The South Was Right
Content
Book
.c.v
Copwiglit
o
N°
('OI'YRIC.HT DKPOSIT.
The South Was
Rierht
^
BY
S.
A.
STEEL
COLUMBIA,
THE R.
L.
S. C.
BRYAN COMPANY
1914
Copyrighted in 1914
by
Ella
B. Steel.
JlJN-2 1914
©CI.A374297
FOREWORD
I
dedicate
today.
It
is
work
this
young Americans of
the
to
a statement of the reasons which led the
Southern States to withdraw from the Union in 1861.
These reasons are given more fully
in
many
large works,
but our young people never see them, and the average
man
is
too busy to read them.
never understood our
Northern writers have
and even when disposed
side,
to
be friendly, are incapable of interpreting our motives.
Most of the
histories used in
our schools are too brief
to give a correct idea of the subject, yet
tant that
it
should be understood.
put the most important facts
in
form, with the hope that they
I
it is
very impor-
have endeavored to
a brief space and simple
will
be read by people too
busy for larger books, and especially by pupils
schools
and
colleges.
I believed in the
in
our
beginning of the
war, though only a child, that the South was right, and
I believe
it
government
And
now.
lasts
I
believe further that if this
a hundred years longer, and continues
to be a nation of free people,
ciples of political liberty, for
it will
be because the prin-
which the South contended,
survive the shock of that tremendous revolution.
this reason, if for
For
no other, the position of the South
should be understood.
Columbia, S. C.
S.
A. Steel.
—
"I maintain that
if
—
the issue of this struggle had
from
the outset been manifest to the whole world, not even
then ought Athens to have shrunk from
it, if
Athens has
any regard for her own glory, her past history, or her
future reputation."
"We
tain,
Demosthenes.
had, I was satisfied, sacred principles to mainto defend, for which
and rights
bound to do our
* * * If
it
best, even if
were
in precisely the
all to
we were
we perished
in
duty
in the endeavor.
be done over again, I would act
same manner."
Lee.
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT
BY
S.
A.
STEEL
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT
In 1861 eleven States of the American Union with-
drew and formed themselves into the Confederate States
They
of America.
without
did so under the due fonms of law
revoluntionary
peaceable
and with the most
violence,
The United
intention.
compel these seceded States
States
resolved
to
return into the Union
tO'
by force of arms. The South resolved to defend her
liberties.
The war between them lasted for four years.
Nearly four million men were under arms on both
from
first to last
;
ments and skirmishes were fought
lives
were
lost
;
;
neai'ly half
women and
loss
life
worth of property was destroyed and
;
no estimate can be made of the suffering
found adequate
a million
thousands more were maimed for
billions of dollars'
the
sides
about two thousand battles, engage-
on
of the country, or words be
cliildren
to express the
they sustained
inflicted
sorrow they endured, the
being deprived of educational
in
opportunities and the means of social culture, and the
universal demoralization that ensued.
was one of
It
the most gigantic conflicts of history, and one of unparalleled bitterness.
way
there was no
As both
to stop
sides
it
were
in
mortal earnest,
until one of the contestants
was exhausted.
After four
To
yeai's of heroic stiniggle, the
South
fell.
quote the language of General R. E. Lee, in his
army
farewell address to his
"compelled
resources."
to
yield
After a
to
at
Appomattox, it was
numbers and
ovei-whelming
time
readmitted into the Union.
States
were
the
seceded
The
people of the South,
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
ruined by four years of strife in their territory and the
destruction of their whole system of
honor
lost,
unmanly
indulged in
regrets,
no'
idle
bore with
with
life,
all
but
repinings, uttered no
marvellous
patience
made
horrible injustice of the "Reconstiniction,"
appeal "to Time," went earnestly to work, and
the
their
left their
judgment of History,
for that awful war?
As in the
vindication to the impartial
Who
was responsible
case of Carthage, so with the South, the victors have
told the story to suit their
own
The result is a
Much of what
ends.
very one-sided and misleading account.
the North has written about the
war
is
on a par with
the testimony of a darky witness in court.
said the
sworn to
"Mose,"
lawyer, "do' you understand that you have
tmth?"
the
tell
"Yas,
"Well, then,
sir."
have you told the jury the truth about this matter.^"
"Yas,
sir,
boss,
and a
writer says that the
leetle
the rise of the truth."
North won, not because
fought the South, but because
that
it
it
it
out-thought the South,"
was a victory of mind more than force.
not agree with
this.
One
"out-
I can
If we must keep the alliteration of
the phrase, I would say that the North won, not because
it
could outfight the South, but because
But
the South.
not true.
tier's
It
was pure
fiction,
poem about Barbara
Uncle Tom's Cabin.
its
purpose of
it
did outwrite
what they wrote was
like, for example, Whit-
a vast deal of
Fritchie,
and Mrs. Stowe's
It v/as false, but
hostility to the South.
it
accomplished
There arc grati-
fying indications now that the motives of the South are
beginning to be understood.
Still
we frequently hear
erners "believed they were
said
it
now that
right."
always said in a connection which
[8]
But
it
makes
it
the Southis
nearly
mean: Of
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
course they were wrong, but since they beheved they
were right, they are entitled to the respect due to
sin-
This condescending courtesy can never satisfy
cerity.
As a modus v'wendi it may be accepted,
diplomatic ground of meeting, where the
honorable men.
and afford a
sentimental "fraternity" of a superficial and emotional
may
patriotism
disport itself in iridescent oratory.
believe in fraternity,
and have
tried to contribute to
establishment between the North and South
must be obtained
high.
I
;
but
at the cost of truth, the price
I
its
if it
is
too
have respect for the honest Northern man who
was willing
to lay his life on the altar of the
this sentiment
is
South was right in the essential thing
viction that the
for which
it
North has
Union, and
perfectly consistent with a deep con-
The
fought, the right of self-government.
told its side
afraid to take
;
let
us
the question
ours.
tell
the
into
We
are not
high court of
History.
We
are not through with that struggle.
people
may
Superficial
speak and write about such matters being
"in the past," and out of relation to the present
;
but
we are dealing with conditions created by that war,
issues that are still far from being settled.
The man
who thinks the race question is settled is incapable of
understanding the subject; and that whole question
grew out of the
Had
negroes.
forcible emancipation of the Southern
the South been left
to'
handle that ques-
own way, which was one of the reasons for
secession, who can say that it would not be in a far more
hopeful state than it is now as a result of the war.^*
tion in
its
Slavery could not long have survived
in the
South with
the sentiment of the whole outside world, and multitudes
of
its
own
people,
against
it.
[9]
It
is
yet
to
be seen
THE SOUTH WAS PdGHT.
whether
government can stand, or
this
millstone of the black race about
the only
way
involve us,
day
in
Nor
neck.
its
with
float,
is
tlie
this
which the problems created by the war
and are inextricably
identified with present
American statesmanship has never had a
issues.
greater task than
it
has
now
to preserve the rights of
the States, which are the bulwarks of our individual
liberties,
under the constant and universal pressure of
the great centralized power of the Federal nation made
The
by the war.
steady encroachment of the authority
of the general government in every department, legislative, executive
and
judicial, especially the latter,
on
one of the most dangerous
the functions of the States,
is
tendencies of our political
life.
And
it
grew
directly
out of the war.
I hold, therefore, that
it
is
of the utmost importance
that this generation of American youths shall have a correct
knowledge of the war.
passions of the past,
no'
man
do not wish to detract
I
And
from the glory of the North.
up the
thinks we must
as to stirring
in his senses
not study history because some one with a soft brain
may
get mad.
Let the heathen rage
;
civilized
men want
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
To' decide this question
we must put ourselves back
in the circumstances of the
When
I say that the
gle with the North, I
Southern people
South was right
mean that
moral right to do what
it
it
did.
circumstances which surrounded
else
to
when he
I think
do.
said
:
"We
in the
mean that under the
it,
there vras nothing
satisfied,
duty bound to do our best, even
if
it
exactly
sacred principles
to maintain and rights to defend, for wliich
[10]
1860.
had both the legal and
I
General Lee expressed
had, I was
in
great strug-
we were
we perished
in
in
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
General Lee never changed his mind.
the endeavor."
When
it
it
were
was
all to
A
cause must be supported by some
very sound reasons when such a
it.
To
man
can speak so firmly
say that the South was wrong simply
because the North won,
is
to cast a serious reflection on
men
the intelligence of such
What
:
do over again, I would act precisely in the
same manner."
about
Hampton "If
he said to General
all over,
as Lfee,
and many
others.
were the reasons that made General Lee so sure
that he was right when he led the
Virginia in battles that
tO'
study and the wonder of
Army
of Northern
the end of time will be the
Well, I will give you
men.-^
some of them.
But
as we are to discuss the war,
name by which we will designate
first,
on the
more important than some people
tliink.
let
it.
us decide
This
As one
is
emi-
nently qualified to speak has reminded us, "names both
Names are not arbitrary
record and make history."
labels,
but should express or describe the nature of the
thing to which they are attached.
may
be compressed in a name,
ism" or "Realism."
So you
as,
A
whole philosophy
for example, "Ideal-
see a thoughtful
man can
not pass lightly over the matter of a name.
especially true of such
I
am
discussing.
The North
is
must get a right name.
war "The War of the Rebelname to the official records of it.
called the
lion,"
and gave
Now,
rebellion
ernment.
We
This
an important subject as the one
is
this
forcible resistance to legitimate gov-
But, as I hope to show, when the Southern
States withdrew from the Union, the legitimate authority of the
United States over them ceased, and
not "rebellion" to resist
it.
This name
11
is
it
was
unfair to the
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
South, and
to'
it is
now only used by people who have
failed
outlive the prejudices of the Avar.
"The War Between
the States," and I am sorry to see that this name has
been recommended as the proper name by the Legislative
Alexander H. Stephens called
it
Committee on the revision of the Constitution of North
This name conveys a wrong idea of the war.
Carolina.
It
was not a war between the
States, but between the
United States and the Confederate States, each acting
as a nation.
By some
The
gives
It
glaringly inaccurate and misleading.
is
"The War Between the Sections."
name is that it is too vague, and
of what the war was about.
It is not a
it is
called
objection to this
no idea
name, only a
label.
By some it has
The objection to
been called "The
name
this
is
that
War
it
South was responsible for the war, and
The North was
the aggressor from
years before the war,
it
this
first
and
The name most
sM'ord.
For
to last.
That name
it
invaded the
is
misleading.
generally used, and which Congress
has decided shall be the
I
not true.
and when the South sought to
protect itself by peaceable withdrawal,
fire
is
began and carried on an agita-
tion hostile to the South,
South with
of Secession."
implies that the
official
name,
A
can not agree with Congress.
is
the "Civil
civil
war
is
War."
a war
between two factions contending for the control of the
same government,
Pompey
in
Roman
like
the
war between
Houses of Lancaster and York
is
CfEsar
and
history, or the war between the
in
English history.
It
evident that this was not the character of our war.
If the Southern States had fought in the Union
have been a
"civil
it
would
war;" but they withdrew from the
Union, and organized a separate government.
[12]
Whether
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
they had the right to do this does not affect the case;
is they did it, and that fact makes the phrase
war" untrue when apphed to our struggle. It
was a war between two nations. For the four years
the fact
"civil
that
Confederate States was a real govern'
lasted, the
it
ment, possessing
the attributes
all
powers of govemment.
ported and defended by
and exercising
the
all
was acknowledged and sup-
It
citizens
its
;
money,
issued
it
waged war, and was recognized as having
I can understand how this name is
levied taxes,
belligerent rights.
satisfactory to the North, for
The
claimed about the war.
war of
it
concedes
have
all the}^
plain logic of
makes
it
"rebellion," the Southerners "rebels," Davis
it
a
and
Lee and Jackson "traitors," who^ escaped the usual fate
of traitors only through the clemency of their con-
But
querors.
can not understand how such a name
I
can meet the approval of intelligent Southerners.
It
can be justified only on the basis of Napoleon's sarcastic
definition
use
it,
may
tell
of history as "Fiction agreed upon."
and
pass
I teach
it
what
is
;
little
None of
but
I
names
it.
fit
right.
the war?
UNION.
The North
pose of the war;
I pi'efer
It
is
That name
this:
the Union
;
the
declared this to be the pur-
President
Lincoln
asserted that this was the
paramount
others were subordinate
to "save the
;
THE
states
was begun, continued, and
it
Then
the facts in the case.
name for
WAR FOR THE
to presence
Its brevity
it.
have passed that point.
more time and be
these
the proper
tnith about
children not to use
with people who- are in too big a hurry to
the tinith
to take a
my
I never
issue,
finished
repeatedly
to which
Union" he
all
delib-
erately went outside of the Constitution in the exercise
of arbitrary power
;
and
if
you had asked the men
[13]
in
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
blue what they were fighting for, nine out of ten of
them would have
Moreover,
for
it
this
said "to save the Union."
name
expresses the result of the war;
Union the States
made a new and different
not only brought back into the
that had gone out, but
it
Union from, the one we had before.
where
sibility, too,
It puts the respon-
belongs, on the North
—
a respon-
which they are proud to accept, and wliich we
sibility
ought
it
to be perfectly willing to concede to them.
South acted from
first to last
was the aggressor.
It
on the defensive the North
all
is
The
;
now far back
and the clouds of passion have floated away,
in the past,
so let us be
brave enough to be fair and do each other the justice
We will never do that when we call
war "the civil war," for that indicts the whole South.
Whatever Congress may say, I shall call the great strugto
admit the truth.
the
gle the
War
for the Union.
Perhaps there was no campaign slogan more
effective
in the North, nO' appeal to the patriotism of the country
so useful,
no phrases more eloquently employed than
such terms as to "save the Union," to "preserve the
Union," to crush "the rebellion that aims to destroy
the Union."
The Southern people were
represented as
Now
there was not
seeking to "break up the Union."
one word of truth in such statements.
may
Whatever wc
think about the doctrine of secession as a political
principle, a
moment of
reflection will disclose the falsity
of the idea that the secession of the Southern States was
an attempt to destroy the Union.
Did
the separation
of the American Colonies from England destroy the
British Empire.''
Did the separation of jNIexico from
Did Portugal cease
nation.''
Spain destroy the Spanish
to exist
when Brazil withdrew
to
[14]
become an independent
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
If the South had
people?
Union
in territorial extent
The
won
Avould have stood just as
in
the strugg:le the
did before, only
it
by the area of the seceded
object of the South was
less
States.
by a peaceable separation
and deal with its domestic problems in
the North to do the same.
This
was not to "destroy the Union." Yet this lie, booted
to govern itself,
its
own way, leaving
and spurred, did valiant service against the South.
However,
it is
only one of a multitude of "toads" which,
when touched by the
steel
Ithuriel spear of truth, the cold
of facts, spring into proper satanic shape.
The
subject divides itself into two parts,
first,
did
the Southern States have the right to secede, and second,
did the circumstances justify their exercise of tha right?
I
take the affinnative, and assert that the Southern
States had the legal right to withdraw from the Union,
and that the conditions under which they were compelled
to act justified their withdrawal.
history decide the question.
not prove that
it
I
The
the verdict of success.
I
am
am
willing to let
not willing to accept
failure of the South does
was wrong, nor does the triumph of
the North prove that
it
was right
;
that only proves the
North was stronger than the South. Success is no test
of truth; if it is, we can justify some of the most hideous
tyrannies of the past, from Tamerlane, who built his
throne on the skulls of his slaughtered victims, down to
the latest despot
who
Before adducing
to withdraw
rules
my
by right of the sword.
proof of the South's legal right
from the Federal Union,
let
me say
that the
character of the Southern people furnishes a strong pre-
sumption that they had valid ground for the course they
pursued.
