OPINIONSnA Voice From Down Southn”Had he been even a Yankee, this genius would havenbeen rendered immediately manifest to his country-nmen.nM.E. Bradford: Remembering WhonWe Are: Observations of a SouthernnConservative; University of GeorgianPress; Athens, GA; $15.95.n^ ^ A 11 a rhetorician’s rules,” weni. learn from Hudibras, “teachnhim but to name his tools.” ProfessornBradford, who knows much about thenart of rhetoric, is a massive exceptionnto this observation. This is a collectionnof his speeches; but these public utterances,nunlike most such, are polishednessays, as well read as listened to.nSeveral themes run through the fivenparts of this book. The reader encountersnmore than once remarks on thenconservative character of the FederalnConstitution; on Christian influencesnin the American Republic; on the evilsnof Puritanism; on Agrarianism; onnstate support of letters and arts; onnpolitical myth, beneficent or malign.nEndowed with fortitude and goodnhumor, Mel Bradford is a formidablenchampion of order, custom, constitution,nconvention, prescription.nAccomplished in the disciplines ofnhumane letters, history, and politics.nDr. Bradford is a worthy successor tonDonald Davidson as unreconstructedn(but wise) Southerner. Also, likenDavidson’s, his reputation is national;nand at present he presides over thenPhiladelphia Society, a nationalndiscussion-club of conservatively inclinednfolk.nHis lectures or essays on “Culturenand Anarchy: Federal Support for thenArts and Humanities” and “Subsidizingnthe Muses,” full of sound sense,nRussell Kirk is the leading NorthernnAgrarian in the United States.n81 CHRONICLES OF CULTUREn—Edgar Allan Poenby Russell Kirknremind us of how able Professor Bradfordnwould have been as chairman ofnthe National Endowment for the Humanities.nIndeed President Reagannstrongly inclined toward appointingnhim to that post; but a wave of vituperationnfrom the sort of people called bynSidney Hook “ritualistic hberals” dissuadednMr. Reagan’s inner circle fromnseeking senatorial confirmation. Notnthe least of Mr. Bradford’s allegedndisqualifications was his misfortune ofnbeing a Southerner.nThe chief and immediate pretext fornopposing the appointment of Bradfordnto that Ministry of Culture, however,nis the last essay in this volume: “ThenLincoln Legacy: A Long View” (originallynpublished in the quarterly Mod­nnnern Age, after being delivered as annaddress to The Philadelphia Society).nAmerica’s Civil Religionists havingncanonized Abraham Lincoln, let thenwriter be anathema who in the leastnimpugns the perfect sanctity of thenRailsplitter! Once, in the course of anLincoln’s Day address in Los Angeles,nthis reviewer mentioned that whennattending Federal court at Cincinnati,nLincoln was smiled at for his rusticitynby more fashionable lawyers. A Lincolnnzealot immediately cried out,n”Lincoln was a marvellous lawyer!nThe whole bench and bar respectednhim!” Facts must not be permitted tonmar the myth.nFanaticism of this sort, heavy as thenTower of Siloam, fell upon the head ofnM.E. Bradford as vengeance for hisnunkindliness toward Lincoln. Indeed Inthink he was hard upon President Lincoln,nafter the fashion of DonaldnDavidson; but also he said about Lin-n