The News And Observer

Monuments, And Anniversaries.

Economist.

We need monuments and anniversaries. Monuments commemorate the men who have signalized our history. Anniversaries commemorate the great events of our history. A country that has no men whose memories are worth perpetuating in the most enduring materials and that has no event in its history that is worth commemorating by anniversary celebration, is poor indeed. A country that is not thus mindful of its dead sons does not deserve the love of its living sons. Has North Carolina been true to its patriotism and its duty? Has the Albemarle section been true? We acknowledge with humiliation that they have not. Has the landing of Sir Walter Raleigh's colony on Roanoke Island, the first event in our history, ever been commemorated by an anniversary celebration. It deserves it. It was the most important and the proudest step in the march of the Anglo-Saxon race to the supremacy of all races. It was a conquest of empire by that race which has been the most stalwart agent in the civilization of the world. It is an event in the history of America, in the history of North Carolina, in the history of the Albemarle section, about which there is no historical controversy. Coming down through the long lapse of minor events we come to the heroic period in the history of our country when three millions of people threw off colonial dependence upon Great Britain and appealed to the God of battles to vindicate their claims to independence and a separate government. It was a quasi civil conflict in which our people were arrayed in opposition. It was a desperate and a doubtful conflict. Opinions were cautiously expressed. Public bodies were divided as to the policy of declaring independence of Great Britain. At such a time when men hesitated and friends were hostile and there were spies in every community, the wardens and vestrymen of Saint Paul's parish in solemn assembly, on the 19th of June 1775, declared, not a declaration of independence and separation, but a protest against the right of Great Britain to impose taxes upon the colonies or to regulate their internal policy, and that all such attempts ought to be resisted to the utmost, and a declaration of obedience to the 'acts and resolutions of the Continental Provincial Congress' because in both, the colonies were fully represented by persons chosen by themselves, and they pledged themselves to support these declarations to the 'utmost of their power and ability' and to this they pledged their 'honor, their virtue and their sacred love of liberty and their country.' Now there is no historical controversy over this declaration of supreme obedience to the authorities of the Colonies and to sustain them in their declarations. This declaration, manly and defiant in its terms, was made more than a year before the Declaration of Independence, it was made by a body bound to Great Britain by the double tie of political dependence and religious faith, and is still preserved as a record of the representatives of the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the community. This declaration and protest of the wardens and vestrymen of St. Paul's parish, and the Declaration at Mecklenburg in May 1775, are the only declarations of principles of a Revolutionary character by any public bodies in North Carolina. The Mecklenburg declaration, is, unfortunately, in dispute. The declaration and protest of the parish of Edenton, is an absolute record beyond cavil or controversy. These two events in our history should be commemorated by anniversary celebrations.

Should we not have monuments of our most distinguished men? Do not some of those who came to Roanoke with the Anglo-Saxon pioneers deserve a monument? Does not John Harvey deserve a monument? Does not Nat Macon deserve a monument? Does not John Ashe deserve a monument? Does not James Iredell the elder deserve a monument? Does not William Gaston deserve a monument? Does not George W. Brooks deserve a monument? Would we not be better men, more patriotic, more ambitious and more virtuous, if we had more anniversaries of our historical events and more monuments of those who made our history?