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 THE NEW SOUTH 
 
 By JOSEPH Gr. BROWN, 
 
 PRESIDEINT CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK, 
 
 Raleigh, N. C. 
 
THE NEW SOUTH 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CONVENTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN BANKERS' ASSOCIATION 
 
 AT NEW ORLEANS 
 November n, 1902 
 
 By Joseph Gf Brown, 
 
 PRESIDENT CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK, 
 RALEIGH, N. C. 
 
 RALEIGH, N. C. 
 
 Edwards & Broughton, Printers and Binders 
 
 1902 
 
V 215 
 
 .change 
 
 i dvereity 
 L 1 2 1933 
 

 THE NEW SOUTH. 
 
 In the long life of the great lawgiver of Israel there 
 were three eventful periods. The first of these covered 
 that portion of his life which was spent amid the luxuri- 
 ous surroundings of an Egyptian court, as the adopted 
 son of royalty. The second began when he chose to 
 be loyal and true to his own people, and with them to 
 endure poverty and want, rather than remain the petted 
 son of the king's daughter and enjoy all the pleasures 
 that wealth and power could give. This epoch in his 
 life was one of loneliness and privation, as well as one 
 of preparation for the great life work to which he had 
 been called. The third and last period was spent in 
 the service of his people, leading them out of bondage, 
 guiding them through the wilderness, strengthening 
 their faith and their courage, and inciting them to noble 
 lives, by which they would be fitted for the enjoyment 
 of that land which God had promised to their fathers. 
 
 In like manner, the life of the people of the South may 
 be divided into three distinct periods, almost parallel in 
 their nature with the unique career of Israel's leader. 
 Prior to the civil war our Southern land, although 
 sparsely populated, was the home of culture and refine- 
 ment. With thousands of slaves to cultivate their broad 
 acres, our people lived in ease and plenty. But the war 
 came, like a besom of destruction, carrying blight and 
 devastation in its path, tearing down homes, laying 
 waste the (owns, destroying the young manhood and 
 reducing to want and penury the women of the land. 
 Then came the long-to-be-remembered days, following 
 the close of the war. May we not with propriety call 
 
4 The New South. 
 
 (his the resurrection period? For all that contributed 
 
 to the peace and prosperity of the Southland was dead 
 save the spirit of her people. There is a law of nature 
 that out of death comes life. The grain of corn is 
 buried in the earth, and from its dying mass there 
 comes lite new shoot, the new blade, the new stalk which 
 bears the new fruit. So, out of the dead Confederacy 
 came the new life, the new energy, the new spirit that 
 gives to me the topic for this occasion. If I could wield 
 the brush of an artist as best illustrating these three 
 periods 1 would spread on the canvas before your eyes 
 three parallel pictures. First, that of the old plantation 
 home. The "great house," as it was called, stands 
 yonder upon its lofty hill — a great house in fact, with its 
 many rooms, its spacious halls, its broad verandas, all 
 betokening the rich hospitality that was so graciously 
 dispensed. In front of the house, along the foot of the 
 sloping lawn, sluggishly flows the beautiful river. Be- 
 hind the house and beyond the barns and stables, are a 
 hundred neat cabins, with the little negro children play- 
 ing about the doors, their cheerful mothers and older 
 sisters bustling about inside, or keeping time in song 
 to the music of the spinning-wheel; while, in the broad 
 fields beyond, the fathers are tilling the ground. In 
 the evening time, just as the reflected rays of the setting- 
 sun are making glorious the banks of clouds along the 
 southern horizon, the melody of negro voices is heard, 
 as the laborers return from the field; and, by and by, 
 when the frugal meal has been eaten, and the chores are 
 done, again is heard the weird negro voice, accompanied 
 by the stirring notes of the old banjo; and presently the 
 shuffling feet of men and women and the [teals of merry 
 laughter tell of the happy free-froni-care life of the old 
 plantation home. 
 
