But first, some background is needed.
The old Jackson County Courthouse in Sylva, North Carolina is touted as the most photographed courthouse in North Carolina. And I can believe that.
I’ve photographed it many times myself. And I’ve gathered vintage postcards featuring the structure.
Having resided in the Cullowhee Valley and Cowee Mountains for “several” decades I suppose I’ve SEEN the courthouse thousands of times, though mostly in my rear-view mirror. And it will continue that way until the highway engineers finally devise a plan to have the one-way stretch of Main Street run TOWARD, rather than AWAY FROM, the attractive historical building.
The star of the scene, however, must be the long, long stairway ascending from the fountain on Main Street. I remember driving , and even walking, to the top of the hill to find the courtroom, or Clerk of Court, Register of Deeds, Sheriff’s Department, County Jail, Employment Security and several other government departments as I recall.
Local government back then looked a little dilapidated and penurious, especially compared to today’s burgeoning facilities.
When first I came to Sylva, the stairway on that hill brought to mind the Laurel and Hardy movie where the duo struggles to move a crated piano up a precipitous flight of stairs, at great peril to themselves, innocent bystanders and the musical instrument itself.
That is not what I intended to write about although I have more to add on the subject...eventually.
What I intended to write about was a speech delivered atop the courthouse stairway on Sept 18, 1915.
On that date, General Theodore F. Davidson addressed those who had gathered for the dedication of the Confederate Soldiers Monument.
Why bring up that event now?
Because the monument at the center of that 1915 ceremony, returned to the top of the local news this week. To recap as succinctly as possible:
1915 - The monument, topped with a statue of a Confederate soldier, was installed and dedicated
2020 – Activists mobilized to demand the removal of the Confederate Soldiers Monument
2021 – After deliberation by the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, the monument and statue remained. New bronze plaques were attached to the sides of the monument, covering the original inscriptions.
2025 – The current Jackson Commissioners ordered removal of the bronze plaques, restoring the monument to its original appearance. In response, activists have renewed their calls to remove the monument.
That is where we are as of this week.
A lot of ink has been spilled on the controversy, on the origins of the monument and the alleged intent of its builders. So, I will limit myself to adding just ONE obscure document to flesh out the story.
Several years ago, knowing that the dedication of the monument was such a Big Deal in 1915, I suspected and hoped that the text of the keynote speech had survived somewhere. And, EUREKA!, much of the speech is included in an article published the following day in the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper, reprinted in its entirety herein.
But, let’s return for a moment to my distracted musings over mental images of Laurel and Hardy on the steps of Courthouse Hill.
It is no wonder that “The Music Box” released in 1932, was etched in my memory. It earned the first Academy Award ever presented for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) and it is included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. And some critics suggest it is the most iconic of Laurel and Hardy’s movies. Click here to watch the complete movie.
No, it wasn’t filmed in Sylva. The actual filming location, including the stairway, remains intact in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles. The famous stairway consisted of 133 steps, 26 more than 107 steps connecting Sylva’s Main Street and Old Courthouse. Tourists still delight in finding the stairs made famous in a classic comedy, marked now by a commemorative plaque.
Onward, at last, to the original point of this mission. General Theodore F. Davidson delivered the speech. He was a leader in business, politics and other civic endeavors in Western North Carolina and his comments came 50 years after the end of the War. I wish I could have been there to hear General Davidson’s lofty oratory. I wished I could have joined in their picnic. And I wonder if they brought plenty of fried chicken, potato salad and banana puddin’.
General Theodore F. Davidson
For the rest of this installment let’s turn the spotlight to the General and his eloquent remarks at the monument dedication:
Asheville Citizen-Times, September 19, 1915
Jackson County’s Monument to Confederates is Unveiled – Impressive Ceremonies Mark the Unveiling of Beautiful Memorial at Sylva – General T. F. Davidson of Asheville, Speaker of the Day
Speaking to the large audience which filled every seat of the big auditorium, General Davidson paid a splendid tribute to the North Carolina mountaineer solder, who with little or no interest in negro slavery, fought, the speaker declared, for the great foundational principle of the God-given right of every people to regulate the form of government under which they are to live. He spoke in part as follows:
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Love of country, veneration for the memory and pride in the valor and achievements of ancestors, have ever been the distinguishing characteristic of great peoples, and have been the inspiration of their statesmen and warriors, their painters and sculptors, and the themes of their historians, poets and orators.
