striking events of the war have not found a notice even in a North Carolina newspaper. It was the unsupported charge of a North Carolina brigade that repulsed. Foster with his twenty-two thousand men at Goldsboro. That same brigade took the most prominent part in the defense of Battery Wagner and Sullivan's Island, and gave that confidence to the commanders at Charleston that insured the successful defense of the harbor and city. The charge of two of its regiments at Drury's Bluff, completely routed General Butler's whole command, and drove it to Bermuda Hundreds, to be there "bottled up." This brigade, with the loss of one-third of its members on the evening of June the 1st, 1864, preserved the important position of Cold Harbor to General Lee, though in consequence of the giving way of the troops on its left, it was compelled at the same time to fight enemies in front, flank and rear. On the 17th of June, 1864, at Petersburg, when two brigades on its right fled precipitately, and left a mile of open space through which a portion of the enemy passed, it drove them backunaided it repulsed, in succession, twelve charges made by the combined corps of Smith and Burnside, forty-three thousand strong, and held the position until the enemy abandoned the contest. On the 19th of August, south of Petersburg, in a successful charge, it captured three times as many prisoners as it then numbered soldiers in its ranks. Up to this time, though it, during one period of three weeks, lost considerably more than half as many men by wounds in battle, as it ever had present at one time for duty, it was never broken by any attack. These facts are known to thousands, and cannot be, therefore, ignored or forgotten. It is but a small tribute to the courage and gallant deeds of these brave men, that I should to-day refer to some of their actions. North Carolina gave to the Confederacy more than one hundred and twenty thousand men, who, man for man, rank with any that in past ages have, embattled, stood for king or cause, for liberty or native land.

Nothing in modern warfare has approached the impetuous dash of the Confederate charge. The great Athenian rush of Marathon was again and again repeated on a far grander scale, with an utter disregard of dauger, and an uncalculating devotion to their cause never previously seen in battle. Complete physical exhaustion alone arrested the movement.

Though our soldiers fell in a cause that was unsuccessful, they will not for that be forgotten. Sir William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered, but not for this has his memory been lost to Scotland. The thirty thousand gallant men who gave their lives for the protec tion and the honor of their State, for their name and their race, will not fade from the memories of their countrymen of future ages. For the consolation of their friends let it be remembered that whosoever for the cause of truth "will lose his life, shall find it," and that they who "forsake houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, wife, or children, or lands, shall receive an hundred fold, and everlasting life."

If, then, we have in the past done our duty as a people, how ought we to meet the future? Not by merely railing at those with whom,

by our surrender, we admitted that we were not in a condition longer to continue the contest. Not by blustering after the fashion of a few among us, who seem vexed with themselves now, because in the hour of danger they did not earnestly aid us, and are striving to recover consideration which they seem to fear they have lost. Still farther be it from us to form secret bands, and in disguise, in the night-time, to make covert attacks on defenseless individuals of any race. From the day when such a movement, years ago, first overspread a large part of our country, I have regarded secret political organizations as the most mischievous and corrupting of all human inventions. The deluded. and ignorant men who were drawn into the Ku-Klux and other secret societies, by men in whom they had confidence, are entitled to sympathy. When I have seen them, by the hundred, dragged over the State as prisoners, I have felt the strongest indignation against the originators of the movement, who so meanly shrunk from avowing their responsibility. Had he who first introduced the organization into the State, or assumed control of it, been possessed of a single emotion of honor or manliness, when he saw his deluded followers dragged about by deputy marshals, he would have left his hiding place, and, like Virgil's warrior, have exclaimed: "Adsum qui feci; in me convertite ferrum." By such an act he would not only have released his followers, but, to some extent, entitled himself to respect and consideration.

To continue such a secret organization to control the distribution of offices in the State, is little less dishonorable. When men, while professing to be members of a great open political party, form a secret inside combination for such a purpose, they can only be looked upon as treacherous conspirators against associates with whom they pretend to be acting on terms of fairness and equality. I advise you, gentlemen, as you wish to retain your own self-respect, and as you hope to be useful to your country, as you desire the approval of good men, and of Powers higher than all earthly things, avoid such complications. When in doubt as to your public duties, it may be well to ask yourself, "If all this should become known, what would my enemies say? what could my friends think of such a transaction?"

