PRESENTATION OF THE PORTRAIT
OF
HON. THOMAS S. KENAN
TO THE
SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA
BY
HON. THEODORE F. DAVIDSON
15 DECEMBER. 1914
Colonel Davidson said:
Thomas Stephen Kenan was born on the 12th day of February,
1838, in the home of his father at Kenansville, Duplin County, North
Carolina, and the home of his ancestors since Colonial times, and died
at his residence in Raleigh, on the 23d day of December, 1911.
Measured by true standards, his life was singularly happy and for¬
tunate — blessings which his virtues and conduct well merited. He was
the embodiment, T venture to say, in the highest expression, of that fas¬
cinating and inspiring social and political status that prevailed through¬
out the South in the years preceding the War Between the States — a
condition which, despite many defects that envious criticism has not
failed to exaggerate, had for its standard of public and private conduct
the most elevated ideals. It especially developed that most valuable
quality in any social state, the individualism of the citizen — that con¬
sciousness of personal responsibility to God, country, and mankind,
which, so long as they are appreciated, will give a community courageous
and strong leaders. With many thoughtful men the modern tendency to
submerge the individual in the flood of the masses, while it may increase
the power of the whole up to a certain point, is pregnant with danger in
those great crises which come to every people, and which demand the,
qualities of personal devotion and commanding influence.
The span of his life embraced the most eventful years in our National
annals, involving radical revolutions in our political, social, and eco¬
nomic conditions. Standing at the side of his new-made grave, and
looking backward to the day of his birth, it is almost impossible to
comprehend that we are the same people, or that the same ideals and
principles of governmental policies and individual conduct are recog¬
nized ; and yet, let us hope that deep down in the hearts of the people,
especially among those of the “original thirteen States,” there are em¬
bedded those eternal fundamental principles which underlie and can
only maintain the conception of true republican government, such as
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