All history is the record of the possession and exercise, or the lack of these virtues; civilization has no monopoly of them; the painted savage, chanting the weird death song over the body of his dead chieftain, obeys and expressed the same impulse and emotions that tuned the harps of Homer and Scott, and inspired the pens of Herodotus, Tacitus, Hume and Macauley.
Unhappy must be the lot and contemptible the character of that people, if such there be, in whose souls these sentiments have no place. We feel their inspiration today as we come together, not to recall, for that would assume we had forgotten, or were in danger of forgetting, but to dedicate this beautiful monument and consecrate this spot to the memory of the men and the events of fifty years ago, when our fathers and brothers and comrades, the flower of the manhood of the age, made the most heroic struggle and exhibited the most illustrious qualities, courage, endurance, fidelity, devotion, for which history has no parallel. Most of them have crossed over the river, and “sleep the sleep that knows no breaking,” but thank God, their memories shall never perish from the face of the earth.
How the Confederate soldier fought is known to all men. In every capital, and every city of the south there stand beautiful and costly monuments with eloquent tributes to the valor of the Confederate soldier: in hundreds of cemeteries from the Potomac to the Rio Grande there are countless tombstones and tablets – many, many with the sad word, “unknown,” the only epitaph, with tender inscriptions voicing the love and loyalty of the southern people.
In every public library and museum, and in a great many private collections, there are stored hundreds and thousands of books, pamphlets and manuscripts collected, prepared, edited, preserved and printed, solely with the purpose of transmitting to future ages a true history of the exploits and renown of the Confederate soldier. The record is made; upon it we take our stand; and with heads erect, look in the face of the future, and like our first parents in their original purity in the Garden of Eden, we are not ashamed.
But why they fought, it is vital should be kept constantly prominent. In our natural anxiety to preserve stainless the conduct of the Confederate soldier on the field and the southern people under the varying conditions, civil and military, of that long struggle. I have sometimes thought it might be we would overlook, or not sufficiently appreciate the great principles which lay at the foundation of the contest, and which were so closely involved.
It is a painful reflection that there is among our people, of all classes, especially among that portion which must soon assume the political and social duties and responsibilities of the country, so little inclination to acquire knowledge of the fundamental principles, or even of the practical workings of our system of government, state and national.
This general indifference, or ignorance of these vital questions is most deplorable and dangerous. May I venture to suggest to the excellent and devoted men and women in charge of the education, public and private, of our youth, that much of responsibility for this state of things might be brought to their doors, or rather to the doors of the modern systems of education they have adopted in their solicitude to keep abreast with what some call the “advanced methods” of the day?
It may be all right to teach the boy who is soon to be a man and citizen, and as such a factor of more or less influence in governing the state, where his liver is located, and what food and drink will best suit it; and perhaps the art of reading before learning the alphabet, or how to spell may be desirable, but it surely would not detract from the intellectual or utilitarian value of our schools should they give a small portion of each day to instruction upon the simple principles of government. These principles teach us in every hour of our lives, our happiness and prosperity depend upon them, and yet, I doubt if there are half a dozen schools, including our higher institutions, where the constitution of our state, of our republic, finds a place in the curriculum.
Let us hope that there will be some improvement in this direction. And I venture to take the liberty of urging upon all my fellow-citizens the importance, nay the solemn duty of giving greater consideration to these topics, for if they sincerely desire to be useful citizens, such knowledge is absolutely essential; and if they desire, as I have no doubt they do, to preserve untarnished the record of the Confederate soldier, they will find his greatest vindication in a true understanding of the great natural and constitutional questions for which he went to war.
Onward, at last, to the original point of this mission. General Theodore F. Davidson delivered the speech. He was a leader in business, politics and other civic endeavors in Western North Carolina and his comments came 50 years after the end of the War. I wish I could have been there to hear General Davidson’s lofty oratory. I wished I could have joined in their picnic. And I wonder if they brought plenty of fried chicken, potato salad and banana puddin’.