The New South. 5 
 
 But another scene rises before my vision. Four years 
 of cruel war have passed, and we are brought to the 
 year of grace, 1865. Along the country road, which 
 follows the course of the river, slowly and painfully 
 trudges a man in tattered gray. By his side hangs an 
 empty sleeve, lie seems downcast, dejected, but as he 
 nears the site of the old homestead his spirit seems to 
 revive; he quickens his pace, and a sweet smile plays 
 over his countenance. He pauses upon the brow of the 
 hill, from which can be had the first view of the dear 
 old home, from which he went, a strong, brave, hopeful 
 man, four years before. lie shades his eyes. He looks 
 about him in every direction — and again turns longingly 
 toward the site of the old home. His bosom heaves, the 
 tears run down his cheeks, a look of inexpressible sorrow 
 conies over his face. The old home is gone. Only the 
 bare, blackened chimneys and the debris about them 
 mark the place where it stood. There is the same grassy 
 lawn sloping dowu to the river's bank ; the same familiar 
 trees stand here and there in the yard ; there is the same 
 old well from whose oaken bucket he had so often 
 quenched his thirst in boyhood days; the same sun is 
 shining down from the heavens, but it looks upon home 
 no more. Pausing only long enough to regain his com- 
 posure, he brushes the tears from his cheeks, and with 
 determined step turns toward the negro cabins, where 
 appears the only sign of life about the place. As he 
 approaches the nearest cabin, an old gray-haired man, 
 who is resting under the shade of the trees, catches sight 
 of him, and, rising, comes with tottering steps to meet 
 him. From the cabin door, attracted by the joyful ex- 
 clamation of the aged man, there comes at the same time 
 a sweet faced woman, clad in plain homespun garb, 
 her sleeves rolled to the elbows, having been evidently 
 
(> The New South. 
 
 interrupted in her household duties. At a glance she 
 recognizes the visitor, and rushes forward. Thus the 
 father and mother meet their returning soldier boy. 
 Doubtless the angels in heaven dropped tears of pity 
 at the anguish of these people as each saw the sad 
 changes wrought in the other during the four years of 
 separation. But I may not dwell on this scene. It is 
 but one of thousands familiar throughout our South- 
 land at this period. The son and parents are happy 
 that they are reunited. Briefly the experiences of the 
 four years are recounted, and then plans for the future 
 are discussed. The cabin in which the old folks are 
 living is the only one occupied. The others are empty. 
 desolate. The negroes are gone. But, although the 
 body of the young man is weak, and one strong arm is 
 missing, there is a soul within that is strong and buoy- 
 ant, and this gives him inspiration. So, not many days 
 elapse before there is a great transformation in the 
 appearance of things. New life seems breathed into the 
 old place, and by degrees it is rebuilt, and becomes the 
 original of my third picture. 
 
 Once more we stand on the banks of the river, upon 
 Avhose bosom now float majestic steamers. We look 
 with admiration upon the beautiful green of the sloping 
 lawn, and upon the graveled walks that lead up to the 
 front of the handsome, modern structure, evidently a 
 home of wealth and culture. At a little distance we 
 see a mammoth building, with a great smoke-stack 
 pointing heavenward, and from its myriad windows 
 there come the musical hum of the whirring machinery 
 ami the gladsome voices of the happy operatives of a 
 great cotton mill. Behind the house are the barns and 
 stables, and in the distance large herds of cattle are 
 grazing in the rich pasturage, while in other directions 
 
The New South. 7 
 
 are waving fields of grain, and broad acres of cotton 
 reflecting in its snowy sheen the glad sunlight of heaven. 
 Adown the river, we see a bustling town, sprung up as 
 if by magic, under the touch of the genius of the youth 
 who. but a little while ago, came back in the tattered 
 gray from scenes of blood and carnage. This, too, is 
 but one of many similar scenes which go to make up 
 the new South. 
 
 The pictures that I have drawn are true to life. The 
 <lose of the war found, indeed, a desolate, devastated 
 country, its farms run down, its property gone, and its 
 people, all too unused to work, crushed aud broken- 
 hearted, not only because their property had been swept 
 away, but also because their strong men had either fallen 
 in battle, or had come back broken in health and with 
 shattered frames. They went away boys, with light 
 hearts aud joyous anticipations of the future. They 
 came back men, bowed down with disappointment and 
 sorrow, and facing the greatest problem ever presented 
 to any people — that of the proper adjustment of the 
 two races in their new relations to each other. Then 
 it was, as never before, the world saw the true glory of 
 the South as it shone out in her noble womanhood. 
 Reared in luxury, as she was, with strong arms to pro- 
 vide for and protect her, and with obedient, docile slaves 
 to do her every bidding and to gratify her every wish, 
 it is wonderful with what ease she adapted herself to 
 changed conditions. With her own delicate hands she 
 began to do the drudgery work of the humble home, 
 while with her glad, hopeful heart she cheered and helped 
 the more despondent husband and brother, and inspired 
 in the breast of the boys a determination to rebuild the 
 lost fortunes, and to re-establish the land of their birth 
 and of their love. There was nothing to build upon, 
 
