealth of her citizens was trifling, her public improvements were of the most primitive character, and everything in her auton omy indicated conservatism and the moderation of her ambition. In fact, when read in the light of history, Georgia started on her career of statehood with her citizens as children gathered in one com mon family, with no pretentions, no trappings of authority or official consequence imposing upon the members of her community, but gently, easily, and with undying faith in the lasting virtue of freemen, she began her onward effort to the great purpose of building up a State. The natural fertility of the virgin soil, a climate wonderful in its variety and equability, soft as that of tropical countries and hardening gradually into that of more vigorous latitudes, splendid, wide-reaching forests, spreading expanses of accessible territory, streams, moun tains, hills, valleys, plains, low-lands, every impress with which God has touched this spot on the world's surface suggested agriculture, and to that mode of life our people naturally and inevitably turned, and to it they became devoted. Their broad fields filled white with cotton supplied the mills of the world; their golden corn fed the hungry in their own land and beyond the sea. Abundant harvests smiled upon them. Small towns rapidly dotted the map of the State; new

settlers sought our borders, and quickly found pa ternal citizenship and peaceful homes all over our lands.
And, with little else to engage the attention and command the industry of her people besides the peaceful art of agriculture, the State of Georgia pursued what is generally known and styled her uneventful career till the call to arms in 1861. Uneventful! Yes, to the casual observer, to the historian embittered by sectional feeling, to the native, weak and ignorant enough to despise virtue and love treachery; but for those who are willing to know and unwilling to be misled or blinded by hasty condemnation, the period to which I have referred, to my mind, is the most glorious in the history of our State. This period has been fre quently called the Old South, in contradistinction to the period since the close of the War between the States, called the New South. But why the Old Soivth ? Why call the years from 1789 to 1861 in Georgia old?
Can seventy-two years in the life of a State make it old ? Men, in the early days of sacred his tory, had natural lives many times beyond this, and in the history of nations this brief space of time is scarcely counted at all. There is no old Georgia, and there is no new Georgia, but there is Georgia developing along the lines projected by our forefathers, naturally and splendidly, despite the two greatest curses slavery and war that, with all their hosts of attendant evils, have, one or the other, impeded her steps and stayed her hands from the first day of her statehood to this hour.

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In the changing round of the seasons there come no new things that have not blessed us before. The flowers that bloom and the fruits that ripen in each succeeding year, are but the growth of those that bloomed and ripened in the year that has gone. The sun that quickens into activity at the coming of every day and then sinks at eventide, is the same that on each day has shone and lighted up the world. So, Georgia, while for some }-ears retarded in her march to glory by a storm of fire and blood which swept over her, is still the same old Georgia, her hills are still God's footstool, her rivers yet run to the sea, and her citizens, proudly claiming all the rights of freemen, still walk erect amongst their fellows.
The great ideas, which, in their realization, have marked periods in the world's historj' for the bet terment of mankind, have been slow in growing to fruition. From the raising of the cross on San Salvador to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock was more than a-century-and-a-half; and from that time to the signing of the Declaration of In dependence more than one hundred and fifty years had passed. And yet what part of this country has grown old ? The people of other sections still look upon the deeds and virtues of their ancestors with pride, and hold them up to the present generations as objects to arouse enthusiasm and fire the young patriot's heart, but here, at occasional intervals, the words have been spoken and the thought conveyed that there was something in our history of which we should not be proud, and, therefore, it might be forgotten. Dreadful as was the fact of slavery, an

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impartial and intelligent consideration of the actual condition of affairs existing in those days, will not disclose that slave-owning either retarded our civili zation or planted the poison of degeneration amongst our people. Edmund Burke, on moving his reso lution for conciliation with the colonies, declared of the slave-owning in the Carolinas, " That where this is the case, in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. In such a people the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it and renders it invincible." But it has been complained that the growth of our State prior to the war of 1861-65 was slow in comparison with the growth of other parts of the Union. A calm and comprehensive review of the salient features of that period will demonstrate that the observation is neither accurate nor just.
The eastern and middle portions of the Union had long been settled by hardy and industrious people who had more than a hundred years in which to accumulate wealth and diversify industries. before the colony of Georgia had been really planted. The commerce of the seas sought their ports, the keels of their ships ploughed the waters of both hemispheres. Our State had no commerce, and its ports were not available for general com mercial transactions, but our growth was yet not slow. On the contrary, it was generous and rapid enough for the enduring maturity of our institu tions. It was not rapid like those sudden growths which cannot resist the shock of the storm, but it was rather the growth of the oak, which, though

