"In regard to
your first communication touching the burning of Plymouth you seem to
have forgotten two things. You forget, sir, that you are a Yankee and
that Plymouth is a Southern town. It is no business of yours if we
choose to burn our own towns. A meddling Yankee troubles himself with
everybody's matters but his own and repents of everybody's sins except
his own. We are a different people. Should the Yankees burn a Union
village in Connecticut or a codfish town in Massachusetts we would not
meddle with them but rather bid them God-speed in their work of
purifying the atmosphere."
Gentlemen of the Historical Society of Mecklenburg (1876):
Our president has appropriately introduced the series of historical
lectures with the inquiry, why so few have attempted to preserve the
record of the great events in the history of
North Carolina,
and to embalm the memories of the illustrious actors therein. Perhaps,
it may not be amiss in me to pursue the same line of thought. For, if
the neglect of our past history be due to the lack of materials, then
our organization is in vain, and our time and our labor will be thrown
away. The truth, however, is that our materials have been rich and
lustrous, and the causes which have led to the neglect of them can only
be explained by an examination into the characteristics of our people
and those surroundings which have moulded their thoughts and their
actions.
We look for an explanation of this neglect, in part, to the influence exerted in the
State
by the Scotch-Irish population. These people have ever been
God-fearing, law-loving, law-abiding, honest, truthful, energetic and
courageous; but they are, to the last degree unpoetic and averse to
hero-worship. They never canonize saints, nor idolize warriors and
statesmen. This rugged race bore the brunt of the contest in
North Carolina.
They fought the battles of freedom for freedom’s sake, and when that
guerdon was won, they cared not to exalt the merits or the prowess of
this or that leader, each conscious of his own equal worthiness. The
Scotch-Irish disdained the laudations of heroes as much as their great
religious leader,
John Knox,
disdained “to fear the face of mortal man.” Such a people would be slow
to build monuments, erect statues and write histories to commemorate
deeds of high emprise. Perhaps, this self-reliant, self-asserting and
unsentimental people would regard everything that looked like
hero-worship as unmanly and contemptible.