8 The New South. 
 
 however, save the uncared-for land, and the indomitable 
 pluck of her people. The story that tells of their strug- 
 gles and their difficulties, their failures aud their vic- 
 tories, is one of thrilling- interest, but I can undertake 
 only to present a few figures to show results. Interest- 
 ing indeed are the figures that tell of her wonderful 
 prosperity. But, before presenting these figures, let me 
 say that the topic assigned me is a misleading one. 
 There is no new South, exeept as there is a new North, 
 or East, or West. Ours is the same old South which, in 
 I lie early days of the Republic, gave her sous for free- 
 dom, and in days of peace gave them to her country as 
 statesmen to aid in building up for her the greatest 
 and best government the world has ever known. 
 
 This South of ours is very much like the popular 
 society belle. She never tires of listening to pleasant 
 things about herself, and she is always ready for you 
 to tell her again the same sweet old story of her beauty 
 and her charms. 
 
 1 have told you that the South had practically nothing 
 at the close of the war. The world looked on in amaze- 
 ment at the ease with which France met the install- 
 ments of the enormous penalty imposed by her victorious 
 foe at the close of the Franco-German war. The South, 
 after enduring a Avar four times as long, paid in one 
 vast lump sum a penalty five times as large, the money 
 value of her slaves being that much greater than the 
 amount demanded of the French. No country ever 
 rallied from such desolation with such spirit and vigor 
 as she displayed — a result due not more to her abounding 
 natural resources than to the spirit and pluck of her 
 sons and daughters. Tried in the severest furnace, she 
 iias proved to the world that she is worthy of its confi- 
 dence, and that in her and her people are to be found the 
 
The New South. 9 
 
 real elements of moral and material wealth. Her wealth 
 to-day equals that of the entire country in I860, and 
 practically all of this has been created since the 
 close of the civil war. It took from that time until 
 about 1880 to gather sufficient accumulations to serve 
 as a basis of credit and of active operations — to inspire 
 confidence and to acquire prestige sufficient to attract 
 outside capital. Now our advantages are an open book, 
 known and read of all men. To-day the North is sending 
 to us not only her money, but her sons. They are com- 
 ing this way looking for opportunities to aid in our 
 industrial development. How different the outlook of 
 to-day from that of even twenty years ago! 
 
 At the beginning of this new century, (/ thousand 
 millions of dollars will barely tell the amount of capital 
 the South has invested in her manufacturing enterprises 
 alone, and she is annually putting on the markets of the 
 world her own handiwork to the value of more than 
 one and a half billions of dollars. What does this 
 mean? It means that the wealth of the South, consist- 
 ing heretofore of her natural products alone, in their 
 raw state has been infinitely multiplied in value by the 
 application of her brains and her skilled hands. It 
 means that instead of confining themselves to the pro- 
 fessions and to politics, her sons are learning to erect, 
 to equip and to operate the mill, and that they are con- 
 verting their eight-cent cotton into a product worth 
 more than one hundred cents to the pound. It means 
 that instead of cutting the trees from her forests and 
 selling them for fire-wood at |3.00 per cord, she is con- 
 verting them into useful shapes that bring the cord 
 value up to more than half a hundred dollars. It means 
 that the South has learned that wasteful living and de- 
 pendence on unskilled labor will keep her people always 
 
10 Tin: New South. 
 
 as nicrc "hewers of wood and drawers of water/' It 
 means that not only in the mills, but in technical schools 
 everywhere, she is 1 raining the hands of her boys, and 
 at the same lime storing their minds with useful knowl- 
 edge. It means that the South is but upon the thresh- 
 old of her development, and that this first decade of 
 the twentieth century will witness a progress more 
 marked than the most optimistic have ever dreamed of — 
 a progress unparalleled in the history of any country. 
 But what is there to substantiate these claims? Let me 
 tell you. In tobacco the South is supplying the world 
 with a quantity and a quality that are not equaled else- 
 where. She produces 75 per cent of all the tobacco 
 raised in the United States. The annual product of her 
 cotton fields is more than 10,000,000 bales, against about 
 half that much twenty years ago. With f 22,000,000 
 invested at that period, she manufactured less than 
 200,000 bales of her own cotton. To-day, with §150,- 
 000,000 invested capital she is manufacturing more than 
 1,500,000 bales. In cotton oil mills in 18S0 she had 
 §3,500,000: now, more than §50,000,000. She is pro- 
 ducing 200,000,000 more bushels of grain, and her agri- 
 cultural products exceed in value those of 1880 by more 
 than §000,000,000. 
 
