Greensborough Patriot
Sep. 18, 1862
Page 4
An Appeal to the Citizens and Patriots of
North Carolina—We the undersigned ministers of the Eastern Conference of
the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, having been appointed a
Committee for the purpose of publishing an Appeal
in behalf of the Daughters of our deceased Soldiers, respectfully and
earnestly ask your attention to the following:
1.
The above named Conference has in contemplation the
erection of a Female Seminary, with a view to furnish the daughters of our
deceased and disabled soldiers with a gratuitous education, including board and
clothing, if needed.
2.
This institution is to be located at Louisville,
Forsythe county, N. C., a remarkably healthy locality, where 20 acres of land,
and 2000 dollars in cash have already been secured from two citizens of the
place, to aid in the erection of the necessary buildings.
3.
In order to establish this enterprise on a sure and
permanent basis, it is proposed to create in the outset a fund of 100,000
dollars, to be called “The Soldier’s
Endowment fund,” the interest alone of which shall be expended in the
education of the class of orphans referred to.
The board of Directors will be instructed to make from time to time such
additions as the growing wants of the Institution may require.
4.
Besides the daughters of deceased and disabled
soldiers, other young ladies may be admitted into the Seminary, at the
discretion of the Board and Faculty; but all profits arising from their
education will be added to the Endowment Fund.
5.
When the immediate object for which this Institution is
planted, shall cease to exist, that is to say, when there shall no longer be
any female orphans of deceased and disabled soldiers to educate, then the Board
will admit upon its bounty, so many indigent female orphans generally as can be
sustained by the fund.
6.
Application will be made to the next Legislature of our
State for a Charter, to enable the Board to carry the above plan into execution
as speedily as possible.
7.
The course of instruction to be pursued in the
Institution, will embrace all the branches usually taught in the best Female
Seminaries of the State, it being deemed desirable, that as regards education,
the poor orphans of our noble soldiers should enjoy equal advantages with the greatest
and richest in the land.
8.
Although this Institution will be planted under the
auspices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of this State, it will by no means
be sectarian in its character, as the Board of Directors will be composed of
members of different denominations, and the pupils will be selected
indiscriminately from among the families of deceased and disabled soldiers,
without regard to religious creeds.
9.
In order that all may have an opportunity to aid in
this benevolent enterprise, our agents, J. D. Scheck, of Guilford, N. C., and
Rev. J. H. Mengert of Wilmington, N. C., are hereby authorized to call upon
those citizens of our Commonwealth, who are still at their homes and to receive
from them in cash or bonds such donations and subscriptions, as their patriotic
liberality may prompt them to give. They
are also instructed to procure, if practicable, permission from the proper
authorities to visit our soldiers now in camp, or in the field and to receive from
them such contributions as they are willing and able to make. The names of contributors and their
residences, or in the case of soldiers, the Regiments and Companies in which
they served, will be carefully recorded in a blank book kept for that purpose,
and placed in the archives of the Institution.
10. With
a view of keeping this enterprise prominently before the public, and enlisting
the sympathies of all classes in its behalf, our agents will from time to time
publish the amounts collected, in the principal papers in the State.
And now, Fellow
Citizens, we appeal to you, and hope to have your hearty co-
operation in this good work. We are under lasting obligations to the noble
defenders of our soil. When they left
their homes, their wives and their children, to arrest the progress of an invading
foe on the bloody battlefield, they did so in the sure expectation that, if
they should never return to their loved ones, the protecting and fostering care
of a grateful country would be extended over them. By this hope they have been sustained amidst
the arduous duties, the many privations, and the great sufferings of a
soldier’s life; by it they have been supported in the hour of death. Patriotism, not to say Christianity, would
dictate that in this they should not be disappointed. The great Founder of Christianity has said:
“The Poor ye have always with you,” and in the brief history of our Confederacy
we have been forcibly reminded of this momentous truth. We are all aware of the alarming destitution,
to which many of the families of our soldiers have been reduced, without any
possible means for intellectual improvement; yet we should all feel that if any
indigent children in our State are entitled to receive the highest mental
culture, it is the offspring of those who have stood as a wall of fire between
us and our enemies. For them, and for
them exclusively, we wish to endow an Institution, in which their wants will be
met and in which they will be prepared to occupy respectable positions in
society.
Our
appeal is directed especially to the ladies.
It has fallen to the lot of their sex to mould the destinies of
nations. Of this fact many striking
illustrations are afforded by the past.
And when the history of our present national struggle shall have been
written, it will appear to the world, that for our independence as a nation, we
are in a great measure indebted to the pure patriotism of our ladies. To them, therefore, we especially appeal, to
come forward and aid us in building up an Institution, in which a destitute
portion of their sex shall receive that intellectual and moral training which
will enable them to follow their noble example.
Our Confederacy is yet in its infancy.
As its history progresses, we may require other bands of Spartan fathers
and sons to be cheered on to deeds of valor by Spartan mothers and
daughters. If we devise means to raise
the latter, we shall never lack the former; and our Confederacy will then
occupy that lofty position among the nations of the earth, to which it is so
justly entitled.
REV.
BRYANT J. HALL
REV.
JAMES R. SIKES