Such men
intelligent people.
and Robert Tombs, and Lamar, and
They were an
as Jefferson Davis,
[15]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Campbell, and Barnwell, and' hundreds besides, were the
equals in intellectual ability, in capacity to understand
government, and
political
I think
may
it
devotion to the
in patriotic
any
principles of republican liberty, of
in
the North.
be safely asserted that no people on earth
are more attached to the principles and institutions of
freedom,
constitutional
more jealous of their rights
under the Constitution, or more conservative
spirit in
They were misrepresented
me
and
their
to the world as a semibarba-
A
rous people because they had slaves.
told
in
maintaining them, than the people of the South.
Federal general
that he was born and reared in
New England,
enlisted in one of the first regiments raised, not only
for the purpose of saving the Union, but also of liberat-
ing the slaves and subduing the "barbarians of the
He
South."
said that after the
war he was put
in
charge of one of the Military Districts of the South,
and
his official duties
many
brought him
into'
association with
of the public men of the Confederacy.
he was amazed
tO'
find such
men.
guage, he said: "I never met a
To
finer
He
said
quote his own lan-
type of intelligent
manhood in my life, and it is still a mystery
to me how you could rear such men under a system that
allowed slavery."
The Southerners were not imbeciles,
if the Ambassador to England did write them down as
They
such in his ridiculous book. The Southerner,
Christian
understood what they wanted, and their rights
case.
like
They had good ground for
the
]Men
Robert E. Lee knew what they were doing, and why
they did
at
their conduct.
in
it.
For
the honor of their
some of their reasons.
memory
*******
[16]
let us look
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
I assert that the right of
the Union
was
fii'st
When
is
a State to withdraw from
proved by the nature of the Union when
it
formed.
won
the thirteen Colonies
their independence,
"Virginia made a decla-
they became sovereign States.
ration on the 12th of June, 1776, renouncing her colonial
dependence on Great Britain and separating herself
On
forever from that kingdom.
the 29th of June, in
the same year, she performed the highest function of
independent sovereignty by adopting and ordaining a
constitution prescribing an oath of fealty and allegiance
for
all
who might hold
office
under her authority, and
that remained as the organic law of the Old Dominion
until 1829."
All the other Colonies became sovereign States in the
same way.
These independent States sent delegates to
a Convention which mad'e a Declaration of Independence.
This Declaration affirmed that they were "free and independent States."
When
the
War
of the Revolution
they were recognized by England as "free, sov-
closed,
ereign,
and independent States."
tion which
had been formed at
The
first,
loose confedera-
and which was held
together only by the necessity of united action
in the
common struggle for freedom, being found inadequate
for the pui'poses of a Federal government, a new Union
was formed by the adoption of a Constitution.
right of secession was implicit in this document.
In 1830 Webster made a celebrated speech
to
Hayne of South
Carolina.
speech, and, perhaps, did
in
The
reply
This was an epochal
more than anything
else to
promote and establish the Northern idea of the Union,
for
it
became a school
declaimed
it,
classic.
and were educated
[17]
Millions of school boys
in their political opin-
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
ions
by
So far as the speech was a reply to Hayne's
it.
doctrine of Nullification, I think Webster demolished
That doctrine held that a State could declare a
law passed by Congress null and void in its bounds.
I
him.
do not think such a doctrine can be derived from the
Constitution, or be harmonized with
Webster was
clearly in error
speech
the
that
Constitution
from the people."
"We,
On
its
But
principles.
when he claimed in that
"emanated immediately
Webster misconstrued the words,
the people," in the preamble to the Constitution.
the strength of these words he held that the Federal
government was "a popular government," "erected by
the people."
That is true, but not in the sense in which Webster
meant it, for he meant, as he said, that it "emanated
immediately from the people." It did not emanate
immediately from the people, but mediately from the
Now,
people, acting through the States.
the whole premise of Webster's
if this is true,
famous argument
and the immense conclusions based on
false,
by the board.
This
is
is
must go
a daring assertion in view of
Webster's great fame ; but
at the facts in the case.
it
it is
Look
true, nevertheless.
When
it
was decided to create
a new and stronger Union, Congress recomviended
mark
that word
—
—
to the States that they send delegates
to a convention, which
should "re^^se the Articles of
Confederation, and report to Congress and the several
legislatures
(italics
mine) such alterations and provi-
sions therein as shall,
when agreed
to in
Congress and
confirmed hy the States, render the Feder-"] Constitution
adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation
of the Union."
action
on
this
The
States,
recommendation.
ri8i
A
as
States,
majority
of
took
the
THE SOUTH WAS EIGHT.
States accepted
it,
and appointed delegates
stitution
was
to the
When
vention that framed the Constitution.
this
ConCon-
was submitted, not to the people
finished, it
en masse, but to the several States for their adoption.
Their
ratification
The
and force.
was necessary to give
whether they should adopt
but Virginia and
earnest debate,
validity
it
States called conventions to consider
it.
New York
and not
A
majority
ratified
it,
did so only after long and
until a long time after the others
North Carolina and Rhode Island held out
still longer
and Mrginia accepted the Constitution only
on the condition that certain amendments should be
added to it. Professor John Fiske makes it as clear as
had
acted.
;
the sun at noon, in his book,
"The
Critical Period of
American History," that the States were the parties to
the Federal compact, and that without their concur-
rence there could have been no Union.
and much more that might be adduced,
From all this,
I am bound to
think that Webster's famous postulate that the Constitution
"emanated immediately from the people"
History disproves
stand the test of facts.
will
not
The
it.
Federal Union was created by the American people act-
ing in their capacity as sovereign States.
respect to the
memory of Webster,
I
With
all
due
do not see how any
other conclusion can be reached from the facts.
But that you may not think
layman, I
will reinforce it
this the conclusion of a
with the confirmation of two
minds worthy to rank with Webster himself as political
statesmen.
No man who had
a hand in making the
Constitution was more capable of understanding
He was
it
than
when the Constitution was
under discussion and was familiar with the purpose and
He derived his
spirit of the convention that made it.
Madison.
there
[19]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
knowledge not from historical records and tradition, as
Webster
did,
but from actual contact with the work and
personal experience in framing the immortal document.
Madison said "The assent and ratification of the people,
not as individuals composing an entire nation, but as
:
composing
distinct
and independent States to which they
belong, are the sources of the Constitution.
fore,
flatly contradicts
tion
It
is,
not a national, but a federal compact."
there-
That
Webster's doctrine that the Constitu-
The
M. Curry, one
"emanated immediately from the people."
other authority I quote
the
is
Hon.
J. L.
He
of the ablest of our Southern statesmen.
said: "It
(the Constitution) was transmitted to the several State
Legislatures,
tions,
to'
be by them submitted to State conven-
and each State for
itself ratified at diff'erent times,
without concert of action, except
As
ascertained.
to
its
own
own
territory, its ratification
The
people.
vitality, not
the result to be
in
the jurisdiction of a State was limited
Constitution
was
got
from the inhabitants
its
limited to
its
validity,
its
as constituting one
great nation, nor from the people of
all
the States con-
from the concurrent action of
sidered as one people, but
a prescribed number of States, each acting separately
and pretending to no claim or right to act for or control
to decline
That each of
had the right
to ratify and remain out of the Union for all
other States.
time to come, no sane
access to the
man
these States
will
deny."
Dr. Curiy had
same sources of infonnation
as Webster,
was as capable of understanding the matter, and was as
loyal to the Constitution
;
yet he reached a conclusion
the very opposite of Webster's.
His conclusion has the
great advantage over Webster, too, in that Curry refers
to the facts in
support of
his view, while
[20]
Webster simply
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
made the bold
wrong.
The
Webster was
assertion without proof.
States
made the Union.
Furthermore, the States not only created the Union,
but the record shows that in ratifying the Constitution,
and forming the Union, they did not extinguish their
own sovereignty, but on
the contrary, definitely rescinded
to themselves all the powers not expressly delegated to
and in particular the right to
from the Union. Look at the facts. When
Virginia ratified the Constitution, and thus entered the
Union, she said: "The delegates do, in the name and in
behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make
the general government;
withdraii}
known that
the powers granted under the Constitution,
being derived from the people of the United States, inay
he resumed by
them whensoever the same
shall be per-
verted to their injury or oppression, and that every
power not granted thereby remains with them at their
will."
There is no ambiguity in that language. It
shows how Virginia understood her relation to the Union,
and it is important to keep it in mind for it was on
this very ground that Virginia acted when she seceded
from the Union. She simply did in 1861 what she
;
reserved the right to do in 1788.
When New York
the Union, she
understood that
ratified the Constitution,
made
if
it
even more emphatic that she
the Union was not
she could withdraw.
and entered
Her
ti-ue
people said:
to
its
purpose
"The powers of
government may be resumed by the people whenever
it
should become necessary to their happiness, that every
power, jurisdiction, and right which
is
not by the said
Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the
United States or the departments of the government
thereof, remains to the people of the several States, or
[21]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
whom
to their respective State governments, to
they
may
have granted the same."
What
New York
Virginia and
The Union
did
all
the rest did.
was, therefore, based upon the mutual con-
sent of independent States, not to surrender absolutely,
but to delegate to the Union certain attributes of sovereignty that were necessary to the general government.
The supreme
attribute of sovereignty they unquestion-
ably reserved, which was the right to recall the powers
We
granted to the general government.
now
are not
discussing the merits of the doctrine of secession
;
we
are simply looking the fact squarely in the face, and I
do not see how any one can doubt,
much
less
the right inhered in the compact as one of
mental principles, and was so understood by
at that time between the States
is
funda-
the par-
all
In view of the mutual jealousies that prevailed
ties.
it
deny, that
its
as certain as
any State had supposed
Union,
it
foiTtned the
composing the Union,
anything of the kind can be that
it
never would have entered
Union were not blind
of association involved
possible then,
and
this
;
if
could not withdraw fi'om the
to the
it.
Those who
danger
this
kind
but no other sort of Union was
Union was
all
that was needed
as long as the States were faithful to the Constitution.
The great men who
our wonderful Union trusted
built
to the patriotism of the people to obey the Constitution
as the
supreme law.
And
if
the
North had not
violated
the Constitution, the South never would have invoked
the legal right of secession to protect herself against
oppression.
I think I
But the right was
have established
my
there.
first
point, namely, that
the risht of a State to withdraw from the Union
[
22
is
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
proved by the nature of the Union when
formed.
The
is
I will
now advance
to'
my
it
was
first
second argument.
right of the State to withdraw from the Union
proved by the fact that
this doctrine
was held by
all
parts of the country for a long period after the Union
was formed.
The
fact that the South adliered to this
understanding of the Union, and when
threatened, actually appealed to
many
led
for protection, has
it
to think that the doctrine of secession
But
Southern theory.
the truth
threaten to put
it
is
that
it
was a
was not only
New England was
held equally in the North, but
first to
original
rights were
its
the
She did not do
in use.
so,
not because she doubted the right, but because her interests
fortunately did not demand
hardly admissible to
on
this point;
a State
tO'
cite
nobody
So
secede.
it.
It
is,
perhaps,
men
the testimony of Southern
in the
South doubted the right of
I will restrict
myself
to'
the testi-
mony of Northern men.
In 1811 a
bill
into the Union.
was before Congress to admit Louisiana
New England
bitterly opposed the
bill.
Josiah Quincy, member of Congress from Massachusetts,
made a speech
in opposition
speech he said: "If this
Union are virtually
pose
it is
it
bill
toi
the measure.
In this
passes, the bonds of the
The
dissolved.
States which com-
are free from their moral obligation.
the right of all (italics mine), so
it will
of some to prepare for separation, amicably
And
be the duty
if
they can,
Here we have one of the
asserting on the
England
most statesmen of New
forcibly if they must."
as
forefloor
of Congress that secession is a right of all the States
and nobody seems to have contradicted him. Nobody
could contradict him, for at that time everybody
admitted the right.
r
^^
-,
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
In 1828, only two years before his famous speech
promulgatmg the new doctrine of an "indissoluble
Union," Webster prosecuted Theodore Lyman, of Boston, for libel.
Lyman had charged that Webster was
guilty of treasonable conduct because he had taken part
Union which was begun in New
England in 1807. Lyman was defended by Samuel
Hubbard, who aftei*ward became a Justice of the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Hubbard held that
in a plot to dissolve the
the charge was not libellous, because "a confederation
of
New England
States to confer with each other on
the subject of dissolving the Union was not treason.
The several States are independent, and not dependent.
Every State has the right to secede from the Union."
Here we have a distinct assertion of the right of
sion by an eminent New England jurist.
William Rawle was one of the most eminent
authorities in his day.
cellor of the
Law
He was
for
many
seces-
legal
years Chan-
Association of Philadelphia, and the
author of The Revised Code of Pennsylvania.
He
was
the author of a book called "Views of the Constitution,"
West Point
Military Academy when many of the men who adhered
which
to
is
said to have been a textbook in the
the South in
the
separation were students there.
This, of course, gave the doctrines of the book the
Here is what
Rawle said about the Union: "The Union was formed
by the voluntary agreement of the States, and in uniting
together they have not forfeited their nationality, nor
official
endorsement of the government.
have they been reduced to one and the same people.
one of the States chooses to withdraw
contract,
it
would be
difficult
its
name from
to disprove
its
If
the
right of
doing so; and the Federal government would have no
[24]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
means of maintaining
claim, either
its
by force or
right.
* * * It depends on the State itself to retain or abolish
the principle of representation, because
itself
whether
* * *
To
deny
will
it
member of
continue a
this right
depends on
it
the Union,
would be inconsistent with the
principles on which our political systems are founded.
The
right must be considered an original ingredient in
the
composition
of
the
government,
general
which,
though not expressed, was mutually understood. * * *
The secession of a State from the Union depends on the
will
of the people of such State."
Let me remind you that I
monies
The
may
not advocating the
testi-
unconsciously bias you to that thought.
doctrine was shot to death on a thousand bloody
and there
battlefields,
I
am
These clear and strong
doctrine of secession.
am doing
is
is
to prove
no resurrection for
tO'
the
it.
What
young people of today
that the people of the South in 1861 had the legal right
to secede.
And
I think the testimony of these
Northern
men, men who rank among their foremost for
virtue
ability,
and patriotism, demonstrate beyond a doubt that
the people of the
North held the doctrine
of
How
South.
the
could
that be
as well as those
"rebellion"
and
"treason" in 1860 which was taught, with the sanction
of the government, twenty years before
in
the very
school which of all others needed to inculcate correct
Yet what the government taught was
ideas of duty.'^
truth in 1840 was declared to be rank "rebellion" in
1860!
But
let
me quote some more testimony on
point, the original right of a State to secede, for
this
it
is
very interesting to see how the logic of facts compels
even the most reluctant to admit
and
will
prevail.
The
it.
Truth
satanic proverb
[25
1
may
is
mighty
be true,
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
that a He can get around the world while truth
on
its
boots
;
overtakes the
lie in
is
pulling
may
but, however slow-footed truth
be, it
Truth has a marvelous
the end.
"The eternal years of God are hers."
Sherman say something about "the
staying power.
Did not Gen.
revenges of history.'"'
Well, they are very
real.
In 1860 the South had no more vigorous hater than
Goldwin Smith.
His pen did valiant service for the
North, and hindered abroad that recognition of the
Confederate States by foreign powers, which was the
Yet thirty years
only chance of success the South had.
after the war, when
liis
passion had subsided, when the
Falsehood he had defended stood forth, stripped by
impartial
Time of
"Few who have
its
disguise, he said
of Secession
looked into history can doubt that the
Union originally was a compact, dissoluble, perhaps,
most of them would have said, at pleasure; dissoluble
certainly on breach of the articles of Union."
