ConclusionThe Spirit of Christmas Past A friend recently had a look at my "Spirit of Christmas Past" pages and sent me a note saying it was depressing. I do hope that a feeling of despair is not drawn from these pages. As with the three
Confederate Soldiers - "Passing of The Standard." Photos from Parade held in my hometown November13, 1999 The changes in thoughts and feelings between the North and The South by the beginning of the 1900's are so great. We, on this side of the line, have long since forgiven the war and its inevitable hardships.
Yet it would be foolish to deny that bitternesses ever existed. We as a complete people have chosen
to cast them behind us and thank the powers of the universe that they exist no longer.
Which of us was right? Which was wrong? There is in my mind no reason to brand either side as wrong.
Sad as it may seem, our great moral conflict in the last analysis, boils down to a question of dollars and cents.
The South's lifeline being in agriculture, the loss of slave labor, in the eyes of a Southerner, would bring complete disaster and devastation to the country. By the abolition of slavery alone four thousand- million dollars worth of property was wiped out of existence.We of the South honestly believed that we were fighting for States Rights, while the North is equally honest in the conviction that it was fighting to free the slaves.
Now that we have seen how much more can be accomplished by peaceful co-operation, and a greater respect and understanding of human rights we wonder how it could have ever come to pass.
"ghosts" of Charles Dickens, past, present, and future; in order to
take steps in the right direction in the future, we sometimes have to take a look at where we have been.
"Pride of Dixie"
We teach the children of The South to honor and revere the civilization of their ancestors. That it is good to feel you belong to a people and to a land that you have a right to be proud of. I had
hoped to set forth an understanding that through all the hardship
and suffering we emerged with an even stronger love of our people
and of our beloved Dixieland. With all things considered, it is doubtful whether the world has ever produced a more thoroughly wholesome, happy, and joyous life than existed in the Old South.There is an old Rebel saying, that probably every true Southerner has committed to memory:And rise it did. Some idea of the poverty and distress to which our people were reduced as a result of the war may be gathered from the fact that the aggregate wealth of Georgia, estimated at the last"Save your confederate money boys . . . . The South's gonna rise again." census before the war, was in round numbers $672,000,000. After forty-five years of struggle and effort, in 1907, the estimated wealth of the state fell short by some $30,000,000 of what it was in 1860. (The War-Time Journal Of A Georgia Girl -Eliza Andrews)The war between-the-states was a Southern tragedy honorably overcome. Never in all history, have people recovered so completely from overwhelming adversity as did The South.
A "probationary tax" was placed on our cotton, robbing us of the last resource the war had left us. Our ancestors were discriminated against for half a century, still we survived to see the land we love lifted out of the depths of poverty to a pinnacle of prosperity."Shall I speak to my children
of wars past..and of wars yet to be?
I cannot know the horror, for I
have never been there.""But I shall speak to them of
peace, and of the high price so many have paid for it."
Confederate Flags Over Louisiana-11/13/99
Back Next Guestbook Before leaving the Spirit of Christmas Past You are invited to read, in my most humble opinion,
"You Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie."