 In this beautiful section where we are gathered to-day 
 I learn that the rice industry, in its infancy twenty 
 years ago, now employs a vast multitude of men, and 
 more than §12,000,000 of capital. The South is pro- 
 ducing 51,000,000 tons of coal, more than eight times the 
 entire output of the country in 1800. Her pig iron 
 product exceeds that of 1800 by nearly 2,000,000 ions. 
 In 1880 she had but a little more than 20,000 miles of 
 railroad, while to-day 55,000 miles of well built and 
 well managed railways bind together all her sections 
 
The New South. 11 
 
 and tie them, as with ropes of steel, to her sister States 
 throughout the Union. Many sections are manufactur- 
 ing furniture on a large scale. My own State of North 
 Carolina is selling furniture to Grand Rapids itself; 
 many sections arc knitting and weaving; great engines 
 are being built, and great ships from Southern shipyards 
 are plowing the waters of the seas, and carrying the 
 commerce of the nations. In many lines the increase 
 in the South has been proportionately much larger than 
 in other sections. This is especially true in cotton 
 milling. Within twenty years the South has added 
 7. Odd, (100 spindles to her mills, while the addition in 
 other sections has been only 2,000,000 spindles. 
 
 Since 1S00, the number of persons engaged in agri- 
 culture in the South has increased 36 per cent, and the 
 wage-earners in manufacturing have increased in num- 
 ber 157 per cent — both percentages being greater than 
 in the country at large. 
 
 The capita] invested in manufacturing iias increased 
 in the South 348 per cent, against an increase of only 
 252 per cent in the United States — while in the value 
 of products the increase in the South has been U20 per 
 cent, against 142 per cent in the nation. The increase 
 of value in farm property has been in the South 92 per 
 rent, in the United States only 67 per cent. 
 
 Within these ten years the banking resources of the 
 South have been increased by about $300,000,000, aggre- 
 gating now more than $800,000,000. This, with the 
 Large amounts of foreign capital now seeking investment 
 in our midst, has made possible the rapid growth. No- 
 where is this growth more perceptible than in this quaint 
 old city, whose unstinted hospitality we are enjoying. 
 Although retaining much of the flavor of her early days, 
 she is yet beautifully typical of the New South in her 
 
VI The New South. 
 
 commercial activity, in the splendor .of her buildings, in 
 
 the beauty of her paved streets, and in the enterprise of 
 lier people. 
 
 With vast beds of phosphate rock for fertilizers, with 
 boundless acres that produce cotton almost spontane- 
 ously, and with our own mills manufacturing our 
 product, and with cheap labor, may we not safely claim 
 to control the cotton situation of the world? With our 
 hills and mountains stored with coal and iron, with 
 boundless forests everywhere, and with hundreds of 
 natural oil wells gushing forth continuously the cheapest 
 of all fuel, what section can successfully compete with 
 us in iron and steel industries? Zinc and copper, gold 
 and silver and rarest gems abound in many sections. 
 Our granite and marble are unsurpassed in beauty and 
 durability. Oar soil responds readily to cultivation, 
 and our trucking districts are supplying the populous 
 sections of the North with fruits and vegetables. Ours 
 is "a good laud, a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
 and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land 
 of wheat and barley, and vines and tig trees, and pome- 
 granates; a land of oil, olive and honey; a land 
 wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou 
 shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are 
 iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." 
 We have a climate that strengthens and invigorates, 
 it was within our borders that the old Spaniard claimed 
 to have discovered the fountain of perpetual youth. 
 Nature has indeed been lavish in her gifts, and our 
 people are but just awakening to a realization of their 
 possessions. We have room for and we need more peo- 
 ple. Many have come among us, and mingling with us 
 have become "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.** 
 
The New South. 13 
 
 We have the wannest welcome for all who come to unite 
 with us iu developing this land that we love. 
 