It must
be very strong evidence to compel that admission from
such an opponent.
Of
course
it is
that when he was denouncing us in
charitable to think
1860-65 as "rebels,"
"traitors" and semibarbarians, and clamoring for our
extermination, pleading with
let
Uncle
Sam
England
itable to think that
to
—
wipe us from the earth
I
hands
say
off
it is
and
char-
when he was doing this he had not
It was the audacity of igno-
"looked into history."
rance.
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, who is a senator from
life of Webster in the American Statesmen Series.
In that work Lodge says:
Massachusetts, wrote the
"When
the Constitution was adopted by the votes of
States at Philadelphia,
and accepted by the votes of
States in popular conventions,
[26]
it
is
safe to say that
;
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
there was not a mian in the country,
from Washington
and Hamilton, on the one side, to George Chnton and
George j\Iason, on the other, who regarded the new
system as anything but an experiment entered upon by
the States, and from which each and every State had
nght peaceably
the
to withdraw, a right which
was very
likely to be exercised."
I will quote only one
a
man who, though
more testimony, but that
he fought against us,
is
from
and
is
fair
open-minded, and whose manly and honest utterances
about the South and her great struggle have helped to
from the
clear the clouds of prejudice
skies.
I
mean
Gen. Charles Francis Adams, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In
his noble
address on the
Washington and Lee
University, an address noble for its manly frankness
and fraternal spirit, Gen. Adams said this
"The technical argument the logic of the propooccasion of the Lee Centennial at
sition
The
in
—
—seems
plain, and, to
my
thought, unanswerable.
original sovereignty was indisputably in the State
order to establish a nationality certain attributes of
sovereignty were ceded by the States to a
organization
tral
;
all
attributes not
common
thus
cen-
specifically
conceded were reserv^ed to the States, and no attributes
of
moment were
tion.
There
to be construed as conceded
is no'
—
Now we come
was
—
ship—not among
as
allegiance
citizenship.
So far
all
is
to the crux of the proposition.
allegiance
by implica-
attribute of sovereignty so important
elementary.
Not only
the ricrht to define and establish citizenthe attributes specifically conceded
by
the several States to the central nationality, but, on the
contrary,
it
was
explicitly
reserved,
declaring that 'the citizens of each
[27]
the
instrument
State should be
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
and immunities of
entitled to all the privileges
in the several States.'
fore,
due
ship,
and not
to the State
as citizens
Ultimate allegiance was, there-
which defined and created citizen-
to the central
whomever
citizens
organization which accepted
the States pronounced to he such J"
(Italics mine.)
This testimony
is all
the stronger in that
Adams
takes
the other side of the question as to the right of secession.
Let us admit that there are two
is
sides to the subject.
It
preposterous to suppose the North did not have some
ground on which to stand.
But
so did the South,
immense preponder-
as far as I have been able to see, the
ance of proof
established
my
is
on the Southern
and
side.
I think I
have
second point, namely, that the right of a
State to secede from the Union was the understanding
of
parts of the country for a long period after the
all
Union was formed.
I will
now advance
to
my
third
argument.
The
right of a State to withdraw from the Union, or
at least the fact of secession, and,
by implication, the
grounds on which
proved by the treat-
it
was exercised,
is
ment of the seceded States after the war.
let
Here again
us face the facts.
Eleven States, acting on their constitutional right, as
they claimed, by due and proper process of law, reas-
sumed the powers they had originally ceded
eral Union,
free,
and became what they were
sovereign,
to the
in the
and independent States.
Fed-
beginning,
The North
denied the right of these States to withdraw, and held
that a State once in the Union was in forever.
This
was the view Mr. Lincoln held, and on which he proceeded
to act.
According to
this view the
Confederates were
a lawless combination of disaffected people within the
[28]
::
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
States that claimed to have seceded, in rebelhon against
legitimate authority
the
of the Federal government,
which the President was in duty bound to suppress.
It
was to maintain the doctrine that a State could not
secede from the Union that the North fought the war
The emancipation of the slaves of the South
was definitely proclaimed as a war measure, and justito a finish.
fied
on the ground that
it
was necessary to preserve the
Union.
Now
on
this theory, it
was self-evident that when the
government
lawless combinations in rebellion against the
in
the seceded States were overcome, and the Federal
all,
the States were in their
former relation to the Union.
That had never been
authority acknowledged by
changed, for, they
said,
a State in once
is
in forever.
Gen. Sherman and Gen. Johnston made their agreement
for the surrender of Johnston's army on the basis of
an agreement which was promptly rejected
by the authorities at Washington, ostensibly on the
ground that military commanders in the field could not
this theory,
meddle with political matters
;
but they really had other
things in mind.
This
is
the place for a good story of Johnston's sur-
by John S. Wise in his entertaining book,
"The End of xVn Era." It is a httle long, but will put
Wise says
a little spice in the otherwise dry argument.
render, told
"Johnston had known Sherman well in the United States
army. Their first interview near Greensboro resulted
in
an engagement to meet for further discussion the folAs they were parting, Johnston remarked
lowing day.
'By the way, Cumps, Breckenridge, our Secretary of
War, is with me. He is a very able fellow, and a better
[29
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
lawyer than any of
If there
us.
is
no objection, I
will
him along tomorrow.'
fetch
"Bristling up, General Sherman exclaimed, 'Secretary
of War!
No, no; we don't recognize any civil govei'nment among you fellows, Joe. No, I don't want any
Secretary of War.'
" 'Well,' said General Johnston, 'he
general in the Confederate anny.
tion
to'
" 'Oh
his
'major general!
bring
I shall
major
also a
any objec-
presence in the capacity of major
quoth Sherman, in
!'
is
Is there
general.'^'
characteristic
his
Well, any major general you
But
be glad to meet.
no Secretary of War.
Do you
recollect,
way,
may
Johnston,
understand.'"
"The next day General Johnston, accompanied by
Major General Breckenridge, was at the rendezvous
before Sherman.
" 'You
was.?'
know how fond of
added General Johnston, as he went on with
story.
'Well,
For
absorbed.
difficult, if
effect
tlio
dull
liquor Breckenridge
his
nearly
eveirything
to
several days Breckenridge
not impossible,
to^
procure liquor.
of his enforced abstinence.
and heavy that morning.
had given him a plug of very
had found it
He showed
He
Somebody
fine
his
drink had been
was rather
in
Danville
chewing tobacco, and
he chewed vigorously while we were awaiting Sherman's
coming.
in
After awhile the
for being late.
a
latter arrived.
He
bustled
with a pair of saddlebags over his arm, and apologized
chair.
He
placed his saddlebags carefully upon
Introductions
followed,
and
for
a
while
General Sherman made himself exceedingly agreeable.
Finally, some one suggested that
the matter in hand.'
[30]
we had better take up
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
a iy
'Yes,' said Sherman; 'but, gentlemen,
me
to
and
occurred
it
that perhaps 3'ou were not overstocked with liquor,
I
my way
procured some medical stores on
over.
Will you join me before we begin work?'
"General Johnston said he watched the expression of
Breckenridge at
Tossing
his
when the
this
announcement, and
quid into the
bottle
was
it
beatific.
he rinsed his mouth, and.
fire,
and the glass were passed
to
him he
poured out a tremendous drink, which he swallowed with
great satisfaction.
his
With an
air of content, he stroked
mustache and took a fresh chew of tobacco.
Then
they settled down to business, and Breckenridge never
shone more brilliantly than he did
He
followed.
rule
seemed to have at
in
the discussion which
his tongue's
end every
and maxim of international and constitutional law,
—
and of the laws of war international wars, civil wars,
and wars of rebellion. In fact, he was so resourceful,
cogent, persuasive, learned, that, at one stage of the
proceedings, General Sherman, when confronted by the
authority, but not convinced
ing
Breckenridge,
of
by the eloquence or learnback his chair, and
pushed
exclaimed: 'See here, gentlemen,
rendering anyhow.^
me sending
who
is
doing
this sur-
If this thing goes on, you'll have
a letter of apology
to'
Jeff Davis.'
"Afterward, when they were nearing the close of the
conference,
thought.
Sherman sat for some time absorbed in deep
Then he arose, went to the saddlebags and
fumbled for the
ment.
tossed
it
Breckenridge saw the move-
bottle.
Again he took
his
into the fireplace.
quid from
his
mouth and
His eye brightened, and he
gave every evidence of intense interest in what Shennan
seemed about to do. The latter, preoccupied, perhaps
unconscious
of
his
action,
poured out
[31]
some
liquor,
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
shoved the bottle back into the saddle-pocket, walked to
the window and stood there, looking out abstractedly,
while he sipped his
expectation
the
From
grog.
on
expression
pleasant hope and
Breckenridge's
face
changed successively to uncertainty, disgust and deep
depression.
At
last his
hand sought the plug of tobacco,
and, with an injured, sorrowful look, he cut off another
Upon
chew.
this he
the interview, taking
"After
man
ruminated during the remainder of
little
part
in
silent reflections at the
bustled back, gathered
up
what was
said.
window, General Sher-
and said:
his papers,
'These terms are too generous, but I must hurry away
before you
them
make me
sign a capitulation.
to the authorities at
how they
I will
Washington, and
let
With that he bade
are received.'
off"
as he
you hear
the assem-
bled officers adieu, took his saddlebags on his
went
submit
arm and
had come.
"General Johnston took occasion, as they
left
the
house and were drawing on their gloves, to ask General
Breckenridge how he had been impressed by Sherman.
" 'Sherman is a bright man, and a man of great
force,'
replied
tion, 'but,'
Breckenridge, speaking with delibera-
raising his voice
and with a look of great
intensity, 'General Johnston, General
Yes,
sir,
a hog.
Did you
see
Sherman
is
a hog.
him take that drink by
himself.'"
"General Johnston tried to assure General Breckenridge that General Sherman was a royal good fellow, but
the most absent-minded
man
in the world.
He
told
him
that the failure to offer him a drink was the highest com-
pliment that could have been paid
tO'
the masterly argu-
ments with Avhich he had pressed the Union commander
to that state of abstraction.
[32]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
" 'Ah !' protested the big Kentuckian, half sighing,
half gneving, 'no Kentucky gentleman would ever have
taken away that bottle.
needed
it
"The
He knew we
needed
badly.'
make it pubhc
On one occasion,
story was well told, and I did not
until after General Johnston's death.
being intimate with General Sherman, I repeated
Laughing
him.
but
if
heartily, he said
Joe Johnston told
hustled
and
it,
me
day
so that
give them,'
I
it,
:
'I
was
it
it
to
don't remember
it,
so.
Those fellows
was sorry for the drink
and with that
sally
I did
he broke into fresh
laughter."
The
story
a
is
fine
of
illustration
the Confederate argument.
the
force
of
Breckenridge, doubtless,
shrewdly accepted Sherman's theory of the relation of
Confederates to the Union, and on that ground but one
Sherman had
conclusion could be logically reached.
Johnston "we don't recognize
among you
fellows,"
any
and refused
civil
to
told
government
consent to the
presence of Breckenridge in his character of Secretary
of
War
of the Confederate States.
According to Sher-
man's theory, which was the theory of the Federal government from the beginning of the struggle, no State
had
on
left the
Union, or could leave the Union.
this theory, the States, as States,
same relation
trouble began.
to
Of
course,
were in exactly the
Union as they were before the
when the armed resistance to Federal
the
So,
authority within their borders ceased, they would logi-
and naturally, and automatically, resume their
and exercise their powers. No wonder Sherman
was "abstracted" as he sat in the window. He was
right the truth about their high-handed and unlawful
cally,
rights
;
conduct demanded "an apology to Jeff Davis" and the
[33]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
civilized world.
when the
case
Sherman's sword was
came
into court, the truth
irresistible
;
but
was all-powerful,
and made the victor "absent minded."
But
the government at
Washington did not intend
allow the Confederate Secretary of
to'
War
to win a
Their argument from the
brilliant diplomatic victory.
had been the sword, the argument of superior
first
They had won
force.
The South
the case with that argument.
was defeated, exhausted, prostrate, and at their mercy.
They
did not intend to allow
Revenge and punishment were
upon
to get
it
in
its
feet.
order next.
So they deliberately reversed the theory on which they
had fought the war to a victorious end, and after spending
billions
of money and sacrificing hundreds of thou-
sands of lives to uphold the doctrine that a State once
the
in
Union was
in
forever, they declared that the
and proceeded to
seceded States were out of the Union
readmit them into the Union.
I
am
not now concerned
with the inconsistency of this course
whatever
dom,
it
South^
may have
been
its
motive,
;
its
but
I
wisdom or unwis-
completely admits the paramount position of the
—that
a State could withdraw
I think I have established
my
from the Union.
third point
—namely, that
the treatment of the seceded States after the
that a State could withdraw
advance to
The
hold that,
my
from the Union.
war proved
I will now
fourth argvnnent.
right of a State to withdraw from the Union
is
proved by the failure of the government to try Jefferson
Davis, or any other Confederate
was over.
one
;
I
admit that
this
officer,
argument
is
when the war
an inferential
but the facts are so significant that they are of
great force in the case.
[34]
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
According to the theoiy of the government from the
beginning to the
close of the
war, Davis and
Confederates were traitors and were
all
to
liable
other
all
the
During the war they were
uniformly accused by the North of treason, called
"rebels" and the war a "rebellion," and public opinion
consequences of treason.
When
clamored for their punishment as "traitors."
Davis and other Confederates were captured they were
thrown into prison and treated as
One by one they were
traitors.
if
they were in fact
released without trial.
Davis was formally indicted, but was not brought to
He
trial.
earnestly desired
so did his friends,
it,
and
the whole South, confident that he would not only be
acquitted of treason, but that the result of the trial
would demonstrate
whole
to the
civilized
After a long imprison-
justice of the Southern cause.
ment, Davis was released on
him was
world the legal
bail,
and the case against
finally dismissed.
Why was
Davis and the
rest of the Confederates never
tried for the crime with which they were accused with
such unanimity and vehemence during the war ?
It can-
not be ascribed to magnanimity on the part of the conquerors.
I
wish I could think
it
was, for
it
would help
away one of the darkest blots on the fair name of
American civilization. But the facts forbid the idea.
The largest magnanimity of thought about it now, when
to clear
all
motive for unjust accusation has vanished in the
kinder spirit that prevails,
treatment of Mr.
Monroe with the
Davis
unable to reconcile the
is
as
a
prisoner
idea of magnanimity.
in
Foi'tress
He was
held in
rigorous confinement, compelled to be under a bright
light
his
and the
sleepless eye of a
guard night and day
health was bi'oken and wasted with four years of
[35]
THE SOUTH WAS BIGHT.
anxiety and care
and
ball
;
yet they put handcuffs on his wrists
and chain on
his ankles, not for security,
but to
degrade and humiliate him and the South; they refused
him
all
little
intercourse with his family and friends
when
;
his
three-year-old girl asked "if she might write to
papa," they consented, provided what she wrote was
proper for him
Instructed by her devoted
read.
to
mother, and to be sure that what she wrote would not
be refused, knowing that just the sight of her hand-
writing would comfort her
afflicted father,
the
little
girl
copied the twenty-third Psalm, but they refused to allow
it
to go to him.
who were
Oh, no
In the dark souls of the
!
men
power then there was no thought of clemency,
and they were as incapable of magnanimity as the Prior
in
of the Spanish Inquisition.
They tortured Davis with
damn their memory
a refinement of cruelty that will
forever, and which no effervescence of patriotic twentieth
centui'y fraternity can expunge.
Why
their
did they not try him.^
way except one
and that was
thousands.
