Tennessee Representative Edward Carmack issued his famous “Pledge to the South” in a speech on the floor of congress in 1898 which reads:
The South is a land that has known sorrows; It is a land that has broken the ashen crust and moistened it with tears; A land scarred and riven by the pillowshare of war And bellowed with the graves of her dead; But a land of legend. A land of song, a land of hallowed and heroic memories. To that land every drop of my blood, Every Fibre of my being, Every pulsation of my heart, is consecrated forever. I was born of her womb; I nurtured at her breast; And when my last hour shall come, I pray God that I may be pillowed upon her bosom And rocked to sleep within her tender and encircling arms.
**Edward Ward Carmack (1858-1908) was a Representative and Senator for Tennessee. More on his life to follow soon….
