UNCLE JEFF SHIELDS, LEXINGTON, VA.
THE
OLD SOUTH
A Monograph
BY
H. M. HAMILL, D.D.
Smith & Lamar, Agents, Publishing House of the
· · · Methodist Episcopal Church, South · · ·
Dallas, Texas · · · Nashville, Tennessee
The subject-matter of this littlebook first took form in an addressbefore the students ofEmory College, Oxford, Ga., in June,1904. If apology be needed for puttingit in type, the writer finds it in the requestof an old woman, now eighty-sixyears of age, a true daughter of the OldSouth, whose lightest wish has been thelaw of his life for more than fifty years.
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THE OLD SOUTH.
My theme is “The Old South.” I haveno apology for those who may deemit time-worn or obsolete. I amhandicapped in beginning by memoriesof other writers and speakerswho have dealt more worthily than I can hopeto do with my subject. The Old South has notbeen wanting in men to speak and write upon it.Friend and foe alike have exploited it. It hasbeen the burden of poetry not always inspired,and of oratory not always inspiring. Not a fewhave been its critics who knew it only by hearsay.Indeed, much of current literature uponthe Old South is from those who were born afterit had passed away. I have no fault to findwith any who have thus written or spoken, howeverworthily or unworthily, if only it was donein kindness. If over the dust of the Old South,while discoursing upon its virtues or its vices,any one has dealt generously with the one and[Pg 6]fairly with the other, I am content, though praiseor blame may not always have been wisely bestowed.
I was born in and of the Old South. At sixteen,after a year under General Lee, I receivedmy parole at Appomattox, and went home tolook upon the ruin of the Old South. Whateveris good or evil in me I owe chiefly to that OldSouth. Habit, motive, ideal, ambition, passionand prejudice, love and hatred, were formed init and by it. My life work as a man has been