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its leaves be torn by the angry winds, or its branches withered by the lightning stroke, still shows, after the storm has passed, a sturdy trunk, with its roots deep and firm in the earth, to bud and leave and branch again as God's seasons re turn. It may be true that our growth in the mere accumulation of wealth or in the building up of in dustries of great value was not as quick as in other parts of the country. We were not money-gather ers in the common use of the term. We did not aim at wealth as the mark of our ambition, nor did we consider that pecuniary benefits to be derived from the Government were the chief objects to be attained as citizens of this great Republic. Let me quote from Senator Hayne, in that memorable de bate on Mr. Foote's resolution :
" Sir, let me tell the gentleman, that the South repudiates the idea that a pecuniary dependence on the Federal Government is one of the legitimate means of holding the States together. A monied interest in the Government is essentially a base in terest ; and just so far as it operates to bind the feelings of those who are subjected to the Govern ment, just so far as it operates in creating sym pathy and interest that would not otherwise exist, is it opposed to all the principles of free govern ment and at war with virtue and patriotism."
Happy, indeed, should we be in the reflection that the growth decried by the Senator was not rapid in our State. In the first three-quarters of a century our history discloses a normal and health ful expansion of. moral, intellectual and material advancement of which we should be proud, and

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upon which we should never cease to ponder with out feelings of satisfaction and exultation. In the halls of the National Congress there were presented man after man, who, by character, ability and pa triotism, illustrated all the virtues which libertyloving people should emulate. In the Executive branch of the general Government there were men from Georgia, who, by their wisdom, assisted in directing and preserving the Republic. In the army, in the navy, in court and camp, the men who hailed from Georgia, while not rising to conspicu ous eminence, displayed all the courage, intelligence and honor that were required to render their efforts successful and their records worthy as examples to those who might follow. Within our own borders, how many dear and venerated names and lives are on our lips, whose memories come down to us as the most precious heritage that one generation can bestow upon another. History is no longer philos ophy teaching by example; it is made up of the lives of those who shape and fashion and make the affairs of mankind. So, the lives of the men and wo men of Georgia within the period mentioned, make the history of our State. Who has recounted them so that even this generation is familiar with their character and records ? Some day, may it not be far distant, the chronicle will be made up, but as yet this history of our State is almost unknown. Who was conspicuous and potent in resenting British aggression in the early years of this cen tury ? Who was it that sought to check the power that first encroached upon the sovereignty of the States ? Who was it that early asserted the rights.

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of the people as against the usurpation of power by their agents ? Who was it that assisted in the promulgation of the great doctrine, that the Con stitution of the Union is the chart for the na tion's guidance? Let the roll of Georgia's hon ored names who sat in the halls of the Nation's Legislature be called, and many will be found answering, Aye, there. Here, at their homes, were the greatest wisdom and virtue displayed. Our laws were made by men who aimed at noth ing that was not pure and unselfish; our civiliza tion had no complications arising from conflicting interests; and so our institutions were plain and simple. Industry was encouraged by every rea sonable sympathy, and labor was elevated to the dignity it is justly entitled to occupy. The edu cation of the people was alwa}Ts a matter of the deepest concern; and, while we had no public wealth from which to draw munificent endow ments, the liberality of the individuals was con tributed generously. Everything that is honor able and virtuous was encouraged. A gentle but animating stimulus was created and sustained, favorable to the progressive development of our people. Patriotic attachment to the institutions of the State in all their reaches was fostered by the laws, and by the characters of the men who made them. It is true that the scope of the efforts of the men of those days was not so broad as to embrace all the varieties of human endeavor. There were no great manufacturing centers; no great cosmopolitan communities; no notable efforts at commercial or professional distinction

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or supremacy. But there was over all and in all a quiet, patient, wise and well-directed energy of purpose and activity that carried our people forward with safe and successful steps towards the building of a great and happy State. The men who lived in those days were building and they were building like all wise builders; they were laying the foundations for the superstructure deep in the hearts of a loving people; they were numbering their days so that they could apply their hearts unto wisdom. They built gradually and with care, not so much concerned with con sidering the completed handiwork as in being assured that their accomplishments would be con sonant with the destiny of a free people.
The character of the people was affected most happily by these persistent and efficient labors. The laws, and the courts appointed to interpret and administer them, were respected and obej^ed. Grave crimes were of unusual occurrence, and even the trials of offenders were noted as solemn affairs, attracting wide-spread observation, and teaching impressive and enduring lessons of the majesty and justice of the. State. This is but a trifling sketch of the aggregate results of the wisdom and virtue of the lives of the men who made history for Georgia. This result will not only not suffer when brought alongside the record of any other people for the same length of time and under similar conditions, but it will stand out boldly and bravely. The nations of antiquity can furnish no record like this, and those of more modern times will fall far shorter than those of

the past. My commendation is not fulsome; it is founded on the enduring monuments which everjvwhere greet our vision as we look back over those days. Shall we close our eyes to them ? Is it not brave and wise and virtuous to consider the past, that we may see to what point our present and future course may lead?
The history of our people during the war between the States is a blood-written confirmation of the position I have assumed. The peacetrained and peace-loving men of Georgia offered their fortunes and lives for the honor and perpet uation of this State, because, as freemen, they considered it their duty to do so. This sublime devotion on their part to a principle was the log ical and certain outgrowth and development of the civilization the State had founded, fostered and maintained. The men of Georgia did not war for conquest, nor were they driven to arms. The occasion presented itself; their rights as free men, living under a Constitution which guaran teed them the perpetual blessings of domestic tranquility, were assailed, and they went to war as a mother would repel the violence that assaulted the infant in her arms. And on every field of battle, the courage and fidelity which they had exhibited at home in the peaceful pursuits of civil affairs, took on martial bearing. There was no creation of a new valor and bravery. There was only the evolution which developed as the dread ful emergencies arose. The quiet love of peace ful pursuits was attacked, and in an instant it put on the accoutrements of war, not with hate, but