They had everything
thing, and they were afraid of that,
truth.
The Torch
The Sword
could slaughter
its
could reduce to ashes the sacred
homes and shrines of the South.
A
million
men
in arms,
make
the nations stand in awe. But the Sword and the Torch
and the Bayonets of a million men recoiled from the
adamantine front of Truth as it was represented in the
the seasoned veterans of a hundred battles, could
frail,
emaciated person of Jefferson Davis.
The}" could
persecute him, but they were afraid to prosecute him.
him and they
left him.
among them Daniel
O'Connell,
Justice held her shield above
Davis had eminent counsel,
the famous Irish barrister, and his trial would have been
one of international interest.
[36]
Secure
in
the power of
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
the Sword, the victors were too wise to allow their
title
to be tested b}^ the law before a court of justice.
The
of Jefferson Davis would have afforded the South
trial
a splendid opportunity to vindicate itself before the
civihzed world,
would have
where
it
and
I
have not a shadow of doubt that
settled the whole responsibility for the
it
war
belonged, on the North, and proved beyond dis-
and not the
pute that they,
Southerners,
were
in
"rebellion" against the Constitution on v.hich the Union
was founded
in the beginning.
But enough has been said to show that the States up
to 1860 had a legal right to withdraw from the Union.
That right no longer exists, but it did exist then and it
was the definite ground on wliich the Southern people
acted.
The fallacies of the Northern argument against
are
For example It was said that
it
easily exposed.
;
:
as the Constitution itself was silent on the question of
secession, it
had
as
was a matter of construction, and the North
much
right to construe
South had to construe
that
is
that
it is
it in
it
against secession as the
favor of
The answer
it.
to
a principle universally admitted that a
document must be construed according to the intention
of those who made
it.
I
have shown in the evidence I
have given that those who made the Union understood
that the States had the right
North,
the
therefore,
toi
withdraw from
construed the
it.
When
to
Constitution
forbid secession, they did so in violation of the universal
rule of interpretation of legal documents.
this respect
had the right on
Again
first
said
:
:
In his
The South
in
its side.
inaugural address, Mr. Lincoln
"If the United States be not a government proper,
but an association of States
merely, can
it,
in the
nature of a contract
as a contract, be peaceably
[37]
unmade by
less
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
than
the parties
all
tract ma}'^ violate
not require
It
is
it
who made
—break
One party
it?
so to
it,
to a con-
speak —-but
does
it
to lawfully rescind it?"
all
strange that so clear a reasoner as Mr. Lincoln
undoubtedly was, did not
see that the simple
swerable repl}^ to that
that
is
and unan-
depends on the nature
it
made
of the contract.
If when the contract v/as
understood by
the parties to the transaction that each
all
it
was
one had the right to withdraw from the contract, and
if
was expressly reserved, then a notice of with-
this right
drawal was a legal dissolution of the compact.
have shown that
stand when
it
all
was
Now
I
the parties to this Union did under-
first
formed that they had the right to
withdraw, and several of them expressly reseiTed that
right.
did not, therefore, "require
It
intended
point.
sal
It
it
He
to'
lawfully
Notice of withdrawal was a legal dissolution.
rescind it."
Again:
all
was said that the foundel^s of the Union
Mr. Lincoln
to be perpetual.
stressed that
said: "I hold that in contemplation of univer-
law, and of the Constitution, the LTnion of these
States
is
perpetual.
expressed, in
the fundamental law of
Most
ments."
Perpetuity
assuredly.
not
is
implied,
all
national govern-
But there
is
a
if
difference
between a "national government" and a Federal government, such as was
in the
"contemplation" of the framers
of our Union in the beginning.
In a federal union per-
petuity depends on the fidelity of
tract.
I
take
it
that no sane
national government, such as
which he succeeded
all
man
parties to the conwill
Lincoln had
in establishing,
claim that a
in
mind, and
would have met with
any favor with the founders of the American Union.
Hamilton, perhaps, dreamed of it and desired it, but
the solidarity and centralized authority which
[38]
it
involved
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
power they were
too nearly resembled the monarchical
throwing
them to favor
off for
it.
They
intended
be perpetual only on the condition that they
the Constitution
;
if
all
it
to
obeyed
that fundamental law of the
Union
was disregarded and broken they were absolved and had
The
the legal right to withdraw.
idea of unconditional
perpetuity was read into the Constitution by the North
long after the Union was fonned.
The
Union seems
true history of the
to be as follows
After the American colonies had won their independence
from Great Britain, they became sovereign
For
States.
the more effective purposes of government these States,
in their capacity as sovereign States,
formed a federal
union, and adopted a Constitution.
This Union was
intended to be perpetual, but only upon the condition of
the faithful obserA'ance of the fundamental law of the
Constitution.
They
all
understood that they had the
reserved right to withdraw from the
stitution
was not obeyed.
national, instead of a federal,
North.
Union
if the
Con-
Gradually the idea of a
compact grew up
in the
The economic development
The great influx of European
of the
Northern
States favored this idea.
emigration introduced into the North a multitude of
people
who knew nothing of State Rights
sympathy with the South, were
African slavery, and to
whom
violently
the very
—had
no
opposed to
name of
the
Union was the synonym of the liberty they craved, and
came to America to enjoy. This idea of a National
Union, one and indissoluble forever, found an eloquent
spokesman in Danial Webster, and spread like wildfire
from New England to California. A whole generation
in the North was reared up to believe that the Union
was created immediately by the people, and that it was
[39]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
supreme over the States, and that loyalty to the Union
was the
first
duty of
all
On
Americans,
the other hand,
the South adliered to the idea that the Union was not
national, but federal, in
the States,
and had
its
nature
strictly
that
;
it
hmited powers
was made by
and
;
tliat if
the Constitution was violated every State had the right
to withdraw
the
South
as
an
country
agricultural
Generation
theory.
The economic
from the Union.
fell
And
they gave
this
it
lived,
and died
in
up only when they
This was the difference
bleeding at every pore.
between the North and the South
What
favored
after generation of Southerners
from the beginning were reared, and
this political faith.
interests of
part did slavery have in
in
1860.
it.'^
A very
The poor African savages were run down
great part.
in their native
jungles by cruel English and American slave-hunters
and brought to this country in New England ships by
Yankee slave dealers. They were bought and sold in
Boston as well as
But
in Charleston.
unprofitable in the rigorous climate
soil
of
New England,
the South.
while
So the shrewd
it
sterile
was highly profitable in
New Englanders
the few slaves they had for good
They
their labor proved
and on the
money on
unloaded
the South.
then became very virtuous and discovered that
slavery was a horrible crime,
South should liberate the
and demanded that the
As the North did not
slaves.
have slaves and the South did this became a sectional
issue.
It
was the North against the South.
grew apart both
in their political
their property interests.
So they
convictions and in
This went on until the dispute
culminated in the terrible war for the Union.
Let me resort to a parable to
of the Negro to the struggle.
[40]
illustrate the relation
Once there were two men
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
who were neighbors.
They were very
friendly for a
long time, but gradually they became estranged.
He was
Smith had a large black dog.
and Smith was anxious to get
Jones.
sold
him
The dog soon became very
Newfoundland.
He trained him to
gO'
Mr.
him
Finding that
rid of him.
wanted a dog he
his neighbor, Jones,
wortliless to
his black
useful to
errands and bring or carry
packages, and in various ways
to'
The
render service.
dog was well treated, indeed, he was one of the family,
and a strong attachment existed between him and all the
This excited the envy of Mr. Smith, who
household.
was an editor, and he began to wr^ite cruel things in his
paper about people who made their dogs work. Jones
was a high-spirited man, and he resented the unjust
things Smith said. This only made Smith worse. One
day he came over to Jones' home and said: "Jones, you
have got to> let that dog go. You shan't make him work
for you any longer."
of his business
Jones told Smith that
;
Smith said he did not care what
there was "a higher law," and he intended
to see that that
dog was turned
on the front door
step.
When
the house, Jones hit him
Then
was none
the law protected him in his right to the
;
dog, and he could leave.
the law said
it
the fight began.
Smith attempted to enter
straight between the eyes.
Smith got the worst of
away and
awhile, but he went
All this passed
loose.
ture was
way
smashed
in
for
hired a German, an Irish-
man, a Bohemian and a Negro, and with these
him, he forced his
it
into Jones' house.
the stitiggle.
to help
All the furni-
Jones' wife and
children were driven out, and the place was wrecked.
But they held
their
helping Jones
all
ground manfully, the faithful dog
he could.
"Fire the barn," shouted
Smith, and the Irishman hurled the torch to the barn.
[41]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
"Burn
fire to
German set
upon Jones, who,
the house," shouted Smith, and the
the home.
Then
all
of them
fell
exhausted bj the unequal and long protracted contest,
sank under the overwhelming odds.
All
sat on
poor Jones, and the big Negro put
Jones'
neck and spit in his face.
gratified their
would
of them
five
his foot
When
anger they made him promise before they
him up that he would not make the dog
let
more work.
on
they had
Then they
do'
any
him.
left
In this parable Smith represents the North, Jones
and the dog represents the Negro.
represents the South,
Jones fought, not to keep the dog, but to defend his
rights as a
and
man and
a free citizen against the impudent
lawless intrusion of
Smith into
his private affairs.
The North demanded that the South set the Negroes
free.
The South told the North to attend to her own
business.
Then the North resolved to force the South
to yield to her demand, and the South fought
for her rights.
fight,
Of
for fighting
difficulties
man who
;
a finish
course, there should have been
is
but who was to blame, Jones or Smitli ?
won't defend his
home against
deserves to be kicked out of
******
that the States
up
right to withdraw from the Union, I
to
I
1860 had the
now take up
the
Admitting they had the
right, did the circumstances justify
Here again
the unwarranted
any decent community.
second part of the subject.
A
a cowardly wretch who
is
think Jones did exactly right.
Having shown
no
a barbarous method of settling
intermeddling of outsiders
it.''
to'
them
in exercising
I unhesitatingly take the
affirmative
and appeal to the facts.
In 1860 very few people in the South doubted the
legal right of a State to secede
[42]
from the Union
;
but a
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
great
many doubted
advised against
it.
the wisdom of
and earnestly
it
Jefferson Davis held that a State
could secede, but he opposed resorting to this extreme
Mr. Davis was as much misunderstood in the
Mr. Lincoln was in the South. He earnestly
deprecated an armed conflict with the North, yet he was
measure.
North
as
under no delusion either as
secession, or as
to' its
"A Diary from
to^
character.
certainty in case of
its
In her interesting book,
Dixie," Mrs. Chesnut relates a conver-
Mr. Davis just before the battle of First
She says "In
Manassas, or Bull Run, as we called it.
Mrs. Davis' drawing-room last night the President took
sation with
:
a seat
by me on a sofa where
an hour.
We
He
I sat.
laughed at our faith
We
are like the British.
talked for nearly
in
our own powers.
think every Southerner
equal to three Yankees at least.
equivalent to a dozen now.
He
After
We
will
have to be
his experience of the
fighting qualities of Southerners in Mexico' he believes
that we will do
endurance
all
and
And
that can be done by pluck and muscle,
dogged
courage,
and
dash
red-hot
There
For one
That
thing, either way, he thinks it will be a long war.
already.
long
for
me
floored me at once.
It had been too
Then he said, before the end came we would have many
patriotism.
yet his tone was not sanguine.
was a sad refrain running through
a bitter experience.
He
it
all.
said only fools
courage of the Yankees or their willingness
doubted the
toi
fight
when
And now that we have stung their pride
fit.
we have roused them till they will fight like devils." I
think that puts Mr. Davis in a new light to some people.
they saw
Instead of being the rabid fire-eater and over-confident
revolutionary leader
many have supposed
that he was, he
appears to have taken a very sober and sensible view
[4'3]
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
of the situation, to have fully appreciated the character
of the Northern people and to realize the true nature of
South had entered.
the struggle on which the
He
General R. E. Lee was opposed to secession.
not believe in
"secession
is
it
But we must
nothing but revolution."
always remember, when
say General Lee did not
Ave
believe in secession, that he did not
believe the State
mean he
had the right to secede.
it, and he said
proved that he did believe
"The
did
remedy for our wrongs, and said
as a
His conduct
so.
act of Virginia in withdrawing herself
Union carried him along
did not
He
as a citizen of Virginia,
her laws and acts were binding on him.
I
and
said:
from the
my
and
people
considered the act of the State legitimate, and that the
seceding States were merely using their reserved rights,
which they had a legal right to do."
So firmly con-
vinced was General Lee of the justice of the Southern
cause that he did not consider the consequences of the
Succeed or
struggle.
He
our rights.
fail,
said:
principles to maintain
we were
in the
duty demanded that we defend
"We
had, I was satisfied, sacred
and rights to defend, for which
duty bound to do our
in
endeavor."
best, even if
we perished
This was said on the eve of Appo-
mattox, when the ruin of the cause was unmistakable,
by a man who never spoke at random. After
the war, when he had time to review it all and the
and
said
leisure
and calm needful for safe conclusions, he said
"I fought against the people of the North because I
believed they were seeking to Avrest
the South their dearest rights."
Hampton "If
:
it
in precisely the
like he ever
were
from the people of
He
said to General
do over again,
all to
same manner."
That
I
would act
does not sound
had any doubts about the righteousness of
[
44
]
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Yet General Lee, after the war,
the cause.
before the Committee on Reconstruction
may
may have beheved
have said and I
of the two sections which they held
testified
folloAvs:
a.s
"I
that the position
tO'
each other was
brought about by the politicians of the country
;
that
the great masses of the people, if they had understood
the real question, would have avoided
believe at the time that
it.
* * * I did
was an unnecessary condition
it
of affairs and might have been avoided, if forbearance
and wisdom had been practiced on both
It would
sides."
be hard to frame a more truthful statement of the case.
But not only was
wisdom of
the
among
the prominent leaders,
and
of the people doubted
file
and
my
it.
doubted
secession
many among
the rank
We lived in Mississippi
father was a private citizen and a Methodist
He
minister.
believed the State
had the right to
but he regarded the secession movement as
political madness.
opposed secession.
little
secede,
short of
He clung to the Union and earnestly
He continued to oppose it long after
Mississippi had seceded, and with such earnestness that
our neighbors were offended, and some would not hear
But when Lincoln called for troops to
South he exclaimed: "That ends it. If he
him preach.
invade the
can do that he can do anything."
he was forced to take
sides,
So, like
all
the rest,
and with us there was but one
side to take.
Two paramount
in
considerations controlled the South
taking the step of secession.
First,
the growing
North to the South, and, second, the
of the North toward the Constitution. Let us
hostility of the
attitude
look at these reasons.
The
hostility of the
First, the hostility of the North.
North
is
seen in three things
:
First,
opposition to the territorial expansion of the South
[45]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
second,
persistent attack on the local institutions of
its
the South, and, third, continued misrepresentation and
defamation of the people of the South.
North was hostile tO' the territorial expanThere was no particular or strenuous
First, the
sion of the South.
opposition to "the Louisiana Purchase" under Jeffer-
two sections were
son's administration, because the
to begin
and
But
work.
its evil
we have
as
still
and the mutual jealousy had hardly had time
friendly,
it
seen, Josiah
sion of Louisiana
soon began to show
would be a just cause for the
tion of the Union.
It
itself,
Quincy declared the admisdissolu-
wrought immense mischief
Avhen
the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was settled.
The American
sent
minister in INladrid had secured the con-
Spain to recognize the Rio Grande as the
of
southern boundary instead of the Sabine River.
