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