erence in the
interpretation of the Constitution by the people of the North and of the
South. The slavery question was also a point of dispute; and several
minor causes brought about a dissension in the two sections that
resulted in the gigantic struggle of friend against friend, brother
against brother, father against son.

The early engagements of the contending forces were ones of signal
victory to the South. The disunion of the nation was so seriously
threatened as to bring grave concern to the Federal government. As the
weeks and months wore away, victory perched above the banner of the
Federals, and the climax was reached in the surrender of General Lee at
Appomattox, after four years of deadly strife.

Both sides fought valiantly. Both won; in that the glory of the Republic
was to stand henceforth supreme among foreign nations, the greatness of
the combatants to receive a recognition never to be effaced.

Through a perspective of fifty years of peace, the heroism displayed on
either field by those engaged therein is, to the most partisan observer,
silhouetted upon the mental vision in glowing lines of light. Justly we
term it "Our most Heroic Period."

Not the least remarkable of this aftermath, transcending all experiences
of other nations, is the brotherhood, the kindly feeling of sympathy and
understanding, that after the passage of but half a century now binds
the once warring sections in indissoluble bonds of unity.

CHARLESTON

CALM as that second summer which precedes
The first fall of the snow,
In the broad sunlight of heroic deeds,
The city bides the foe.

As yet, behind their ramparts, stern and proud,
Her bolted thunders sleep,--
Dark Sumter, like a battlemented cloud,
Looms o'er the solemn deep.

No Calpe frowns from lofty cliff or scaur
To guard the holy strand;
But Moultrie holds in leash her dogs of war
Above the level sand.

And down the dunes a thousand guns lie couched,
Unseen, beside the flood,--
Like tigers in some Orient jungle crouched,
That wait and watch for blood.

Meanwhile, through streets still echoing with trade,
Walk grave and thoughtful men,
Whose hands may one day wield the patriot's blade
As lightly as the pen.

And maidens, with such eyes as would grow dim,
Over a bleeding hound,
Seem each one to have caught the strength of him
Whose