New England.
alanned
Southern territory would never do.
dent
Adams had
Madrid
to
the
This
Such an immense expansion of
To
negotiations
Once
Washington.
there,
prevent
it,
Presi-
transferred
from
it
was easy to hint
to the Spanish minister that if he would contend for
he could make the Sabine the
So
take the hint.
line.
New England
was not slow to
statesmanship, through
Southern expansion, deliberately gave back
hostility to
Texas to Spain.
When Andrew
Jackson discovered the
went to work to recover what would have been
facts, he
New England.
ours but for the opposition of
Houston
When
He
it
to
Texas
to
He
sent
foment a revolt from JMexico.
Texas, after winning her independence, sought
admission
into
the
Union,
New England
earnestly
by the skin of the teeth,
and through Jackson's vigor. England was offering
opposed
it.
It succeeded only
Texas great inducements
to get a naval base at Galves-
[46]
—
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Once
ton.
fortified there,
and
league with Texas,
in
England would have planted herself squarely across the
path of Southern advance. Houston had about exhausted
his influence with the Texas Legislature.
New England
opposition to annexation was about to throw Texas into
the arms of Great Britain.
A man
was dispatched by
Houston from Nacogdoches, then the Capital of Texas,
on horseback, to Jackson at Nashville, Tenn., to infonn
Jackson that
if
Congress hesitated any longer the treaty
with England would become a fact.
Jackson rushed a
messenger on horseback to Louisville, Ky., then up the
Ohio
last
to Pittsburgh, thence to
Washington, and
at the
moment thwarted New England and prevailed on
How
Congress to agree to the annexation of Texas.
absurd
it is
especially
for any Southerner, in view of these facts,
any Texan, to sing the hymn of Dr. Smith
"My
country,
of thee.
'tis
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing!
Land where my fathers died.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride," and
Neither Dr. Smith, nor any of
"pride"
in
in the
so on.
his people,
had any
South, and so far from having any pride
Texas, they were moving heaven and earth to keep
from becoming a part of our "country."
whether you
song
is
sung
for
like
in
substitute the
my
it
It
I
always teach m}^
it
a fact,
When
to be told or not.
home,
is
that
childi^en to
word "Patriot" for the word "Pilgrim."
Respect for those rugged old Pilgrims who were trying
to get
up out of
coming
into the
their graves to prevent
Texas from
Union forbids that we should include
that fair land in the "IMy country" of Dr. Smith's song.
[47]
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Every step of Southern expansion to the Pacific was
opposed by the North. Deny it, who can
Now, there was no such liostility on the part of the
South toward Northern expansion. On the contrary,
bitterl}^
Virginia gave to the North a territory almost the size of
When
Texas.
the
War
of the Revolution closed, Vir-
ginia had a vahd claim to "the Northwest Territory."
But with
patriotic devotion to the whole country she
ceded her claim to the newly
made Union
;
and out of
that territory was formed the great States of Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, so that Vir-
won the proud title from the patriotic heart of
America in the good old days of "Mother of States and
of statesmen."
But this generosity was soon forgotten
in the growing hostility to the whole South.
This hostility of the North expressed itself, secondly,
ginia
in the persistent attack
South,
on the
and especially of
local institutions of the
They began, and
They
slavery.
maintained, a systematic anti-slavery agitation.
held public meetings to denounce the South and political
conventions to organize against
berless papers
it.
They printed numto stirring up and
and pamphlets devoted
educating Northern public sentiment to hate the South.
They
secretly circulated documents
inciting the slaves to revolt.
make war
They employed
parties to
life.
the masses and
people.
By
pushed their
it
societies
and
on the Southern system of social
the most gifted orators to address
fire their
passions against the Southern
speech and pen, in ten thousand ways, they
hostile crusade against the South.
culminated in
its
natui'al
attempt of John Brown to
Southern
throughout the South
They formed
slaves.
and proper
incite a race
John Brown was an
[48]
Finally
result in
war among
anarchist.
the
tlie
Yet
:
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
he was a hero
North because he impersonated the
in the
general feehng of hostility to the South.
still,
his
They
as for that.
memory
when
safe,
it
build costly
ought
lie
is
a hero
monuments to keep
to rot in eternal oblivion.
In his famous Cooper Institute speech Mr. Lincoln said
this
about John
"That
affair,
many attempts
An
ors.
in
Brown's mad invasion of Virginia
philosoph}^, corresponds with the
its
at the assassination of kings
and emper-
enthusiast ventures the attempt which ends
in little else than his
own
Lincoln, which I believe
execution."
is
correct,
This estimate of
put John Brown
in
the class of Gitteau, the insane wretch who murdered
Garfield.
According to Lincoln,
assassin that "goes
it is
the "soul" of an
marching on," and monuments are
and peans sung to the arch anarch of our history. Lincoln classed John Brown with J. Wilkes Booth,
The North honors Brown and damns
his own assassin.
erected
Booth!
Can any one wonder that
the South felt that
her most sacred rights were in danger when the North
applauded John Brown as a national hero, and held him
up
as a glorified "martyr" and representative of the
and purposes of the North? What might we not
expect when the political party that claimed him as its
spirit
forerunner acquired the vast powers of the Federal
government
The
hostihty of the
North
seen in the continued
is
misrepresentation and defamation of the Southern peo-
greatest men, on whose memory,
It is by one of their
when he died, our own
great Lamar, sounding the
note of returning fra-
ple.
I
need
cite
only one example.
first
ternity over the subsiding floods of sectional hatred,
pronounced a noble eulogy.
If such a
man
could use
such violent, intemperate, vulgar, and insulting speech
[49]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
on the
floor of the
United States Senate, what might not
be expected from speakers
who
neither
for the ethics of public discussion ?
knew or cared
I refer to the speech
"The Crime Against Kansas,"
assault of Preston S. Brooks, mem-
of Charles Sumner on
provoked the
w^hicli
ber of Congress from South Carolina.
is
Every
vituperative.
speech
is
epithet
is
Every sentence
The whole
To' use his own
vitriolic.
an irruption of vulgar malice.
language, he "discharged the loose expectoration of his
speech" upon the South and her people.
an unfortunate thing,
There
chastised him.
it
was
do not wonder that Brooks
I
is
While
a limit to the license of abuse.
Human
nature can stand so much and no more, and
Sumner went far over the line. But as in the case of
John Brown, the North hailed in Sumner an exponent
of her sentiments and denounced Brooks as "a cowardly
assassin" and his State as a barbarous people.
this
In doing
they made the speech of Sumner an expression of
Northern sentiment
;
and
the South I do not
and darkness.
I
if
know
that speech does not slander
the difference between light
It smells of brimstone!
said one example of this misrepresentation would
serve
my
more
influential one.
purpose, but I must cite another, and a far
I
mean
the book, "Uncle
Cabin," by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.
West was
settled the wide prairies
luxuriant grass.
Tom's
Before the
were covered with
After a long season of rainless weather
a match carelessly thrown into the dry stubble would
would sweep in flaming fury
Nothing could stop it, or stand
carried ruin and death to man and beast
start a conflagration that
over the whole country.
before
in its
it.
It
path and
left a
blackened desert behind
it.
I
can
think of nothing that so appropriately illustrates the
[50]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
of Mrs. Stowe's book on the public opinion of the
effect
world.
was a lighted match thrown into the dry
It
stubble of the world's thought and set
who would never read
of people,
it
on
fire.
]Millions
a political speech, or
care for the argument of statesmen, read this vile book,
and got the idea that the Southern people were a
wicked barbarians, whose chief delight was
runaway
slaves
and
book was false
who read
believed it was true.
it
Over yonder
sit,
on
there
is
it tells
church,
the
in
to the core
us that
Of
but the millions
from where
I
The inscription
memory of Bishop
wall.
sacred to the
it is
;
visible
a marble tablet on the
of
set
hunting
upon them.
inflicting tortures
course, the
in
William Capers, of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.
is
Among many
revered
is
other things for which his
So
missions to the slaves."
Stowe was writing her
making
memory
the fact that he was "the founder of the
at the very time that Mrs.
libellous
account of slavery, and
millions believe the Southern people were little
better than savages,
and investing her slanders with
the romantic charms
of a pharasaical philanthropy,
Southern ministers of the Gospel, led by
this
godly
Bishop, were telling these poor benighted Negroes, torn
from
by Yankee cupidity, the story
their native land
of a Savior's love, and leading thousands of them to
Not one word
faith in Christ.
of this missionary work
among
Her purpose was
to blacken
succeeded in doing
it.
civilized
Her
does Mrs. Stowe
tell
the slaves of the South.
and defame
us,
and she
book, "translated into evciy
tongue, became world hterature."
The
effect
of this book in England in preventing the recognition
of the Confederacy was very great.
Francis
Adams
says:
General Charles
"There was but one way of
[51]
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
accounting for
tively
it.
Uncle
doing their work.
Tom
and Legree were respec-
So
was that The Index (a
it
paper that was pro-Southern)
despairingly
at
of the negro from
declared: 'The emancipation
slavery of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's heroes
is
last
the
the one idea
of the millions of British who know no better and do
Like the Cherubim with the flaming
not care to know.'
sword, this sentiment stood between Lancashire and cotton,
and the
made possible the subWith Pyrrhus, it was
inviolate blockade
jugation of the Confederacy.
thrown by a woman from a housetop
with Lee
a
tile
it
was a book issued by a woman from a printing press
The
were equally fatal."
missiles
When you
less
calmly
reflect
on
all this,
you
will
doubt-
admit that the South had good reason to be alarmed.
The North was growing more powerful
its spirit
more aggressive and
and
to the South,
its
;
all
intolerant.
the time, and
The
hostility
stern detennination to interfere with
domestic condition. Constitution or no Constitution,
justified the
South
in
seeking to protect
ing to the legal right of secession.
by
itself
At any
resoii:-
rate, the
vast majority beheved that their rights were no longer
safe in a Union controlled by such hostility.
But even more than by this
by the attitude of
hostility, the
influenced
the
South was
North toward the
Constitution.
The
Constitution was the basis of the Union.
attack that Avas to attack the foundation.
it
was to throw down
all
irresponsible
North
did.
I
affirm,
and
ignore
the barriers to tyranny, and
government to erect an
in the place of constitutional
despotism.
To
To
That
will
59.
]
is
exactly
what
the
prove, that the North
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
and
spurned
denounced
repudiated
They denounced
Wm. H.
the
Constitution.
and they disobeyed
it
Here
it.
is
They
it.
the proof:
Seward, one of their foremost men, and
afterward one of Lincoln's cabinet, said: "There
is
a
higher law than the Constitution which regulates our
authority over the domain.
and we must do
tive slave act
obey
this
it."
is filled
Slavery must be abolished,
Charles
Sumner
said:
"The
act."
William Lloyd Garrison said: "The Union
The American Union
is
!
Up with
is
a
lie.
an imposture, a covenant with
death and an agreement with
throw
fugi-
with horror; we are bound to dis-
hell.
We are
for
the flag of disunion, that we
its
over-
may have
a free and glorious republic of our own."
Joshua R. Giddings said: "I look for^vard to the day
when there shall be a servile insurrection in the South;
when the black man, armed with British bayonets, and
led on by British officei^s, shall assert his freedom and
wage war of extermination against his master. And,
though we may not mock at their calamity nor laugh
when their fear cometh, yet we will hail it as the dawn
of a political millennium."
Anson P. Burlingame said: "The times demand and
we must have an antislavery Constitution, an antislavery
Bible,
and an antislavery God."
This proof might be extended indefinitely
testimonies
from representative men
is
;
but these
sufficient.
They
express the true sentiment of the North, and disclose
an utter contempt for the Union on the basis of the
Constitution.
They disobeyed
the Constitution.
[53]
Here
is
the proof:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
The
Constitution recognized the right of property
and protected
States where slavery existed
it had not done so, those
when the Union was formed
would never have entered
it.
in slaves
million
slaves
in
If
it.
Now
and
South,
the
at the lowest computation a billion
Of
property.
were four
there
they
represented
worth of
dollars'
course slavery was an
evil.
All recog-
But the North was as responsible for it
as the South.
While it was an evil, it was not all evil.
As a rule the Negroes were treated kindly, and cruel
treatment was the exception.
The unanswerable proof
nized that.
of this
the fact thai during the
is
war the great mass
of the slaves were faithful to their masters, and helped
us in the struggle, and
many
after they were free, pre-
ferred to stay with "their people" to going with their
liberators.
It
had
for the slave, too, for
its benefits
trained ignorant Africans to habits of civilized
was a great industrial school for the
race.
life,
its evil,
ments about
ished.
it.
and give the
It
lie to'
was easy to say
it
ought to be abolthat,
and but
for the unwarranted interference of the North,
highly probable the way
did
it
the Northern state-
South believed
]\Iultitudes in the
and
All of this
did not justify the institution of slavery, but
mitigate
it
it
is
Avould have been found for the
gradual liberation of the
slaves.
some Negroes belonging to
his
General Lee liberated
family while the war was
But right or wrong, the South had over a
billion dollars invested in this form of property, and it
was protected by the Constitution. Besides the whole
social, civic and industrial life of the South was inexgoing
on.
tricably intertwined with the institution of slavery.
suddenly liberate the slaves was to wreck civilization
the South, and do more
harm than good,
[54]
as
To
in
was amply
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
demonstrated when the North
of the sword.
Now
finally did it
by the power
the cold-blooded pui'pose of the
North was, Constitution or no Constitution, to suddenly
destroy this vast property without compensation to the
and turn loose these four million ignorant
Negroes as free people upon the South. But to the
owners,
proof that the North disobeyed the Constitution.
Section 2, of Article IV, of the Constitution, says:
"No
person held to Service or Labor, in one State,
under the laws thereof, escaping into another State,
shall, in
consequence of any
Law
or Regulation therein,
be discharged from such Sei*\dce or Labor, but shall be
up
delivered
whom
(italics
mine) on Claim of the Party to
such Service or Labor
may
be done."
This is the law which no less a man than Charles
Sumner said, "We are bound to- disobey" it. To quote
Dr. Curry on this point: "Ten Northern States, with
impunity, with the approval of such men as Governor
Chase, afterward Secretary of the Treasury under Mr.
Lincoln and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, nullified
the Constitution, declared
reference
a 'dead
to'
that
its
stipulation
in
the reclamation of fugitives from labor was
letter,'
and to that extent they dissolved the
in the tenns upon
Union, or made an ex parte change
which
it
was fonned.
These States did not fonnally
secede, but of themselves, without assent of those
Mr.
Jefferson described as 'coparties with themselves to the
compact,' changed the conditions of union and altered
the articles of agreement."
stitution
In short, though the Con-
expressly agreed that fugitive slaves should
be given up, the North deliberately said they shall not.
If that was not disobeying the Constitution, I confess
I
am
incapable of understanding in what disobedience
[55]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Of
consists.
course, if they could declare one part of
the Constitution "a dead letter" because
them, they could abrogate any part of
did not suit
it
for the same
it
reason.
In 1850, only two years before his death, Daniel
Webster, Senator from Massachusetts, made a speech
which became known as "The Seventh of
I once
heard Mrs.
Mary
March Speech."
A. Livermore, of Boston, deliver
her really great lecture on "Wendell Phillips and His
She boasted that she was one of the original
Times."
and stood by the side of Wendell Pliillips
when he faced the mobs to plead for the liberation of
Abolitionists,
the "cruelly oppressed slave."
Referring
to'
Seventh of March Speech, she said that up
Webster
Avas
proud of
his
the idol of
fame and
New England.
felt
that in him the
Webster's
toi
that time
They were
Nation had
a champion that no foe would care to meet, or meeting,
would rue
it
was toppled
forever.
