Editorial Paragraphs.
Renewals and New subscribers have continued to come in; but we can make room on our list for more, and we beg our friends to help us, as many of them have done in the matter. And now would be an excellent time for those of our Annual members who propose to become Life members to do so.
An endowment for the Southern Historical Society, the principal of which shall be invested, and only the interest used in meeting current expenses, is what some of us have been long thinking of, hoping for, and planning. When we read of the splendid income with which many of the Historical Societies are enabled to carry on their work, and remember what we have been enabled to accomplish, while literally “living from hand to mouth,” we are stirred up — not to envy our more fortunate brethren, or to covet their goods, but to long for the coming of some friend, or friends, who shall put us on a similar footing, and give us the means of doing satisfactorily the grand work committed to our charge. We have all the time been straitened and embarrassed for lack of the means of properly prosecuting our work, and have constantly seen how we could enlarge our usefulness if we only had the money. But the times have seemed unpropitious for a movement to endow the Society, and we have struggled on, trying to bring our expenditures within the amount of our annual receipts. Our success thus far has been beyond the most sanguine expectations of our friends, and while many similar enterprises have failed, we have lived, and expect to live, even without an endowment. It is clear, however, to any one at all acquainted with our work, that we need, and ought to have, a larger annual income, and that the Society ought to be placed upon a firm financial basis, above the necessity of the rigid economy we are now forced to practice. [144] We believe that the time has come for a vigorous effort in this direction, and we are maturing certain plans which will test the feasibility of the enterprise. But, meantime, we submit several questions: 1. Is there not some one of large means and liberal mind who will just endow the Society at once, and be done with it? We see frequent notices of large donations to colleges, charitable institutions, &c., and always rejoice when men or women are wise enough to make such judicious use of their money. But we really do not know of a better investment that one of our rich men could make than to endow this Society, which, in the years to come, will hand down to posterity the true history of our Southern land — the true story of the deeds of her sons in Colonial, Revolutionary, and Confederate times. And if some rich man wishes to build for himself a monument “more lasting than brass,” we do not know how he can better do it than by linking his name with this Society, and having it handed down as the patron of this effort to vindicate the name and fame of our people, and preserve for the future historian the material for their history. Do you know the man to do this for us! 2. Are there not those who will give us handsome sums, on condition that an ample endowment is raised? One friend has offered us $1,000, on condition that nine others would unite with him and make up ten thousand dollars. Who else will respond to this proposition; or who will make other propositions? We would be glad to have any suggestions on this matter. We must have an endowment. Who will help?
Captain Polk's reply to General Ruggles, in reference to the Concentration before Shiloh, came too late for this issue, but will appear next month.
