|
Excerpts of the Address by President Carter on the Value of Westville
[On April 22, 2000 Westville hosted a black-tie fund raiser in Columbus, Georgia. It featured a film about Westville, a live period music program, a silent auction, a live auction, dinner and an address by President Carter. The musicians President Carter alludes to were Appalachian dulcimer players David Schnaufer and Steve Seifert of Tennessee, singer Andrea Krahn-Martin of Columbus, and fiddler and hambone artist Steve Hickman of Virginia. Master of Ceremonies, Senator George Hooks of Americus, mentioned the 1962 Georgia State election in his introduction of President Carter.]
President Carter: [standing ovation] Thank you...thank you. Well, I'm already at a disadvantage, because I've never heard the dulcimer played that way. I've never heard an Irish song sung so beautifully by such a beautiful performer, and the hambone was just breathtaking. I can't get over that. [laughter]
I...remember the 1962 election [that Sen. Hooks alluded to]. It was my first campaign for public office...After that election was over, when I got to the State Senate, I was determined to make some corrections in the Georgia election code, because I had suffered all the ill effects of the existing one. I thought some reforms were necessary.
So I worked very hard with some of my lawyer friends in the State Senate. And during a hot debate...another Senator from Enigma, Georgia named Bobby Rowan....introduced an amendment to my bill. The amendment said that no one could vote in Georgia in a General Election or a Primary who had been dead for more than three years. [laughter] There was quite a debate on that amendment because some Senators maintained that after a husband died, the wife and children could at least guess for three years how he would have voted if he had still been living. [laughter]
Well, tonight, I'm going to express a few things that are on my mind. I thought the film was excellent about Westville. And as George Hooks, our Senator, has already said, I was one of the earliest Trustees, beginning long before I was Governor. When I then became Governor [in 1970], I was able to get some help, financial help, for Westville. I remember they were going to put down a parking lot and put in some drainage. I got some money [for] them from the [Coastal Plains] Regional Commission. Later, they wanted to move some buildings to Westville. I was able to help get some funds. And later, they wanted to put the Courthouse there, and I helped get some funds then. I think more than [half] a million dollars...I was delighted to do it, and I came over tonight because of my intense interest in Westville.
...My grandfather’s grandfather, Wilson Gordy, was the first one of my family that moved into this particular area. He came almost immediately after the Indians were displaced from west Georgia and were forced to go to Oklahoma. Wilson Gordy...came into what was then Muscogee County with all of his belongings in a hogshead. How many of you know what a hogshead is? It's a great, big barrel that they used to pack tobacco in...He had put all of his belongings in a hogshead ... with an axle through the middle of it – it was a very strong barrel...He had mounted a seat on top for his wife to sit on...The hogshead was pulled by a mule...The reason they did this then was when Muscogee County was founded, there weren’t any trails from the west, except Indian trails, and they were not much wider than a barrel could roll.
|
|
|
[One of Wilson Gordy’s sons was Jim Jack Gordy.] When Jim Jack was a young man, he decided to get married in the church in Cusseta...When the wedding date came, Jim Jack left town. [laughter]...He didn't return to Cusseta for three months. When he did come back, he began to court Ida Nicholson, who was to be my grandmother. He was in his mid-twenties by then, and Ida Nicholson was seventeen. She obviously knew what had happened in his previous wedding plans...She [finally] told Jim Jack she would...marry him...but she would not put on her wedding dress until the preacher certified to her under oath that Jim Jack was standing in front of the altar waiting for her. [laughter]
So, Ida Nicholson went next door to the church in Cusseta, sat on the bed with her wedding dress undonned, and she sat there until the preacher came over and said, "Jim Jack Gordy is standing at the altar. We have deacons who will not let him leave the church." [laughter] And Ida finally put on her wedding dress, and I thank God that they were married. And of course, that was my mother’s mother and father.
...This is the kind of background, I think, that Westville tries to bring forward in the minds of all of us. Those ancestors...founded a nation that is the greatest on earth, and we are the beneficiaries of it. And quite often, we don’t appreciate what happened back in the 1850s, which Westville commemorates, and even earlier.
|
 |
|
|
|
...Earlier, the phrase was used, "Southern roots" in the film...I’m proud of my Southern roots...I think for us to remember those now ancient days is one of the best elements of life. It is a rare treasure in America to have a place [such as Westville] to commemorate times gone by that remind us of our ancestors, how they lived, how our moral values were shaped, how hard they worked, and the blessings that they passed on to us.
...When I was elected President, I wrote a very brief inaugural speech...I quoted my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, in my inaugural address. (I’m the only President who ever quoted a teacher in an inaugural address.)...What Miss Julia would tell us was we must cling to unchanging principles and accommodate changing times. We don’t have to worry about changing times because they press themselves on us, but I would say that the unchanging principles can be kept alive for us in a very few national treasures like Westville. And that’s why I’m so proud to be here tonight to speak on its behalf. [standing ovation]
|
|