What we now have to do, is to build up the prosperity of the State again. I fear that many are too despondent to do their full share in this great work. A horse disheartened does not draw the vehicle, a man discouraged accomplishes little, a people demoralized seldom prospers. Our noble women have, by their conduct, told us what we ought to do. Before the war, it seemed to me that nothing could add to the respect and admiration I felt for them; but when, during the great struggle, I witnessed their resignation under privations, their sacrifices and their labors, and have since observed how, under defeat and poverty, they have not failed in every honorable and proper work for their hands, I admire and reverence them far more than I ever did in the days of our prosperity. If every one of us would, for five years, labor as earnestly as we generally did during the war, and live as economically, we should be, at the end of that period, far in advance of what we now are.

You may say it is impossible to bring our community up to this. Then, at least, let us striveto come as near it as we can. When in the midst of labor that is vexatious or oppressive, nothing comes so frequently, perhaps, into the mind as the words, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." Those whom St. John saw continually before the throne, arrayed in white robes, were "they which came out of great tribulation; they hunger no more, neither thirst any more;" and there they will remain forever.

A thousand instances prove that a great pressure of evil, borne with fortitude, prepares us for future triumph. When their town had been burnt by the Gauls, the Romans did not abandon it, but having expelled the invaders, by their energy rebuilt it, and in time made it the first city in the world. The Jews, though wanderers for thousands of years, have retained their faith and their traditions. Even the Gipsies, rambling for a like period among many peoples and nations, have, in spite of their ignorance and poverty, preserved their identity. As we have made a fair and manly contest to maintain the political, industrial and social conditian, which came down to us from our fathers, why should we indulge in vain regrets? Abandoning, as far as possible, all gloomy thoughts, let us, stimulated by past recollections of prosperity and honor, look to the future. Though the lines of this generation have not fallen in pleasant places, we may lay broad and deep the foundations of prosperity and happiness for those who are to come after us.

66

The same system of laws in the future must operate on us and also on the citizens of the Northern States. In the past we did not fear to compete with them on terms of equality, either in civil or military enterprises. After listening to the eloquent speech of a Southern Senator, John G. Palfrey, an Abolition member from Massachusetts, turning round, said to me, "It is by just such speeches that you have kept your foot on our necks for seventy years. When one said to Mr. Seward, there are ten Northern men in California to one from the South; are you not willing to leave the question of slavery to the majority, when you have ten to one?" "No," he replied, "if we had five hundred to one, you would then beat us." Such declarations from those politically unfriendly, show at least that we need not dread competition in the walks of peaceful life. In war, we point to the names and deeds of Washington, Jackson, Harrison, Scott and Taylor, in the past, and later to such actions of the Southern soldiery as rise of themselves before your minds.

We have still, more than fifty thousand square miles of territory, not inferior, perhaps as a whole, to any country of equal extent. We have yet on our eastern border those broad bays and sounds, abundantly stored with such wealth as the sea contains. There are still those large bodies of alluvial lands, not inferior in fertility to the lowlands of Holland, or the Delta of Egypt. We yet have that long and broad belt of sandy loam, capable of producing wine enough for the wants of an hundred millions of people. Above this extends for nearly three hundred miles, an undulating country, that with proper tillage yields abundantly. We have also that large mountain region,

which, though it does not possess the grandeur and sublimity that renders the Alps the palaces of nature, excels them in beauty and immeasurably surpasses them in fertility, the richness of its vegetation and its adaption to minister to the wants of man. Our State possesses, in the greatest abundance and variety, all the best forest trees, with inexhaustible water power, and a fair share of useful minerals. Whatever could be produced in any one of the thirteen States, can be furnished with profit in some parts of North Carolina. Let us, then, teach the rising generation that industry and frugality are better than riches, that truth and honor, virtue and religion, will endure longer than the earth itself.

If the minds of our people are fully imbued with these great and noble ideas, if we continue in the future such earnest, energetic and grand efforts as in the past we made for our political rights, our social system, and to sustain that character for courage and honor which was transmitted to us by the actions of heroic ancestors, we shall yet place North Carolina abreast of the foremost communities of the globe.

