1.—The educated young ladies of a locality can be interested in the finding, classifying, and development of historical material; the advanced pupils of High Schools and Colleges can be induced to prepare monographs as a part of their literary work, and all this material should be carefully calendared. We find as a general rule that the editors and proprietors of our newspapers are among the most public spirited of our citizens; they will gladly publish all local material of historical interest. In this way duplicate printed copies of all local material can be easily had and copies furnished for the archives and publications of the Mississippi Historical Society.
2.—An important auxiliary to history is picture-making. Experts with the Camera and amateur 'Kodakers' can facilitate greatly the work of the historian by making and cataloguing pictures of important objects and persons and depositing them in the archives of the local Society and of the State Society, so that the future historian who may not be able to visit the localities may yet have satisfactory knowledge of them. By these means and others we will cultivate a spirit that actively fosters history; we will cause search to be made for old Manuscripts, for files of old papers and every thing that will throw light on our past history. As the author, previously referred to, states, valuable manuscripts ought as naturally and as readily to find their way to the archives of history as the meteorite reaches the Mineralogical Museum.
3.—In the past history of Mississippi, a great many very valuable papers have been lost and destroyed because there was no known, safe depository for them. It need not be so any longer, as the State Historical Society has safe depositories. If we will all search for old historical material, write up facts and incidents of importance that have come under our observation, or otherwise to our knowledge, we will be doing a work creditable to our own names and we shall make possible the writing of a history that will represent in truthful aspect that noble race of Southerners to which we are proud to belong, and we shall show to the world the kindliness of those domestic institutions under which have grown up the fairest and most attractive women who ever graced human homes and the highest refinement and honor that have taken up abode among men.
4.—I have already referred to the public spirit of the press, to the important service it has rendered to our cause and the confidence with which we can continue to rely upon its co-operation. In addition, we need a fund for printing the Society's transactions and those important articles which receive the Society's endorsement. The State Legislature would do well to make an annual appropriation of a few hundred dollars to cover the cost of such publications and thus encourage the interest and pride of its citizens in that history which so intimately concerns them and their ancestors. Other states have set us a worthy example in this important matter. We hope the next legislature will give this matter favorable consideration.
5.—The marking of historical sights and buildings with marble or bronze, bearing appropriate inscriptions is a matter of the liveliest importance. To some this may seem needless, but the more we study and observe it the more we are convinced of its educational and patriotic value.
One who goes to England and Scotland, and notes in their great cities such as London and Edinburgh the numerous monuments, mural tablets and other devices which commemorate events and characters and deeds will understand better than ever why the Englishman and Scotchman each is proud of his race, his government, his country.
In 1896, I visited the old town of Portsmouth, Va., and as I passed along the main street I saw a marble slab inserted flush with the pavement, and it told that on that spot the honored and loved Lafayette stood when he revisited the old Commonwealth and received the grateful greetings of a people for whom he had put his life into the perils of war.
The preservation of historical buildings and grounds and the devotion of them to public and patriotic uses is of the same character and importance.
The Ladies Association, aided by the eloquence of Edward Everett, purchased Mt. Vernon and donated it to the sacred purposes of patriotism. The preservation of the old church at Williamsburg, Va., of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, of Monticello as Jefferson left it—all these and other things of like character not only keep alive our interest in the great events of the past but sustain and justify our civic pride.
Is there nothing of this kind in Mississippi that is worthy of loving care and devotion to public use? Upon the extreme southern border of the State, where the Magnolia blooms in its native perfection, where the crested waves of the gulf work the sunbeams and the moon's silvery sheen into forms of laughing beauty that suggest the noble womanly character of the wife and the "daughter of the Confederacy," where the roaring sea, that cannot be hushed, tells of the unconquerable spirit of devotion to our people and their cause, that stood erect amid all the indignities and wrongs put upon it by a vindictive and cruel foe; here we have Beauvoir that is worthy of the care of all Mississippians, of all Southerners, nay of all American patriots. This property suitably marked, will furnish one of the grandest of object lessons, pointing to a man who bravely fought for his country on foreign soil, who stood as an embodiment of incorruptible principle and splendid ability on the floor of the United States Senate and who headed a great popular movement which produced the most philosophic, as well as the most thrilling period of the history of this country and who shows us how a great man can maintain his manliness and command respect and admiration even in defeat and direst disaster.