General Theodore F. Davidson
For the rest of this installment let’s turn the spotlight to the General and his eloquent remarks at the monument dedication:
Asheville Citizen-Times, September 19, 1915
Jackson County’s Monument to Confederates is Unveiled – Impressive Ceremonies Mark the Unveiling of Beautiful Memorial at Sylva – General T. F. Davidson of Asheville, Speaker of the Day
Speaking to the large audience which filled every seat of the big auditorium, General Davidson paid a splendid tribute to the North Carolina mountaineer solder, who with little or no interest in negro slavery, fought, the speaker declared, for the great foundational principle of the God-given right of every people to regulate the form of government under which they are to live. He spoke in part as follows:
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Love of country, veneration for the memory and pride in the valor and achievements of ancestors, have ever been the distinguishing characteristic of great peoples, and have been the inspiration of their statesmen and warriors, their painters and sculptors, and the themes of their historians, poets and orators.
All history is the record of the possession and exercise, or the lack of these virtues; civilization has no monopoly of them; the painted savage, chanting the weird death song over the body of his dead chieftain, obeys and expressed the same impulse and emotions that tuned the harps of Homer and Scott, and inspired the pens of Herodotus, Tacitus, Hume and Macauley.
Unhappy must be the lot and contemptible the character of that people, if such there be, in whose souls these sentiments have no place. We feel their inspiration today as we come together, not to recall, for that would assume we had forgotten, or were in danger of forgetting, but to dedicate this beautiful monument and consecrate this spot to the memory of the men and the events of fifty years ago, when our fathers and brothers and comrades, the flower of the manhood of the age, made the most heroic struggle and exhibited the most illustrious qualities, courage, endurance, fidelity, devotion, for which history has no parallel. Most of them have crossed over the river, and “sleep the sleep that knows no breaking,” but thank God, their memories shall never perish from the face of the earth.
How the Confederate soldier fought is known to all men. In every capital, and every city of the south there stand beautiful and costly monuments with eloquent tributes to the valor of the Confederate soldier: in hundreds of cemeteries from the Potomac to the Rio Grande there are countless tombstones and tablets – many, many with the sad word, “unknown,” the only epitaph, with tender inscriptions voicing the love and loyalty of the southern people.
In every public library and museum, and in a great many private collections, there are stored hundreds and thousands of books, pamphlets and manuscripts collected, prepared, edited, preserved and printed, solely with the purpose of transmitting to future ages a true history of the exploits and renown of the Confederate soldier. The record is made; upon it we take our stand; and with heads erect, look in the face of the future, and like our first parents in their original purity in the Garden of Eden, we are not ashamed.
But why they fought, it is vital should be kept constantly prominent. In our natural anxiety to preserve stainless the conduct of the Confederate soldier on the field and the southern people under the varying conditions, civil and military, of that long struggle. I have sometimes thought it might be we would overlook, or not sufficiently appreciate the great principles which lay at the foundation of the contest, and which were so closely involved.
It is a painful reflection that there is among our people, of all classes, especially among that portion which must soon assume the political and social duties and responsibilities of the country, so little inclination to acquire knowledge of the fundamental principles, or even of the practical workings of our system of government, state and national.
This general indifference, or ignorance of these vital questions is most deplorable and dangerous. May I venture to suggest to the excellent and devoted men and women in charge of the education, public and private, of our youth, that much of responsibility for this state of things might be brought to their doors, or rather to the doors of the modern systems of education they have adopted in their solicitude to keep abreast with what some call the “advanced methods” of the day?
It may be all right to teach the boy who is soon to be a man and citizen, and as such a factor of more or less influence in governing the state, where his liver is located, and what food and drink will best suit it; and perhaps the art of reading before learning the alphabet, or how to spell may be desirable, but it surely would not detract from the intellectual or utilitarian value of our schools should they give a small portion of each day to instruction upon the simple principles of government. These principles teach us in every hour of our lives, our happiness and prosperity depend upon them, and yet, I doubt if there are half a dozen schools, including our higher institutions, where the constitution of our state, of our republic, finds a place in the curriculum.
Let us hope that there will be some improvement in this direction. And I venture to take the liberty of urging upon all my fellow-citizens the importance, nay the solemn duty of giving greater consideration to these topics, for if they sincerely desire to be useful citizens, such knowledge is absolutely essential; and if they desire, as I have no doubt they do, to preserve untarnished the record of the Confederate soldier, they will find his greatest vindication in a true understanding of the great natural and constitutional questions for which he went to war.
No comments:
Post a Comment