 I have said there is no new South. True, the old 
 South of slavery lias passed away and the South of 
 freedom has taken its place. The South of 1860 strove 
 to defend what she conceived to be her rights. But the 
 South of this twentieth century, the Renewed South, if 
 you please, realizes that it was a blessing in disguise 
 that took away her dependence on the slave and the 
 farm, and gave her self reliance and the diversified 
 industries that are to-day blessing our people with plenty 
 and prosperity. The South has learned that not only 
 is the work of the free negro of greater value than that 
 of the slave, but that freeing him has freed the white 
 man from the idea that manual labor was for the negro 
 alone, and rich and poor alike are now training their 
 sons to work. 
 
 We thank God for universal freedom! 
 
 Another great factor in our upbuilding is the edu- 
 cational awakening among our people. Long time we 
 hung our heads in shame and confessed our enormous 
 percentage of illiteracy, but to-day Southern hands and 
 Southern hearts, and Northern hands and Northern 
 hearts are united in their one purpose and effort to edu- 
 cate (/// the people, and more money is being spent for 
 that purpose than ever before in our history. The 
 bright light of education is illumining our Southern 
 skies, and every passing day brings fuller acknowledg- 
 ment of the genius of Southern manhood, in learning, in 
 the arts, in industrial and commercial lines. Only a 
 little while ago a young Southerner, and a college class- 
 mate of mine, from a little country village in North 
 ( Carolina, was called to cultured Boston, where, as editor 
 of the Atlantic Monthly, he tilled with distinction the 
 
14 The New South. 
 
 chair that James Russell Lowell and other New England 
 literary celebrities had been proud to occupy. And 
 never in its distinguished history has that magazine 
 attained higher literary excellence, wider popularity and 
 larger influence than during his occupancy of the edi- 
 torial chair. That young man is to-day making the 
 World's Work, in the city of New York, a mighty factor 
 in the literary and industrial life of the country, and 
 he is one of the recognized leaders in the great educa- 
 tional campaign now waging in the South. Just three 
 weeks ago, at the hands of Grover Cleveland and others, 
 a scholarly young Virginian, Woodrow Wilson, was 
 placed at the head of Princeton College. 
 
 Native Southerners guide the destinies of the National 
 City Bank and the National Bank of Commerce, in New 
 York, leading financial institutions in this country. 
 
 Another Southerner, and North Carolinian, too, is the 
 active head of the English-American Tobacco Company, 
 whose great commercial arms are now reaching out over 
 the civilized world. This young man and his immediate 
 family have recently invested nearly a million dollars 
 in higher education in North Carolina. So, in the sacred 
 pulpit, in the learned professions, in the great banking 
 institutions, in the management of great railways, at 
 the head of the American Bankers' Association, in every 
 line where brain and character and genius count, the 
 sons of the South are found. We are proud of them. 
 Among all our rich possessions, we count as our chiefest 
 and best our loyal sons and daughters. These are our 
 jewels. "Our sons are as plants, grown up in their 
 youth ; our daughters as corner stones, polished after 
 the similitude of a palace." 
 
 There is another matter which has been misunder- 
 stood, and perhaps ought not to be omitted in this discus- 
 
The New South. 15 
 
 sion. Another war is being waged. Another declara- 
 tion of independence lias been proclaimed, and is being 
 defended. It is the emancipation of the white man. 
 When the great Lincoln issued his proclamation of free 
 dom, the world applauded. The most intense Southerner 
 to-day rejoices that the negro's freedom was accom- 
 plished. But scarcely any well informed person is now 
 found who does not recognize that an egregious mistake 
 was made when, through the ballot, the balance of 
 political power was placed in the hands of a mass of 
 ignorant people, without the least conception of the 
 meaning of government. The South honors the negro. 
 She can never forget the loyal fidelity with which he 
 stood by the old home, and by the women and children 
 when the husbands and fathers and sons were gone to 
 the war. 
 
 Longing for freedom, and knowing the meaning of the 
 battle that was waging, he never failed in his devotion 
 to the interest of his old master. History records no 
 similar devotion among any people. The South can not 
 forget these things, and because of them she gives the 
 negro her sincerest friendship. But she believes that 
 the best interests of both races demand that the control 
 of government should be in the hands of intelligent men. 
 and it is to this end that recent constitutional changes 
 have been made, and educational restrictions imposed. 
 And thus in various ways we are undergoing the process 
 of a new emancipation. 
 