But
in the dust,
proved a recreant coward.
reading
it
was a
after that speech, the idol
and the admired champion had
She said the
first effect
sort of dazed amazement, which
on
was
succeeded by a sickening revulsion, and that by a violent
indignation, and Webster was thenceforth regarded as
a "traitor" who had betrayed the nation's trust.
Mr.
Br3'^an says, in a note
on this speech
in his
"The
World's Famous Orations," "Curtis, the biographer of
Webster, admits that
this speech
favor throughout the North."
antislavery
angel."
men
met with general
Schurz describes the
as contemplating "the fall of
Webster was
"a fallen star," and "a bankrupt
gambling for the presidency," while Whittier,
his
an arch-
called " a recreant son of
chusetts,"
poems, wrote:
[56]
dis-
Massa-
politician
in
one of
;
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
"All else
gone
is
The
When
soul
faith
from those great eyes
;
fled;
is
lost,
is
The man
is
when honor
Then pay the reverence of
To
his old
Walk backward
And hide
old days
fame
with averted gaze
his
shame
!"
And what was it that the North called
What was it that the enlightened North,
Poor Webster
"his shame?"
dies,
dead.
!
shuddering with horror at the
sin of slavery,
thought
put out the light of Webster's "great eyes," exiled
"soul" and slew his "honor?"
to the Constitution
It
!
was
It
was Webster's
lized people,
fidelity
his conscientious obedience
to an oath which was equally binding
ican citizen.
his
Fidelity to one's oath
upon every Ameris,
among
all civi-
regarded as an essential attribute of honor
but the North denounced this as "shame" in Webster,
him "a
fallen archangel" because he kept
faith with his oath.
If that was not putting darkness
and
called
Let us see what Webster
will give it up.
we may clearly understand how completely
the North, in its rage against the South, had repudiated
for light I
said, that
the basic principles of political morality on which the
Union was founded.
will allude to other
cially to
Here
one which has,
and that
is,
what he said:
is
"But
I
complaints of the South, and espein
my
opinion, just foundation;
that there has been found at the North,
and among legislators, a disinclinaperform fully their constitutional duties in
regard to the return of persons bound to service who
among
tion
individuals
to
have escaped into the free States.
[57]
In that respect, the
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
in
wrong.
is
my
and the North is
Every member of every Northern Legislature
South,
judgment,
bound by oath,
like
is
right,
every other
the country,
officer in
to support the Constitution of the United States
and
;
the article of the Constitution which says to these States
that they shall deliver
up
fugitives
from
in
No man
fulfils his
duty
any Legislature who
in
self to find excuses, evasions, escapes,
tutional
service,
honor and conscience as any other
binding
obligation.
from
is
as
article.
him-
sets
this consti-
have always thought that the
I
Constitution addressed itself to the Legislatures of the
States or to the States themselves.
It says that those
persons escaping to other States "shall be delivered up,"
and
I confess I
have always been of the opinion that
was an injunction upon the States themselves.
it is
it
When
said that a person escaping into another State,
and
coming therefore within the jurisdiction of that State,
shall be delivered up, it seems to me the import of the
clause
is,
that the State
stitution, shall cause
my
and
judgment.
I entertain
I
it
itself, in
obedience to the Con-
him to be delivered up.
That
is
have always entertained that opinion,
now."
and true and brave. Yet the saying
it, probably, cost Webster the prize of the presidency
of the United States, and the North regarded him as "a
That was
clear
The
fallen archangel."
reference to fallen archangels
suggests a different construction to me.
If
to'
stand
firm for the truth amidst universal rebellion against
if to
be loyal to one's allegiance when
throAving
it off,
if to
be noble, then Webster
in
;
—
if this
the United States Senate on
the Seraph,
[
it,
others are
keep faith with conscience
the seventh of March, 1850, reminds
than an archangel
all
58
]
me of one higher
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
"Abdiel, faithful found
Among
Among
the faithless, faithful only he;
the innumerable false, unmoved.
Unshaken, unseduced,
His loyalty he kept,
unterrified,
his love, his zeal
Nor number, nor example, with him wrought
To
swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though
But
single."
bitterness
this
attitude of the
toward Webster emphasizes the
To
North toward the Constitution.
quote Dr. Curry again, in his "Civil Histoi-y of the
Government of the Confederate States," a book, by the
way, that ought tO' be read by every one whoi desires to
understand the truth about! the
War
for the Union,
"The Northern
States, not in
the regular prescribed
form, but
most irregular,
illegal,
in the
and contemptu-
ous manner, by ecclesiastical action and influence, by
legislative
and judicial annulment, by public meetings,
by pulpit and
associations,
Constitution,
by mobs and conspiracies and secret
and void a clear mandate of the
protective of Southern property, and
press,
made
null
adopted as an indispensable means for securing the
entrance of the Southern States into the Union."
They
disobeyed the Constitution.
Now
in
1860 Mr. Lincoln was
the party that
had for twenty-five years fostered
hostility to the
South and gloried
to the
Constitution.
What more
by
elected President
this
in this disobedience
reasonable than
to
suppose that the principles of the party would control
the policy of the administration?
Can any one wonder
or blame the South for taking steps to protect
itself
from the danger that menaced it? They must do it in
For an honorable people this
the Union or out of it.
[59]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
offered
no
They had no
alternative.
ing in the Union to
right while remain-
authority
resist its
but they had
;
the legal right to withdraw from the Union, and since
the government had
now passed
into'
the hands of a party
bent on the destruction of Southern rights, they were
fully justified in the step of secession.
Lincoln was a sincere man, and honestly
I think
to'
be his duty to resoii to anns
candidate of a party
;
but he was the chosen
had proclaimed
tliat
felt it
And
independence of the Constitution.
its
virtual
did not Lincohi
soon show that he was in full accord with his party, so
far as the constitutional limitations on his authority
M^ere
What
concerned?
constitutional right did he have
to call for troops to invade the South?
do that, he could do anything."
thought
call
so.
Virginia
She voted down secession
That ended
for troops.
all
do that he could do anytliing.
Here
L^nion."
is
his
it
evidently
until Lincoln's
debate, for if he could
And
he did do a world
He
of things without warrant of law.
course on the ground that
"If he could
his
justified
was necessary "to save the
language: "I
felt
that measures
otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becom-
ing indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution
through the preservation
wrong,
assumed
I
That was
heroic,
this
I
Right
now avow
nation.
ground, and
and success made
was not revolutionary
of the word.
of the
it
I
patriotic
;
but
or
it."
if it
have yet to learn the meaning
It was the bold assumption of autocratic
power under the plea of public necessity,
in Napoleon and applaud
A man knows very little of
patriotism in Lincoln.
and
illegal
which we denounce as tyranny
as
human nature who would expect an
spirited,
intelligent, high-
and liberty-loving people, such as the Southern
[60]
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
people of that generation were, to yield one iota to such
To
tyrannical authority.
resist it to the
utmost became
the sacred duty of every freeman.
But Lincoln and
his
party did unconstitutional things
which they could not justify on the ground of military
necessity, such, for example, as the admission of
What warrant
Virginia into the Union.
have for
West
of law did they
According to the theory of the Union,
that.^
which they had a million of men
in
arms to enforce, a
Virginia had not withdrawn
State could not secede.
from the Union, and those of her citizens who were
The
resisting the Federal government were in rebellion.
relation of the State of Virginia to the Union, therefore,
was exactly what
it
was before
its
claim to have left
it.
So when they divided Virginia they divided a State
in the Union as Ohio.
Where was
The truth is they had neither
the authority for that.-^
which was as much
law nor precedent, nor the excuse of military necessity
it
was pure, unadulterated despotism
West Virginia
sword.
ceived in sin
into the
and born
is
— the right of the
the bastard of the Union, con-
in iniquity.
Union contradicted
all
the
And
its
admission
North had proclaimed
about secession, for while they hurled a million men
against the South to prevent the secession of A'irginia,
on the ground that secession was a
and
justified
ical
heresy utterly ruinous to the American Union, they
allowed
Virginia
it
West Virginia
is
to secede
from Virginia.
polit-
West
the monumental proof that the I^orth in
1860 had thrown the Constitution to the winds, and
The South may be
ruled the country as a despotism.
overthrown, but
it
may be
counted on to
resist
such
lawless exercise of power as long as Anglo-Saxon blood
flows in her veins.
[61]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
have said far more than enough to prove
I
and
will
my
point,
only make a brief reference to the despotism
of the North after the close of the war.
Even
so fair
and conservative a judge as General Charles Francis
Adams
says:
"As an
then suspended.
irresponsible
historic fact, the Constitution
Congress,
exercising
revolutionary
I
but
common
unlimited powers over a large section of the
country."
was
was suspended by an act of an
It
General Adams' words apply to
think
Congress from the day the Republican party assumed
As a
the powers of government.
political
party
it
was
utterly lawless.
Southern States had
I conclude, therefore, that the
the right to secede in 1860, that the circumstances fully
justified
them
in
appealing to that right for protection
against the hostility of the North
had no constitutional right
;
and that the North
to coerce the seceded States
to return to the Union, but appealed to the right of
revolution to force
upon the States
new and
a
construction of the Constitution from
its
different
original mean-
ing.
Whether
not
;
the
North was
justified in this revolution or
whether a national government, with
centralized power,
is
its
highly
a better form of government than
the federal republic contemplated by Washington and
his
compatriots
;
whether republican institutions and the
government are compatible with
principles of popular
the imperialistic character implicit in the present organization of the national
government
that are outside of this discussion.
—
these are questions
Neither
am
I con-
cerned with the merits of the doctrine of secession.
That has nothing
to
do with the
case.
My
single aim
has been to show that the right of secession existed in
[62]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
1860, and to explain the reasons why the Southern people resorted to
it
for self-protection against the North,
The American Union has been aptly likened
solar system, in which the stability and harmony
to the
of the
system depends on the balance of the centripetal and
centrifugal forces.
If the centripetal force overbal-
ances the centrifugal, the planets will fall into the sun,
and ruin
will ensue.
If the centrifugal overbalances the
centripetal, the planets will fly apart,
will
be wrecked.
As applied
to the
and the system
Union, the national
idea represents the centripetal force, and the doctrine of
State's rights represents the centrifugal force,
perpetual problem of statesmanship
forces in equal balance.
carried
ment
tooi far, it will
will
is
and the
to maintain these
If the national principle
is
destroy the State and the govern-
become a centraHzed despotism.
ciple of State's right be carried too far,
If the prinit
the Union and involve everything in chaos.
will dissolve
It is one of
the wonders of political history, and one of the noblest
evidences of the capacity of the
self-government,
that
American people for
Constitution
the
sui-^aved
the
shock of the war, and after having been completely sus-
pended for a time, has again become the paramount
Nor
authority in the Nation.
is
there any sign of the
times more encouraging to the heart of the patriot than
new national
the maxim, "An indissoluble Union of
the political philosophy which expresses the
consciousness in
indestructible States."
The
integrity of the State
is
as
essential to the Nation as the solidarity of the Union.
When
the Americans resolved not to submit to British
oppression, Pitt exclaimed
America.
:
"I glory in the resistance of
Three million Americans who would submit
to the unjust measures of the British Ministry would be
[63]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
instruments with which
fit
to'
Look-
enslave the rest."
ing back over the history of our country, so far from
condemning the South for her course
in her resistance to the
North.
A
in
1860, I glory
people
who would
have submitted to the lawless and unconstitutional acts
of the Republican party of that period could never have
made
the magnificent country Ave have today.
tism of blood consecrated the whole nation.
The bapEach side
learned to respect the other for the earnestness of their
convictions and the courage with wliich they maintained
Both
them.
sides are satisfied
Does any one ask why
fied
If the issues were definitely and
with the result?
forever settled,
with the final adjustment.
this discussion, if all are satis-
why not
let
the curtain fall, and the
whole subject pass into a happy oblivion?
There are
three reasons for not forgetting the past.
First,
remain
though the
and are as
issues
were
'vital
today as they were then.
settled, the principles
political problems, and
from no period of her history has she more or more
important lessons to learn than from the great struggle
America has not yet solved her
for constitutional government of these United States.
No
A
is
such Republic as ours ever existed before.
second reason
is
that an appreciation of the past
the inspiration of the present.
A
great
man has
told
us "that no people Avho are Indifferent to what their
ancestors did are likely to do anything for wliich their
posterity will have reason to be proud."
is
the product of the past.
The men, both
and the South, who are the leaders
in
The
present
in the
the
North
splendid
progress of today are men who have drunk deep at the
fountain of their country's history.
was right when he said
:
Patrick
Henry
"I have but one lamp by which
[64]
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
my
I
feet are guided and tliat is the lamp of experience.
know of no way of judging the future but by the
;
A
past."
flippant disregard for the past
When
sign of a fool.
a man, prominent
said in his rancid book,
the sure
is
in poHtical life,
"The Southerner," "About
the
Confederacy and the war I cared not a rap," he made a
sorry spectacle of his lack of self-respect, to say nothing
The
of his lack of respect for history.
sible
man
pendous event
Union
!
idea of a sen-
saying he does not care "a rap" for the stuin
American history, the
One wonders how he
War
for the
ever climbed so high with
such a narrow mind.
A
is a sacred reverence for the memory
They were bone of our bone and flesh of
From them we received our earthly Ixiing.
third reason
of the dead.
our
flesh.
They poured out
their life-blood for our sake.
To what
lower degree of baseness could we sink than to forget
them, and
perity
the sordid concerns of a material pros-
let
obliterate
What more
sentiment
the
that
reveres
them.
ignoble cowardice could we show than to
allow the youth of the South to quietly imbibe the opinion that, if not traitors to their country, they were
deluded
and
reckless
revolutionists
!
Could we more
effectually renounce our claim to be patriots than to
quench the hallowed
martyrs of liberty!
sible
in
to forget
them
fire
of admiration for them as the
Perish the thought that
it is
as long as their blood shall flow
our veins
"Where
pos-
shall their dust be laid?
On the mountain's starry crest.
Whose kindling lights are signals made
To the mansions of the blest:
[65]
!!
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
No, no, no!
For bright though the mountain
It has no gem in its diadem
Like the hf e-spark of the free
"Where
On
be.
shall their dust be laid?
the ocean's stormy shore,
With wailing woods
And
at their backs arrayed,
shouting seas before:
No, no, no!
For, deep as
its
waters be,
They have no depth like the
The martyrs of the free
"Where
By
As
it
faith which fired
shall their dust be laid?
the valley's greenest spot.
ripples down, in leaps of shade.
To
the blue forget-me-not:
No, no, no!
For, green as the valley be,
It has
Of
no flower
like the bleeding-heart
the heroes of the free
"Or where muffled pageants march.
Through the spired and chiming
To
the chancel-rail of
Up
its
pile,
oriel arch,
the organ-flooded aisle:
No, no, no!
For, grand as the minsters be,
They could never hold all
Of Jackson and of LEE
"Where
the knightly
shall their dust be laid?
In the uni of the
Human
[66]
Heart,
liosts
!
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Where
And
its
purest dreams are
its
passionate longings start
first
displayed,
Yes, yes, yes
By memory's
pictured wave.
Is a living shrine for the
Dead we
love.
In the land they died to save."
We
Rome
read in the classic legends of old
that there
was an earthquake which opened a wide chasm
very heart of the
it
At
up.
filled until
last
The people
city.
tried in vain to
an oracle declared
A
fill
would never be
it
the most precious thing in
into its depths.
in the
Rome was thrown
brave young man, Marcus Curtius,
hearing the oracle, said that courage was the most
He
precious thing in Rome.
mounted
his steed,
clad himself in full annor,
and calling aloud upon the gods to
witness that he devoted himself to
country's weal,
liis
The
he made his horse leap into the yawning gulf.
chasm instantly closed. A
greater chasm rent the mighty republic of America than
legend declared that the
ever cracked the foundation of
in vain
tO' fill
it
up.