THE GREAT METEOR OF 1860.

By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN.

[Published in APPLETON'S JOURNAL, January 7th, 1871.]

On the 2d of August, 1860, I was at Asheville, Buncombe county, in the picturesque mountain region of North Carolina. On the evening of that day I retired to my room a little after ten o'clock. The moon was full and approaching the meridian, and the night was clear and bright. There was a window on the west side of the room, covered by a white curtain. The candle having been extinguished, my attention was suddenly arrested by a bright glare of light. It was much brighter than a candle would have been, and seemed like a sheet of flame against the window, but before I reached it the light suddenly changed its color and became beautifully white. The thought at once flashed upon me that it must be a meteor, and I saw its outline through the curtain as it exploded in the northwest., The light, at the moment of explosion, seemed as white as that produced by the burning of the metal magnesium. During the whole period that I observed the light it was greater than hundreds of moons would have caused.

On the next day I made inquiries of many persons who had seen the meteor. It was observed by a large number, because the evening was that of the election day, and also because there was a party of gentlemen on horseback in the town to receive General Lane, whose coming was expected. They all concurred in saying that the meteor was first seen in the southeast, but at a point nearer to the south than the east, that it moved toward the northwest, and when due west of Asheville appeared to be at an elevation of forty or forty-five degrees, and that it seemed

to explode in the northwest, with a great display of light. Most persons regarded it as appearing to be equal in size to the full moon, and all agreed in saying that the moonlight was nothing in comparison with its brightness. When first seen in the southeast, it seemed of a dull or pale red color, and became brighter as it moved along, until it resembled the sunlight.

Persons from the surrounding country made similar statements as to its appearance. Colonel C. M. Avery, who saw it while in Morganton, sixty miles to the east of Asheville, described it as not materially different in position and aspect; while persons in Franklin, seventy miles west of Asheville, spoke of it in similar terms, except that it seemed to them higher in the heavens to the west, and more nearly over them. In a few days the newpapers from Knoxville, Tennessee, and from Columbia, South Carolina, came to hand, with similar descriptions, representing the meteor as having passed on the west side of both of those places. When the Raleigh Register arrived from the east, it contained a very clear and minute description of it from the pen of Mr. B. F. Moore, one of our most eminent lawyers. In a few days I saw descriptions of the meteor in two successive numbers of the New York Herald, of the dates of August 7th and 9th. These numbers contained extracts from newspapers, and also letters from various persons, at points widely distant, and covering a great extent of territory.

The most easterly notices were from Guiney Post Office, Caroline county, Virginia, and from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and the most westerly, from Montgomery, Alabama, Holly Springs, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee. The telegraphic correspondents said next day that it had been seen simultaneously at New Orleans, Memphis, Cairo, etc.; and while, according to the statement of two of the papers at Nashville, it was seen to the east of that city, it appeared to pass on the west of Cincinnati, and several other places north and east of it in Ohio. The course of the meteor would seem to have been along a track nearly over the State line between South Carolina and Georgia, then directly above the county of Habersham, in the latter State, near the western extremity of North Carolina, very little to the east of Athens, Tennessee, but west of Knoxville and Cincinnati, and east of Nashville. I will, in the first place, ask attention to the facts bearing on the subject of the height of the meteor while visible. Raleigh, North Carolina, and Holly Springs, Mississippi, are at least six hundred miles from each other. A few days after I read Mr. Moore's precise and elaborate statement, he and I went to the spot where he had stood at the time he saw the meteor. By means of certain trees and houses, he was able to indicate the line along which it had traveled. By taking the directions with the aid of a compass, it was shown that he observed the meteor when it was twenty-four degrees south of west, and that the point where it was last seen by him was also when it was twenty-four degrees north of west. He saw it continuously as it passed over these forty-eight degrees, but, Holly Springs being a little south of west only, he necessarily saw it at the time when it was in the direction of that place, and he estimated its height as being thirty degrees above the horizon.

From Holly Springs we have a carefully prepared and apparently very accurate statement from Mr. J. H. Ingraham, corroborated by the