Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text . But, alas! how wide astray are they groping from their goal!
Woman has not her true place, because she--because man--has not yet
learned the full extent and importance of her mission. These
innovators would seek to restore, by driving her entirely from that
mission; as though some unlucky pedestrian, shoved from the security
of the side-walk, should in his consternation seek to remedy matters,
by rushing into the thickest thoroughfare of hoofs and wheels. Woman
will reach the greatest height of which she is capable--the greatest,
perhaps, of which humanity is capable--not by becoming man, but by
becoming, more than ever, woman. By perfecting herself, she perfects
mankind.
JOSEPH G. BALDWIN.
~ca. 1811=1864.~
JOSEPH G. BALDWIN was born in Virginia but early removed to Sumter
County, Alabama, and was a jurist and writer of much influence and
popularity in that State. He removed later to California, where in
1857 he became judge of the Supreme Court and in 1863 Chief-Justice of
the State. His writings are mainly clever and humorous sketches of the
bar and of the communities in which he practised. He said the "flush
times" of Alabama did not compare in any degree with those of
California which he described in an article to the "Southern Literary
Messenger." His "Party Leaders" are able papers on Jefferson,
Hamilton, Jackson, Clay, and John Randolph.
WORKS.
Flush Times in Alabama and Mississippi.
Party Leaders.
Humorous Legal Sketches.
VIRGINIANS IN A NEW COUNTRY.
(_From Flush Times in Alabama and Mississippi, published in "Southern
Literary Messenger."_)
The disposition to be proud and vain of one's country, and to boast of
it, is a natural feeling; but, with a Virginian, it is a passion. It
inheres in him even as the flavor of a York river oyster in that
bivalve, and no distance of deportation, and no trimmings of a
gracious prosperity, and no pickling in the sharp acids of adversity,
can destroy it. It is a part of the Virginia character--just as the
flavor is a distinctive part of the oyster--"which cannot, save by
annihilating, die." It is no use talking about it--the thing may be
right, or wrong;--like Falstaff's victims at Gadshill, it is past
praying for: it is a sort of cocoa grass that has got into the soil,
and has so matted over it, and so _fibred_ through it, as to have
become a part of it; at least there is no telling which is the grass
and which the soil; and certainly it is useless labor to try to root
it out. You may destroy the soil, but you can't root out the grass.
Patriotism with the Virginian is a noun personal. It is the Virginian
himself and something over. He loves Virginia _per se_ and _propter
se_: he loves her for herself and for himself--because _she is_
Virginia, and--everything else beside. He loves to talk about her: out
of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. It makes no odds
where he goes, he carries Virginia with him; not in the entirety
always--but the little spot he comes from is Virginia--as Swedenborg
says the smallest part of the brain is an abridgment of all of it.
"_Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt_," was made for a
Virginian. He never gets acclimated elsewhere; he never loses
citizenship to the old Home. The right of expatriation is a pure
abstraction to him. He may breathe in Alabama, but he lives in
Virginia. His treasure is there and his heart also. If he looks at the
Delta of the Mississippi, it reminds him of James River "low grounds;"
if he sees the vast prairies of Texas, it is a memorial of the meadows
of the Valley. Richmond is the centre of attraction, the _dépôt_ of
all that is grand, great, good, and glorious. "It is the Kentucky of a
place," which the preacher described Heaven to be to the Kentucky
congregation.
Those who came many years ago from the borough towns, especially from
the vicinity of Williamsburg, exceed, in attachment to their
birthplace, if possible, the _émigrés_ from the metropolis. It is
refreshing in these coster monger times, to hear them speak of
it;--they remember it when the old burg was the seat of fashion,
taste, refinement, hospitality, wealth, wit, and all social graces:
when genius threw its spell over the public assemblages and illumined
the halls of justice, and when beauty brightened the social hour with
her unmatched and matchless brilliancy.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS.
~1812=1883.~
ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS was born near Crawfordville, Georgia, and
received an early and excellent education in his father's private
school and at the University of Georgia. The cost of his tuition here
was advanced by some friends, and he repaid it as soon as he began to
earn money. He taught for a year in the family of Dr. Le Conte, father
of the distinguished scientists, John and Joseph Le Conte, now of the
University of California.
He pursued his law studies alone and passed an unusually brilliant
examination. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1836, and to
Congress in 1843, where he served until 1858. He then retired to
country life at his home, "Liberty Hall." But in 1861 he was elected
Vice-President of the Confederate States. After the war he was made
prisoner and confined for some months at Fort Warren near Boston. He
spent several years in literary work and established a newspaper at
Atlanta, called the "Sun."
He was of small stature and delicate health, and met with one or two
severe accidents. His career is a wonderful illustration of the power
of the mind over the body. An amusing incident is told of him in
regard to his size. He was attending a political convention in
Charleston as one of the chief delegates; and one evening, with
several other prominent men, he was on the porch of the hotel lying on
a bench, talking with his companions who were standing about him. The
hotel-keeper coming out saw the gentlemen standing, and bustling up,
said, "Get up, my son, and let these gentlemen be seated." Mr.
Stephens at once arose and his friends burst out laughing; they
explained the situation to the hotel-keeper who was profuse in his
apologies.
An instance of his remarkable bravery is the affair with Judge Cone.
This gentleman considered himself insulted by a remark of Mr. Stephens
and demanded a retraction. After accepting an explanation, he still
insisted on a retraction, and Mr. Stephens refused to make it. Judge
Cone, a tall and powerful man, then drew a knife on him and holding
him down on the floor, cried out, "Retract, or I'll cut you to
pieces." "_Never!_" answered Stephens, "_cut!_" and caught the
descending knife in his right hand. Friends interposed; Judge Cone
apologized, and they afterwards became reconciled.
Mr. Stephens was elected to the United States Senate, 1874 and 1876:
he was governor of Georgia when he died. See his Life by R. M.
Johnston and W. H. Browne.
WORKS.
War between the States.
School History of the United States.
History of the United States.
Speeches.
LAWS OF GOVERNMENT.
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