It
Rome.
would not
The
precious thing in the republic, the glorious
America, was thrown into
its
people tried
close until the
depths.
Legions of noble
men, the flower of the North and South
Marcus of
most
manhood of
alike,
old, clad in full arjnor, leaped into its
like
yawn-
ing abyss, and the bloody chasm closed above them
forever.
So may
it
be with our great republic!
[67]
.c.v
Copwiglit
o
N°
('OI'YRIC.HT DKPOSIT.
The South Was
Rierht
^
BY
S.
A.
STEEL
COLUMBIA,
THE R.
L.
S. C.
BRYAN COMPANY
1914
Copyrighted in 1914
by
Ella
B. Steel.
JlJN-2 1914
©CI.A374297
FOREWORD
I
dedicate
today.
It
is
work
this
young Americans of
the
to
a statement of the reasons which led the
Southern States to withdraw from the Union in 1861.
These reasons are given more fully
in
many
large works,
but our young people never see them, and the average
man
is
too busy to read them.
never understood our
Northern writers have
and even when disposed
side,
to
be friendly, are incapable of interpreting our motives.
Most of the
histories used in
our schools are too brief
to give a correct idea of the subject, yet
tant that
it
should be understood.
put the most important facts
in
form, with the hope that they
I
it is
very impor-
have endeavored to
a brief space and simple
will
be read by people too
busy for larger books, and especially by pupils
schools
and
colleges.
I believed in the
in
our
beginning of the
war, though only a child, that the South was right, and
I believe
it
government
And
now.
lasts
I
believe further that if this
a hundred years longer, and continues
to be a nation of free people,
ciples of political liberty, for
it will
be because the prin-
which the South contended,
survive the shock of that tremendous revolution.
this reason, if for
For
no other, the position of the South
should be understood.
Columbia, S. C.
S.
A. Steel.
—
"I maintain that
if
—
the issue of this struggle had
from
the outset been manifest to the whole world, not even
then ought Athens to have shrunk from
it, if
Athens has
any regard for her own glory, her past history, or her
future reputation."
"We
tain,
Demosthenes.
had, I was satisfied, sacred principles to mainto defend, for which
and rights
bound to do our
* * * If
it
best, even if
were
in precisely the
all to
we were
we perished
in
duty
in the endeavor.
be done over again, I would act
same manner."
Lee.
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT
BY
S.
A.
STEEL
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT
In 1861 eleven States of the American Union with-
drew and formed themselves into the Confederate States
They
of America.
without
did so under the due fonms of law
revoluntionary
peaceable
and with the most
violence,
The United
intention.
compel these seceded States
States
resolved
to
return into the Union
tO'
by force of arms. The South resolved to defend her
liberties.
The war between them lasted for four years.
Nearly four million men were under arms on both
from
first to last
;
ments and skirmishes were fought
lives
were
lost
;
;
neai'ly half
women and
loss
life
worth of property was destroyed and
;
no estimate can be made of the suffering
found adequate
a million
thousands more were maimed for
billions of dollars'
the
sides
about two thousand battles, engage-
on
of the country, or words be
cliildren
to express the
they sustained
inflicted
sorrow they endured, the
being deprived of educational
in
opportunities and the means of social culture, and the
universal demoralization that ensued.
was one of
It
the most gigantic conflicts of history, and one of unparalleled bitterness.
way
there was no
As both
to stop
sides
it
were
in
mortal earnest,
until one of the contestants
was exhausted.
After four
To
yeai's of heroic stiniggle, the
South
fell.
quote the language of General R. E. Lee, in his
army
farewell address to his
"compelled
resources."
to
yield
After a
to
at
Appomattox, it was
numbers and
ovei-whelming
time
readmitted into the Union.
States
were
the
seceded
The
people of the South,
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
ruined by four years of strife in their territory and the
destruction of their whole system of
honor
lost,
unmanly
indulged in
regrets,
no'
idle
bore with
with
life,
all
but
repinings, uttered no
marvellous
patience
made
horrible injustice of the "Reconstiniction,"
appeal "to Time," went earnestly to work, and
the
their
left their
judgment of History,
for that awful war?
As in the
vindication to the impartial
Who
was responsible
case of Carthage, so with the South, the victors have
told the story to suit their
own
The result is a
Much of what
ends.
very one-sided and misleading account.
the North has written about the
war
is
on a par with
the testimony of a darky witness in court.
said the
sworn to
"Mose,"
lawyer, "do' you understand that you have
tmth?"
the
tell
"Yas,
"Well, then,
sir."
have you told the jury the truth about this matter.^"
"Yas,
sir,
boss,
and a
writer says that the
leetle
the rise of the truth."
North won, not because
fought the South, but because
that
it
it
it
out-thought the South,"
was a victory of mind more than force.
not agree with
this.
One
"out-
I can
If we must keep the alliteration of
the phrase, I would say that the North won, not because
it
could outfight the South, but because
But
the South.
not true.
tier's
It
was pure
fiction,
poem about Barbara
Uncle Tom's Cabin.
its
purpose of
it
did outwrite
what they wrote was
like, for example, Whit-
a vast deal of
Fritchie,
and Mrs. Stowe's
It v/as false, but
hostility to the South.
it
accomplished
There arc grati-
fying indications now that the motives of the South are
beginning to be understood.
Still
we frequently hear
erners "believed they were
said
it
now that
right."
always said in a connection which
[8]
But
it
makes
it
the Southis
nearly
mean: Of
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
course they were wrong, but since they beheved they
were right, they are entitled to the respect due to
sin-
This condescending courtesy can never satisfy
cerity.
As a modus v'wendi it may be accepted,
diplomatic ground of meeting, where the
honorable men.
and afford a
sentimental "fraternity" of a superficial and emotional
may
patriotism
disport itself in iridescent oratory.
believe in fraternity,
and have
tried to contribute to
establishment between the North and South
must be obtained
high.
I
;
but
at the cost of truth, the price
I
its
if it
is
too
have respect for the honest Northern man who
was willing
to lay his life on the altar of the
this sentiment
is
South was right in the essential thing
viction that the
for which
it
North has
Union, and
perfectly consistent with a deep con-
The
fought, the right of self-government.
told its side
afraid to take
;
let
us
the question
ours.
tell
the
into
We
are not
high court of
History.
We
are not through with that struggle.
people
may
Superficial
speak and write about such matters being
"in the past," and out of relation to the present
;
but
we are dealing with conditions created by that war,
issues that are still far from being settled.
The man
who thinks the race question is settled is incapable of
understanding the subject; and that whole question
grew out of the
Had
negroes.
forcible emancipation of the Southern
the South been left
to'
handle that ques-
own way, which was one of the reasons for
secession, who can say that it would not be in a far more
hopeful state than it is now as a result of the war.^*
tion in
its
Slavery could not long have survived
in the
South with
the sentiment of the whole outside world, and multitudes
of
its
own
people,
against
it.
[9]
It
is
yet
to
be seen
THE SOUTH WAS PdGHT.
whether
government can stand, or
this
millstone of the black race about
the only
way
involve us,
day
in
Nor
neck.
its
with
float,
is
tlie
this
which the problems created by the war
and are inextricably
identified with present
American statesmanship has never had a
issues.
greater task than
it
has
now
to preserve the rights of
the States, which are the bulwarks of our individual
liberties,
under the constant and universal pressure of
the great centralized power of the Federal nation made
The
by the war.
steady encroachment of the authority
of the general government in every department, legislative, executive
and
judicial, especially the latter,
on
one of the most dangerous
the functions of the States,
is
tendencies of our political
life.
And
it
grew
directly
out of the war.
I hold, therefore, that
it
is
of the utmost importance
that this generation of American youths shall have a correct
knowledge of the war.
passions of the past,
no'
man
do not wish to detract
I
And
from the glory of the North.
up the
thinks we must
as to stirring
in his senses
not study history because some one with a soft brain
may
get mad.
Let the heathen rage
;
civilized
men want
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
To' decide this question
we must put ourselves back
in the circumstances of the
When
I say that the
gle with the North, I
Southern people
South was right
mean that
moral right to do what
it
it
did.
circumstances which surrounded
else
to
when he
I think
do.
said
:
"We
in the
mean that under the
it,
there vras nothing
satisfied,
duty bound to do our best, even
if
it
exactly
sacred principles
to maintain and rights to defend, for wliich
[10]
1860.
had both the legal and
I
General Lee expressed
had, I was
in
great strug-
we were
we perished
in
in
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
General Lee never changed his mind.
the endeavor."
When
it
it
were
was
all to
A
cause must be supported by some
very sound reasons when such a
it.
To
man
can speak so firmly
say that the South was wrong simply
because the North won,
is
to cast a serious reflection on
men
the intelligence of such
What
:
do over again, I would act precisely in the
same manner."
about
Hampton "If
he said to General
all over,
as Lfee,
and many
others.
were the reasons that made General Lee so sure
that he was right when he led the
Virginia in battles that
tO'
study and the wonder of
Army
of Northern
the end of time will be the
Well, I will give you
men.-^
some of them.
But
as we are to discuss the war,
name by which we will designate
first,
on the
more important than some people
tliink.
let
it.
us decide
This
As one
is
emi-
nently qualified to speak has reminded us, "names both
Names are not arbitrary
record and make history."
labels,
but should express or describe the nature of the
thing to which they are attached.
may
be compressed in a name,
ism" or "Realism."
So you
as,
A
whole philosophy
for example, "Ideal-
see a thoughtful
man can
not pass lightly over the matter of a name.
especially true of such
I
am
discussing.
The North
is
must get a right name.
war "The War of the Rebelname to the official records of it.
called the
lion,"
and gave
Now,
rebellion
ernment.
We
This
an important subject as the one
is
this
forcible resistance to legitimate gov-
But, as I hope to show, when the Southern
States withdrew from the Union, the legitimate authority of the
United States over them ceased, and
not "rebellion" to resist
it.
This name
11
is
it
was
unfair to the
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
South, and
to'
it is
now only used by people who have
failed
outlive the prejudices of the Avar.
"The War Between
the States," and I am sorry to see that this name has
been recommended as the proper name by the Legislative
Alexander H. Stephens called
it
Committee on the revision of the Constitution of North
This name conveys a wrong idea of the war.
Carolina.
It
was not a war between the
States, but between the
United States and the Confederate States, each acting
as a nation.
By some
The
gives
It
glaringly inaccurate and misleading.
is
"The War Between the Sections."
name is that it is too vague, and
of what the war was about.
It is not a
it is
called
objection to this
no idea
name, only a
label.
By some it has
The objection to
been called "The
name
this
is
that
War
it
South was responsible for the war, and
The North was
the aggressor from
years before the war,
it
this
first
and
The name most
sM'ord.
For
to last.
That name
it
invaded the
is
misleading.
generally used, and which Congress
has decided shall be the
I
not true.
and when the South sought to
protect itself by peaceable withdrawal,
fire
is
began and carried on an agita-
tion hostile to the South,
South with
of Secession."
implies that the
official
name,
A
can not agree with Congress.
is
the "Civil
civil
war
is
War."
a war
between two factions contending for the control of the
same government,
Pompey
in
Roman
like
the
war between
Houses of Lancaster and York
is
CfEsar
and
history, or the war between the
in
English history.
It
evident that this was not the character of our war.
If the Southern States had fought in the Union
have been a
"civil
it
would
war;" but they withdrew from the
Union, and organized a separate government.
[12]
Whether
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
they had the right to do this does not affect the case;
is they did it, and that fact makes the phrase
war" untrue when apphed to our struggle. It
was a war between two nations. For the four years
the fact
"civil
that
Confederate States was a real govern'
lasted, the
it
ment, possessing
the attributes
all
powers of govemment.
ported and defended by
and exercising
the
all
was acknowledged and sup-
It
citizens
its
;
money,
issued
it
waged war, and was recognized as having
I can understand how this name is
levied taxes,
belligerent rights.
satisfactory to the North, for
The
claimed about the war.
war of
it
concedes
have
all the}^
plain logic of
makes
it
"rebellion," the Southerners "rebels," Davis
it
a
and
Lee and Jackson "traitors," who^ escaped the usual fate
of traitors only through the clemency of their con-
But
querors.
can not understand how such a name
I
can meet the approval of intelligent Southerners.
It
can be justified only on the basis of Napoleon's sarcastic
definition
use
it,
may
tell
of history as "Fiction agreed upon."
and
pass
I teach
it
what
is
;
little
None of
but
I
names
it.
fit
right.
the war?
UNION.
The North
pose of the war;
I pi'efer
It
is
That name
this:
the Union
;
the
declared this to be the pur-
President
Lincoln
asserted that this was the
paramount
others were subordinate
to "save the
;
THE
states
was begun, continued, and
it
Then
the facts in the case.
name for
WAR FOR THE
to presence
Its brevity
it.
have passed that point.
more time and be
these
the proper
tnith about
children not to use
with people who- are in too big a hurry to
the tinith
to take a
my
I never
issue,
finished
repeatedly
to which
Union" he
all
delib-
erately went outside of the Constitution in the exercise
of arbitrary power
;
and
if
you had asked the men
[13]
in
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
blue what they were fighting for, nine out of ten of
them would have
Moreover,
for
it
this
said "to save the Union."
name
expresses the result of the war;
Union the States
made a new and different
not only brought back into the
that had gone out, but
it
Union from, the one we had before.
where
sibility, too,
It puts the respon-
belongs, on the North
—
a respon-
which they are proud to accept, and wliich we
sibility
ought
it
to be perfectly willing to concede to them.
South acted from
first to last
was the aggressor.
It
on the defensive the North
all
is
The
;
now far back
and the clouds of passion have floated away,
in the past,
so let us be
brave enough to be fair and do each other the justice
We will never do that when we call
war "the civil war," for that indicts the whole South.
Whatever Congress may say, I shall call the great strugto
admit the truth.
the
gle the
War
for the Union.
Perhaps there was no campaign slogan more
effective
in the North, nO' appeal to the patriotism of the country
so useful,
no phrases more eloquently employed than
such terms as to "save the Union," to "preserve the
Union," to crush "the rebellion that aims to destroy
the Union."
The Southern people were
represented as
Now
there was not
seeking to "break up the Union."
one word of truth in such statements.
may
Whatever wc
think about the doctrine of secession as a political
principle, a
moment of
reflection will disclose the falsity
of the idea that the secession of the Southern States was
an attempt to destroy the Union.
Did
the separation
of the American Colonies from England destroy the
British Empire.''
Did the separation of jNIexico from
Did Portugal cease
nation.''
Spain destroy the Spanish
to exist
when Brazil withdrew
to
[14]
become an independent
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
If the South had
people?
Union
in territorial extent
The
won
Avould have stood just as
in
the strugg:le the
did before, only
it
by the area of the seceded
object of the South was
less
States.
by a peaceable separation
and deal with its domestic problems in
the North to do the same.
This
was not to "destroy the Union." Yet this lie, booted
to govern itself,
its
own way, leaving
and spurred, did valiant service against the South.
However,
it is
only one of a multitude of "toads" which,
when touched by the
steel
Ithuriel spear of truth, the cold
of facts, spring into proper satanic shape.
The
subject divides itself into two parts,
first,
did
the Southern States have the right to secede, and second,
did the circumstances justify their exercise of tha right?
I
take the affinnative, and assert that the Southern
States had the legal right to withdraw from the Union,
and that the conditions under which they were compelled
to act justified their withdrawal.
history decide the question.
not prove that
it
I
The
the verdict of success.
