_George Rogers Clark stipulates to Governor Hamilton the terms of surrender of the Northwestern territory, 1779_ February Twenty-Fifth From Inscription on tablet in St. Michael's Church, Charleston, South Carolina. "As a Statesman he bequeathed to his country the sentiment, 'Millions for defence not a cent for tribute.'" _Charles Cotesworth Pinckney born, 1746_ February Twenty-Sixth IN THE PETERSBURG TRENCHES Winter poured down its snows and its sleets upon Lee's shelterless men in the trenches. Some of them burrowed into the earth. Most of them shivered over the feeble fires, kept burning along the lines. Scanty and thin were the garments of these heroes. Most of them were clad in mere rags. Gaunt famine oppressed them every hour. One quarter of a pound of bacon and a little meal was the daily portion assigned to each man by the rules of the War Department. But even this allowance failed when the railroads broke down and left the bacon and the flour piled up beside the tracks in Georgia and the Carolinas. One sixth of this daily ration was the allotment for a considerable time, and very often the supply of bacon failed entirely.... HENRY A. WHITE February Twenty-Seventh We follow where the Swamp Fox guides, We leave the swamp and cypress-tree, Our spurs are in our coursers' sides, And ready for the strife are we. The Tory camp is now in sight, And there he cowers within his den; He hears our shouts, he dreads the fight, He fears, and flies from Marion's men. WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS _Francis Marion dies, 1795_ _Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, N. C., 1776_ February Twenty-Eighth The war began, the war went on--this politicians' conspiracy, this slaveholders' rebellion, as it was variously called by those who sought its source, now in the disappointed ambition of the Southern leaders, now in the desperate determination of a slaveholding oligarchy to perpetuate their power, and to secure forever their proprietorship in their "human chattels." On this theory the mass of the Southern people were but puppets in the hands of political wirepullers, or blind followers of hectoring "patricians." To those who know the Southern people nothing can be more absurd; to those who know their personal independence, to those who know the deep interest which they have always taken in politics, the keen intelligence with which they have always followed the questions of the day. BASIL L. GILDERSLEEVE February Twenty-Ninth THE LAND WHERE WE WERE DREAMING Fair were our nation's visions, and as grand As ever floated out of fancy-land; Children were we in simple faith, But god-like children, whom nor death, Nor threat of danger drove from honor's path-- In the land where we were dreaming! * * * * *