  TAMPA ROBINS The robin laughed in the orange-tree: February First The Emperor of France made him Commander of the Legion of Honor; The Emperor of Russia, Knight of the Order of St. Ann; the King of Denmark, Knight of the Dannebrog; the King of Portugal, Knight of the Tower and Sword; the King of Belgium, Knight of the Order of St. Leopold; simultaneously with Tennyson, he was awarded an LL.D. by the University of Cambridge, England; he received honorary membership from a score of the world’s leading societies of science and scholarship; the Pope conferred upon him a noteworthy testimonial; the Emperor of Mexico gave him a decoration; and Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Holland, Sardinia, Bremen, and France struck medals in his honor as the greatest scientist of the New World, and the peer of any in the Old. The government of his own country, says Professor Francis H. Smith, has “carefully omitted his name in official records of the departments he created”; nor is it even given a place among the many inscribed in the mighty mosaic of our National Library. Matthew Fontaine Maury dies at Lexington, Va., 1873 Texas secedes, 1861 February Second MAURY’S LAST WISH “Home—bear me home, at last,” he said, February Third Snow! Snow! Snow! (In welcoming “The Forthcoming Volume” of the poems of his fellow soldier, fellow patriot, and fellow artist, SIDNEY LANIER) Sidney Lanier born, 1842 Albert Sidney Johnston born, 1803 February Fourth What a beneficent provision of the Creator it was, to roll our little planet but one side at a time next the sun, that while one half of the world fretted and stormed and sinned, the other half might repent and sleep. William Alexander Carruthers February Fifth MAURY The stars had secrets for him; seas February Sixth General John B. Gordon Patriot, soldier, statesman, John B. Gordon born, 1832 John Pegram killed near Hatcher’s Run, 1865 February Seventh And there’s Joe—my bully Joe—wouldn’t I walk ten miles of a rainy night to see them hazel eyes, and feel the grip of his soldier hand? Didn’t my rooster always clap his wings and crow whenever he passed our quarters? “Instinct told him that he was the true prince,” and it would make anybody brave to be nigh him. Major Charles H. Smith Joseph E. Johnston born, 1807 February Eighth Hath not the morning dawned with added light? Southern Confederacy begins to assume definite form in a league of seven Southern States, 1861 February Ninth The great change wrought by the States in resuming their sovereignty, and in forming the Confederate States Government, was attended by no anarchy, no rebellion, no suspension of authority, no social disorders, no lawless disturbances. Sovereignty was not, for one moment, in suspension. Conservatism marked every proceeding and public act. The object was to do what was necessary and no more; and to do that with the utmost temperance and prudence. J. L. M. Curry William H. Harrison born, 1773 February Tenth You say we shall submit to your construction. We shall do it, if you can make us; but not otherwise, or in any other manner. That is settled. You may call it secession, or you may call it revolution; but there is a big fact standing before you, ready to oppose you. That fact is freemen with arms in their hands. The cry of the Union will not disperse them; we have passed that point. They demand equal rights; you had better heed the demand. Robert Toombs February Eleventh Equality does not exist between blacks and whites. The one race is inferior in many respects, physically and mentally, to the other. This should be received as a fixed invincible fact in all dealings with the subject. Alexander H. Stephens I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. Abraham Lincoln Alexander H. Stephens born in Georgia, 1812 February Twelfth Those who would shiver into fragments the Union of these States, tear to tatters its now venerated constitution, and even burn the last copy of the Bible, rather than slavery should continue a single hour, together with all their more halting sympathizers, have received, and are receiving their just execration; and the name and opinion and influence of Mr. Clay are fully and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly arrayed against them. Abraham Lincoln The abolitionists were always the fiercest opponents of colonization. The practical improvement of the negro, in his native country, did not suit them so well as the impracticable idea of equalizing black men with white in a strange land. George Lunt Abraham Lincoln born in Kentucky, 1809 Gradual emancipation of slaves discussed at Maysville, Ky., 1849 February Thirteenth SAINT VALENTINE’S EVE Thou wouldst be loved? then let thy heart Florida admitted to the Union, 1845 February Fourteenth A Northern Tribute to the College of Jefferson, Monroe, Tyler, and Marshall As a matter of comparison we have lately read that from William and Mary College, Virginia, thirty-two out of thirty-five professors and instructors abandoned the college work and joined the army in the field. Harvard College sent one professor from its large corps of professors and instructors. General Charles A. Whittier The charter of William and Mary College granted, 1693 February Fifteenth DETERMINING THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE NEW BOARDER “I will illustrate by an incident,” said Mrs. Paynter. “As I say, this young man spends his entire time in his room, where he is, I believe, engaged in writing a book.” “Oh, me! Then he’s penniless, depend upon it!” Henry Sydnor Harrison Cyrus Hall McCormick born, 1809 February Sixteenth A chicken that had done duty at a previous repast was set before the Rev. Scervant Jones, the first Baptist preacher of Williamsburg, Virginia, at the tavern of a Mr. Howl. Upon which the Reverend gentleman pronounced the following blessing: “Good Lord of love Fort Donelson surrenders, 1862 February Seventeenth A NORTHERN VIEW * * * It was the most monstrous barbarity of the barbarous march. There is no reason to think that General Sherman knew anything of the purpose to burn the city, which had been freely talked about among the soldiers through the afternoon. But there is reason