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determined to preserve what it had been taught were the greatest blessings of life. We were peo ple of peace, taught so to be from the foundation of the State, which was the great object of our most solicitous affection. And when the bravery of our soldiers burned and blazed at Malvern Hill, at the bloody angle of the wilderness, on the frozen shores of the river that flows by Fredericksburg, up with Lee and Pickett on the crown of Cemetery Heights, and down with Gordon in the crater at Petersburg, and on a hundred other fields of battle, it was but the glow of that deep-laid love for home and State that had been taught our people in the lives and work of the men who had gone before them.
The surrender at Appomatox, full of lofty courage and pathos, brought the long and bloody contest to a close, and the soldiers of Georgia re turned to their State. This devastating war had swept over it like a besom of destruction ; sweeping away princely fortunes and the hard-earned savings of the middle and poorer classes, destroying ancient homes, blotting out honored families, uprooting and tearing away ancient land-marks, marking with dreadful carnage a wide swath through the State from the mountains down to the sea, wrecking our hopes, humiliating our pride, touching with rude imperti nence the tenderest spots in our civilization, making us strangers in our own gates, aliens at our own al tars, loading us down with defeat, leaving us nothing but the earth beneath our feet, the clear blue sky and sun and stars above us, and the spirit of God-fearing freemen in our hearts; and to this long train of disasters we were confronted with our former slaves,

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freed and armed with the ballot. Let the horrors of the days of reconstruction pass unrevie\ved. Out of them have come our manhood undaunted, our patriotism undiminished, our faith in the perpetuity of the American Republic unshaken. The spirit our fathers fashioned in us by their lives and works and by their love of freedom, was strong enough to withstand the shock of battle, brave enough to con quer the evil which followed in the wake of war, and now, in the days of our regained prosperity, that same spirit should still hold us in strong and loving attachment to this, our State of Georgia. The activity of our people, the wealth that is fast accumulating here l>y reason of our adaptation to the great civilizing forces which are so tremendously at work, our advancement along all the lines of material concern, our coming abreast with other parts of our common country, which did not suffer as did our State in the days of the war, and our keeping pace with the whole Union in its triumphant march with the nations of the earth all these glories shall find their source in that same masterful spirit our fathers taught us in the lives they led, the victories they won, the enduring achievements they accomplished. And so may the history and lives of those men be studied, learned, graven on our hearts, treasured in our memories and kept alive at our firesides, so that all, young and old, and those yet to be born, may be inspired to maintain the virtue and the honor and the liberty-lovitig spirit of the men who make up the history of Georgia.
I was called to make what is styled a literary address. I may have, in the judgment of some,

violated the laws of hospitality, and ventured along lines where I was not invited. If any apology is necessary, let me point you to the men about whom I have spoken, in speech unadorned, and inquire whether it is not better and wiser and more enlight ening to be put upon the study of their deeds and words than to have dwelt upon those of others.
Potent amongst the factors which enter into your present prosperity is the education of our peo ple. The first Constitution of the State provided that the people should be instructed, and we will not depart from this ancient way, but rather stand upon it. By the term, education, I mean the instruction of the intellect in the laws of nature, including not merely things and forces, but men and their ways, and the fashion of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws.
It is upon this philosophy alone that we can hope to advance. It was this our fathers taught, and all the efforts that are planned and worked without giving free heart and hand to the great uplifting of the people to a higher and clearer sight into all laws of life, must be in vain. At the base of the system lies the love of the State. Cherish this, foster it by setting out before the people the lives and work of the men who, thus far, have car ried our commonwealth to its point of distinction and honor amongst the States of the Union.
And when the people see, know and love these great and beautiful histories of the makers of our destiny, they will know the State and be filled with the love of her.

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Some years ago I stood in the far-off Capital of British Columbia looking upon the new parlia ment building, then nearly completed. High on its top towered the heroic statue of the great ex plorer and soldier, James Van Couver. While I looked, the sunlight, still lingering from across the western waters of the Pacific, fell upon the sol dier's statue and bathed his crest in a clear, white glory, and, as the light of the sun gradually faded off, the mid-summer moon rising from behind the summit of the Cascade Range, silvered the statue and its base, whereon was carved the legend, " Splendor sine occasu" Truly the genius of this mighty people had called down the lights of heaven to bear witness to the verity of that proud and defiant declaration of world-wide dominion.
So let us build a shrine in our hearts dedicated to the commonwealth of Georgia.
Let the light of days gone by and the bright hopes of future greatness constantly illuminate it, the departing lights of the past and the dawn of coming years blending in a halo of consecration all over it; and as we dwell and look upon it may our hearts be filled with the love of her, the State of Georgia.