 Already the benefits are manifest in the impetus that 
 has been given to the cause of education. And, unless 
 our wisest men are mistaken, a few years will convince 
 the world of the wisdom of what now seems to be rather 
 heroic action. Let criticism be withheld until results 
 
16 The New South. 
 
 are seen. We ask your patience, and we claim your con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Time works wonderful changes in our ideas. The 
 youngest of us remembers when the prejudice against 
 Northern men was very bitter, and when the name of 
 the great man who issued the proclamation of freedom 
 was cordially haled by many in the South. Not so in 
 this good day. Around me I see men and women of 
 every section — men and women of the South and of the 
 North. Not many of these were among those who drew 
 the sword and fought each other, but they are the sous 
 and daughters of those grand old heroes who wore the 
 blue, and equally grand old heroes who wore the gray. 
 u*e sit together here under the same flag, at perfect 
 peace — and we rejoice together that we are one people, 
 cue in spirit, one in purpose, one in devotion to our com- 
 mon country. 
 
 At a meeting of the New England Society in New 
 York City in 1887, the eloquent Southerner, Henry AY. 
 Grady, said that Abraham Lincoln was the first typical 
 American, containing within himself all the strength 
 aud gentleness, all the majesty and grace of the Repub- 
 lic, that in his ardent nature were found the virtues of 
 both the Virginia Cavalier and the New England Puri- 
 tan, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both 
 were lost. 
 
 The North applauded these words, and the South 
 adopted and re-echoed them as her own. From that 
 day to this, stronger and stronger has grown the tie of 
 Union, weaker and weaker the bar of separation, until 
 iii our common grief around McKinley's bier the last 
 trace of the imaginary line that separated us was wiped 
 out forever, and we became one and indissoluble — a 
 
The New South. 17 
 
 reunited country. What God hath joined together, let 
 not man put asunder! 
 
 Then, if all these things are true; if the South, after 
 bravely fighting for what she conceived to be her rights, 
 laid down her arms in submission to her stronger .foe; 
 if then, instead of sulking in her tent, she raised the 
 "stars and stripes" above her head, and proclaimed to 
 the world that these were her colors; if, when her conn- 
 try called to arms again, she sent her bravest and best, 
 giving the first blood in Worth Bagley, and unsurpassed 
 instances of courage and bravery in her Hobson and her 
 Bine and her Shipp, and in those grand old veterans, 
 Joe Wheeler and Fitzhugh Lee; if her sons and daugh- 
 ters have now turned their hands to lines of industry, 
 and are building up the material interests of the conn- 
 try; if she has sent her Hendrix and her Stillman, her 
 Carlisle, her Duke ami her Rushton to manage the great 
 financial institutions of the metropolitan cities; if she 
 has sent her sons to direct the great railway systems 
 that are building up the waste places; if she has giver. 
 her lawyers to interpret the law, her editors and scholars 
 to teach the people, and her ministers to point out the 
 way of life; if in all these things she has proven her 
 loyalty and her worthiness, and has been received as an 
 equal, is it not time that she should lie given, too, a 
 political equality, and that we hear no more the cry that 
 this or that man, worthy though he may be of the very 
 highest honors, must be ignored because, forsooth, he is 
 a Southern man? Away with such inconsistency! Away 
 with sectionalism forever ! Let our topic be no more the 
 North or the South, but forevermore, "The Union. r 
 We are brethren, let us live as such. And henceforth. 
 in this glad land of the free, let men be recognized for 
 fitness only, and not because of their local habitation. 
 
j,s The New South. 
 
 I have now tried to tell you what the South was, and 
 what she is to-day. I would that I might lift the veil 
 that hides the future and reveal to you what she shall 
 be. If from the depths and desolation of such abject 
 poverty she has risen with such vigor and strength, and, 
 with such scant resources, has accomplished so much 
 during the past twenty years, what may we not expect 
 from the record of the next decade, starting as it does 
 from the vantage ground of present prosperity, with 
 our vast accumulations and our unlimited credit, with 
 our countless mills and factories, and with the easier 
 access, which the Isthmian canal will give us, to the 
 markets of the Orient, whose teeming millions are in 
 need of the very supplies that we can most readily fur- 
 nish? It has not entered into the mind of man to con- 
 ceive what the coming years shall bring. The future is 
 bright with hope. Let us go forward, then, realizing 
 that to whom much is given, of them much shall be 
 required. 
 
 Relying upon the Divine Leader, and upon the strong 
 arm of the American people, let us take our place at the 
 head of the nations of the earth and put forth every 
 effort to make this country of ours a beacon light — an 
 object lesson, illustrating the grandeur of a republic — 
 spreading the light of American civilization, and inspir- 
 ing men everywhere with a love of freedom and of right. 
 

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