to think that he knew well enough who did it, that he never rebuked it, and made no effort to punish it. Whitelaw Reid Sherman burns Columbia, 1865 February Eighteenth We have changed the constituent parts, but not the system of our government. The Constitution formed by our fathers is that of the Confederate States, in their exposition of it; and, in the judicial construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its true meaning. Jefferson Davis Jefferson Davis inaugurated, 1861 Federal forces enter Charleston, S. C., 1865 February Nineteenth Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free February Twentieth After the passage of the Anti-Ku Klux Statute by the State of Tennessee, several instances occurred of parties being arrested in Ku Klux disguises; but in every case they proved to be either negroes or “radical” Brownlow Republicans. This occurred so often that the statute was allowed by the party in power to become a dead letter before its repeal. It bore too hard on the “loyal” men when enforced. J. C. Lester and D. L. Wilson As the young German patriots of 1812 organized their struggle for liberty under the noses of the garrisons of Napoleon, so these daring men, girt by thousands of bayonets, discussed and adopted under the cover of darkness the ritual of “The Invisible Empire.” Thomas Dixon, Jr. Governor Brownlow of Tennessee calls out the militia to suppress the Ku Klux Klan, 1869 Federal troops defeated at Olustee, Fla., 1864 February Twenty-First The Ku Klux Klan was a great Law and Order League of mounted night cavalrymen called into action by the intolerable conditions of a reign of terror.... It was the old answer of organized manhood to organized crime masquerading under the forms of government.... Women and children had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not. Over four hundred thousand disguises for men and horses were made by the women of the South, and not one secret ever passed their lips! Thomas Dixon, Jr. The View of a “Reconstructionist” The Ku Klux Order was a daring conception for a conquered people. Only a race of warlike instincts and regal pride could have conceived or executed it. Men, women, and children must have, and be worthy of, implicit mutual trust. They must be trusted with the secrets of life and death without reserve and without fear. Judge Albion W. Tourgee February Twenty-Second First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting. Henry Lee George Washington born, 1732 February Twenty-Third Won in the Name of Virginia; Governor Patrick Henry to Colonel George Rogers Clark: “You are to retain the Command of the troops now at the several posts in the county of Illinois and on the Wabash, which fall within the limits of the County now erected and called Illinois County.... You are also to take the Command of five other Companies, raised under the act of Assembly which I send herewith, and which if completed, as I hope they will be speedily, will have orders to join you without loss of time, and are likewise to be under your command.... The honor and interest of the State are deeply concerned in this.” George Rogers Clark appears before Vincennes, 1779 Battle of Buena Vista; Col. Jefferson Davis wounded, 1847 Mississippi readmitted to the Union, 1870 February Twenty-Fourth The importance of this brilliant exploit was destined to be far greater than even Clark foresaw, for when the treaty of peace was being negotiated at Paris in 1782, our allies, France and Spain, were both more than willing to sacrifice our interests in order to keep us out of the Mississippi Valley, and the western boundary of the United States would undoubtedly have been fixed at the Alleghanies instead of the Mississippi, but for the fact that this western region was actually occupied by Virginians. S. C. Mitchell The vast Northwest had been thus won by a heroic band of volunteers, led by one of the most dauntless warriors that ever risked life for country. Thomas E. Watson George Rogers Clark stipulates to Governor Hamilton the terms of surrender of the Northwestern territory, 1779 February Twenty-Fifth From Inscription on tablet in St. Michael’s Church, Charleston, South Carolina. “As a Statesman Charles Cotesworth Pinckney born, 1746 February Twenty-Sixth IN THE PETERSBURG TRENCHES Winter poured down its snows and its sleets upon Lee’s shelterless men in the trenches. Some of them burrowed into the earth. Most of them shivered over the feeble fires, kept burning along the lines. Scanty and thin were the garments of these heroes. Most of them were clad in mere rags. Gaunt famine oppressed them every hour. One quarter of a pound of bacon and a little meal was the daily portion assigned to each man by the rules of the War Department. But even this allowance failed when the railroads broke down and left the bacon and the flour piled up beside the tracks in Georgia and the Carolinas. One sixth of this daily ration was the allotment for a considerable time, and very often the supply of bacon failed entirely.... Henry A. White February Twenty-Seventh We follow where the Swamp Fox guides, Francis Marion dies, 1795 Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, N. C., 1776 February Twenty-Eighth The war began, the war went on—this politicians’ conspiracy, this slaveholders’ rebellion, as it was variously called by those who sought its source, now in the disappointed ambition of the Southern leaders, now in the desperate determination of a slaveholding oligarchy to perpetuate their power, and to secure forever their proprietorship in their “human chattels.” On this theory the mass of the Southern people were but puppets in the hands of political wirepullers, or blind followers of hectoring “patricians.” To those who know the Southern people nothing can be more absurd; to those who know their personal independence, to those who know the deep interest which they have always taken in politics, the keen intelligence with which they have always followed the questions of the day. Basil L. Gildersleeve February Twenty-Ninth THE LAND WHERE WE WERE DREAMING Fair were our nation’s visions, and as grand |
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