I
am
am
willing to let
not willing to accept
failure of the South does
was wrong, nor does the triumph of
the North prove that
it
was right
;
that only proves the
North was stronger than the South. Success is no test
of truth; if it is, we can justify some of the most hideous
tyrannies of the past, from Tamerlane, who built his
throne on the skulls of his slaughtered victims, down to
the latest despot
who
Before adducing
to withdraw
rules
my
by right of the sword.
proof of the South's legal right
from the Federal Union,
let
me say
that the
character of the Southern people furnishes a strong pre-
sumption that they had valid ground for the course they
pursued.
Such men
intelligent people.
and Robert Tombs, and Lamar, and
They were an
as Jefferson Davis,
[15]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Campbell, and Barnwell, and' hundreds besides, were the
equals in intellectual ability, in capacity to understand
government, and
political
I think
may
it
devotion to the
in patriotic
any
principles of republican liberty, of
in
the North.
be safely asserted that no people on earth
are more attached to the principles and institutions of
freedom,
constitutional
more jealous of their rights
under the Constitution, or more conservative
spirit in
They were misrepresented
me
and
their
to the world as a semibarba-
A
rous people because they had slaves.
told
in
maintaining them, than the people of the South.
Federal general
that he was born and reared in
New England,
enlisted in one of the first regiments raised, not only
for the purpose of saving the Union, but also of liberat-
ing the slaves and subduing the "barbarians of the
He
South."
said that after the
war he was put
in
charge of one of the Military Districts of the South,
and
his official duties
many
brought him
into'
association with
of the public men of the Confederacy.
he was amazed
tO'
find such
men.
guage, he said: "I never met a
To
finer
He
said
quote his own lan-
type of intelligent
manhood in my life, and it is still a mystery
to me how you could rear such men under a system that
allowed slavery."
The Southerners were not imbeciles,
if the Ambassador to England did write them down as
They
such in his ridiculous book. The Southerner,
Christian
understood what they wanted, and their rights
case.
like
They had good ground for
the
]Men
Robert E. Lee knew what they were doing, and why
they did
at
their conduct.
in
it.
For
the honor of their
some of their reasons.
memory
*******
[16]
let us look
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
I assert that the right of
the Union
was
fii'st
When
is
a State to withdraw from
proved by the nature of the Union when
it
formed.
won
the thirteen Colonies
their independence,
"Virginia made a decla-
they became sovereign States.
ration on the 12th of June, 1776, renouncing her colonial
dependence on Great Britain and separating herself
On
forever from that kingdom.
the 29th of June, in
the same year, she performed the highest function of
independent sovereignty by adopting and ordaining a
constitution prescribing an oath of fealty and allegiance
for
all
who might hold
office
under her authority, and
that remained as the organic law of the Old Dominion
until 1829."
All the other Colonies became sovereign States in the
same way.
These independent States sent delegates to
a Convention which mad'e a Declaration of Independence.
This Declaration affirmed that they were "free and independent States."
When
the
War
of the Revolution
they were recognized by England as "free, sov-
closed,
ereign,
and independent States."
tion which
had been formed at
The
first,
loose confedera-
and which was held
together only by the necessity of united action
in the
common struggle for freedom, being found inadequate
for the pui'poses of a Federal government, a new Union
was formed by the adoption of a Constitution.
right of secession was implicit in this document.
In 1830 Webster made a celebrated speech
to
Hayne of South
Carolina.
speech, and, perhaps, did
in
The
reply
This was an epochal
more than anything
else to
promote and establish the Northern idea of the Union,
for
it
became a school
declaimed
it,
classic.
and were educated
[17]
Millions of school boys
in their political opin-
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
ions
by
So far as the speech was a reply to Hayne's
it.
doctrine of Nullification, I think Webster demolished
That doctrine held that a State could declare a
law passed by Congress null and void in its bounds.
I
him.
do not think such a doctrine can be derived from the
Constitution, or be harmonized with
Webster was
clearly in error
speech
the
that
Constitution
from the people."
"We,
On
its
But
principles.
when he claimed in that
"emanated immediately
Webster misconstrued the words,
the people," in the preamble to the Constitution.
the strength of these words he held that the Federal
government was "a popular government," "erected by
the people."
That is true, but not in the sense in which Webster
meant it, for he meant, as he said, that it "emanated
immediately from the people." It did not emanate
immediately from the people, but mediately from the
Now,
people, acting through the States.
the whole premise of Webster's
if this is true,
famous argument
and the immense conclusions based on
false,
by the board.
This
is
is
must go
a daring assertion in view of
Webster's great fame ; but
at the facts in the case.
it
it is
Look
true, nevertheless.
When
it
was decided to create
a new and stronger Union, Congress recomviended
mark
that word
—
—
to the States that they send delegates
to a convention, which
should "re^^se the Articles of
Confederation, and report to Congress and the several
legislatures
(italics
mine) such alterations and provi-
sions therein as shall,
when agreed
to in
Congress and
confirmed hy the States, render the Feder-"] Constitution
adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation
of the Union."
action
on
this
The
States,
recommendation.
ri8i
A
as
States,
majority
of
took
the
THE SOUTH WAS EIGHT.
States accepted
it,
and appointed delegates
stitution
was
to the
When
vention that framed the Constitution.
this
ConCon-
was submitted, not to the people
finished, it
en masse, but to the several States for their adoption.
Their
ratification
The
and force.
was necessary to give
whether they should adopt
but Virginia and
earnest debate,
validity
it
States called conventions to consider
it.
New York
and not
A
majority
ratified
it,
did so only after long and
until a long time after the others
North Carolina and Rhode Island held out
still longer
and Mrginia accepted the Constitution only
on the condition that certain amendments should be
added to it. Professor John Fiske makes it as clear as
had
acted.
;
the sun at noon, in his book,
"The
Critical Period of
American History," that the States were the parties to
the Federal compact, and that without their concur-
rence there could have been no Union.
and much more that might be adduced,
From all this,
I am bound to
think that Webster's famous postulate that the Constitution
"emanated immediately from the people"
History disproves
stand the test of facts.
will
not
The
it.
Federal Union was created by the American people act-
ing in their capacity as sovereign States.
respect to the
memory of Webster,
I
With
all
due
do not see how any
other conclusion can be reached from the facts.
But that you may not think
layman, I
will reinforce it
this the conclusion of a
with the confirmation of two
minds worthy to rank with Webster himself as political
statesmen.
No man who had
a hand in making the
Constitution was more capable of understanding
He was
it
than
when the Constitution was
under discussion and was familiar with the purpose and
He derived his
spirit of the convention that made it.
Madison.
there
[19]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
knowledge not from historical records and tradition, as
Webster
did,
but from actual contact with the work and
personal experience in framing the immortal document.
Madison said "The assent and ratification of the people,
not as individuals composing an entire nation, but as
:
composing
distinct
and independent States to which they
belong, are the sources of the Constitution.
fore,
flatly contradicts
tion
It
is,
not a national, but a federal compact."
there-
That
Webster's doctrine that the Constitu-
The
M. Curry, one
"emanated immediately from the people."
other authority I quote
the
is
Hon.
J. L.
He
of the ablest of our Southern statesmen.
said: "It
(the Constitution) was transmitted to the several State
Legislatures,
tions,
to'
be by them submitted to State conven-
and each State for
itself ratified at diff'erent times,
without concert of action, except
As
ascertained.
to
its
own
own
territory, its ratification
The
people.
vitality, not
the result to be
in
the jurisdiction of a State was limited
Constitution
was
got
from the inhabitants
its
limited to
its
validity,
its
as constituting one
great nation, nor from the people of
all
the States con-
from the concurrent action of
sidered as one people, but
a prescribed number of States, each acting separately
and pretending to no claim or right to act for or control
to decline
That each of
had the right
to ratify and remain out of the Union for all
other States.
time to come, no sane
access to the
man
these States
will
deny."
Dr. Curiy had
same sources of infonnation
as Webster,
was as capable of understanding the matter, and was as
loyal to the Constitution
;
yet he reached a conclusion
the very opposite of Webster's.
His conclusion has the
great advantage over Webster, too, in that Curry refers
to the facts in
support of
his view, while
[20]
Webster simply
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
made the bold
wrong.
The
Webster was
assertion without proof.
States
made the Union.
Furthermore, the States not only created the Union,
but the record shows that in ratifying the Constitution,
and forming the Union, they did not extinguish their
own sovereignty, but on
the contrary, definitely rescinded
to themselves all the powers not expressly delegated to
and in particular the right to
from the Union. Look at the facts. When
Virginia ratified the Constitution, and thus entered the
Union, she said: "The delegates do, in the name and in
behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make
the general government;
withdraii}
known that
the powers granted under the Constitution,
being derived from the people of the United States, inay
he resumed by
them whensoever the same
shall be per-
verted to their injury or oppression, and that every
power not granted thereby remains with them at their
will."
There is no ambiguity in that language. It
shows how Virginia understood her relation to the Union,
and it is important to keep it in mind for it was on
this very ground that Virginia acted when she seceded
from the Union. She simply did in 1861 what she
;
reserved the right to do in 1788.
When New York
the Union, she
understood that
ratified the Constitution,
made
if
it
even more emphatic that she
the Union was not
she could withdraw.
and entered
Her
ti-ue
people said:
to
its
purpose
"The powers of
government may be resumed by the people whenever
it
should become necessary to their happiness, that every
power, jurisdiction, and right which
is
not by the said
Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the
United States or the departments of the government
thereof, remains to the people of the several States, or
[21]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
whom
to their respective State governments, to
they
may
have granted the same."
What
New York
Virginia and
The Union
did
all
the rest did.
was, therefore, based upon the mutual con-
sent of independent States, not to surrender absolutely,
but to delegate to the Union certain attributes of sovereignty that were necessary to the general government.
The supreme
attribute of sovereignty they unquestion-
ably reserved, which was the right to recall the powers
We
granted to the general government.
now
are not
discussing the merits of the doctrine of secession
;
we
are simply looking the fact squarely in the face, and I
do not see how any one can doubt,
much
less
the right inhered in the compact as one of
mental principles, and was so understood by
at that time between the States
is
funda-
the par-
all
In view of the mutual jealousies that prevailed
ties.
it
deny, that
its
as certain as
any State had supposed
Union,
it
foiTtned the
composing the Union,
anything of the kind can be that
it
never would have entered
Union were not blind
of association involved
possible then,
and
this
;
if
could not withdraw fi'om the
to the
it.
Those who
danger
this
kind
but no other sort of Union was
Union was
all
that was needed
as long as the States were faithful to the Constitution.
The great men who
our wonderful Union trusted
built
to the patriotism of the people to obey the Constitution
as the
supreme law.
And
if
the
North had not
violated
the Constitution, the South never would have invoked
the legal right of secession to protect herself against
oppression.
I think I
But the right was
have established
my
there.
first
point, namely, that
the risht of a State to withdraw from the Union
[
22
is
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
proved by the nature of the Union when
formed.
The
is
I will
now advance
to'
my
it
was
first
second argument.
right of the State to withdraw from the Union
proved by the fact that
this doctrine
was held by
all
parts of the country for a long period after the Union
was formed.
The
fact that the South adliered to this
understanding of the Union, and when
threatened, actually appealed to
many
led
for protection, has
it
to think that the doctrine of secession
But
Southern theory.
the truth
threaten to put
it
is
that
it
was a
was not only
New England was
held equally in the North, but
first to
original
rights were
its
the
She did not do
in use.
so,
not because she doubted the right, but because her interests
fortunately did not demand
hardly admissible to
on
this point;
a State
tO'
cite
nobody
So
secede.
it.
It
is,
perhaps,
men
the testimony of Southern
in the
South doubted the right of
I will restrict
myself
to'
the testi-
mony of Northern men.
In 1811 a
bill
into the Union.
was before Congress to admit Louisiana
New England
bitterly opposed the
bill.
Josiah Quincy, member of Congress from Massachusetts,
made a speech
in opposition
speech he said: "If this
Union are virtually
pose
it is
it
bill
toi
the measure.
In this
passes, the bonds of the
The
dissolved.
States which com-
are free from their moral obligation.
the right of all (italics mine), so
it will
of some to prepare for separation, amicably
And
be the duty
if
they can,
Here we have one of the
asserting on the
England
most statesmen of New
forcibly if they must."
as
forefloor
of Congress that secession is a right of all the States
and nobody seems to have contradicted him. Nobody
could contradict him, for at that time everybody
admitted the right.
r
^^
-,
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
In 1828, only two years before his famous speech
promulgatmg the new doctrine of an "indissoluble
Union," Webster prosecuted Theodore Lyman, of Boston, for libel.
Lyman had charged that Webster was
guilty of treasonable conduct because he had taken part
Union which was begun in New
England in 1807. Lyman was defended by Samuel
Hubbard, who aftei*ward became a Justice of the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Hubbard held that
in a plot to dissolve the
the charge was not libellous, because "a confederation
of
New England
States to confer with each other on
the subject of dissolving the Union was not treason.
The several States are independent, and not dependent.
Every State has the right to secede from the Union."
Here we have a distinct assertion of the right of
sion by an eminent New England jurist.
William Rawle was one of the most eminent
authorities in his day.
cellor of the
Law
He was
for
many
seces-
legal
years Chan-
Association of Philadelphia, and the
author of The Revised Code of Pennsylvania.
He
was
the author of a book called "Views of the Constitution,"
West Point
Military Academy when many of the men who adhered
which
to
is
said to have been a textbook in the
the South in
the
separation were students there.
This, of course, gave the doctrines of the book the
Here is what
Rawle said about the Union: "The Union was formed
by the voluntary agreement of the States, and in uniting
together they have not forfeited their nationality, nor
official
endorsement of the government.
have they been reduced to one and the same people.
one of the States chooses to withdraw
contract,
it
would be
difficult
its
name from
to disprove
its
If
the
right of
doing so; and the Federal government would have no
[24]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
means of maintaining
claim, either
its
by force or
right.
* * * It depends on the State itself to retain or abolish
the principle of representation, because
itself
whether
* * *
To
deny
will
it
member of
continue a
this right
depends on
it
the Union,
would be inconsistent with the
principles on which our political systems are founded.
The
right must be considered an original ingredient in
the
composition
of
the
government,
general
which,
though not expressed, was mutually understood. * * *
The secession of a State from the Union depends on the
will
of the people of such State."
Let me remind you that I
monies
The
may
not advocating the
testi-
unconsciously bias you to that thought.
doctrine was shot to death on a thousand bloody
and there
battlefields,
I
am
These clear and strong
doctrine of secession.
am doing
is
is
to prove
no resurrection for
tO'
the
it.
What
young people of today
that the people of the South in 1861 had the legal right
to secede.
And
I think the testimony of these
Northern
men, men who rank among their foremost for
virtue
ability,
and patriotism, demonstrate beyond a doubt that
the people of the
North held the doctrine
of
How
South.
the
could
that be
as well as those
"rebellion"
and
"treason" in 1860 which was taught, with the sanction
of the government, twenty years before
in
the very
school which of all others needed to inculcate correct
Yet what the government taught was
ideas of duty.'^
truth in 1840 was declared to be rank "rebellion" in
1860!
But
let
me quote some more testimony on
point, the original right of a State to secede, for
this
it
is
very interesting to see how the logic of facts compels
even the most reluctant to admit
and
will
prevail.
The
it.
Truth
satanic proverb
[25
1
may
is
mighty
be true,
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
that a He can get around the world while truth
on
its
boots
;
overtakes the
lie in
is
pulling
may
but, however slow-footed truth
be, it
Truth has a marvelous
the end.
"The eternal years of God are hers."
Sherman say something about "the
staying power.
Did not Gen.
revenges of history.'"'
Well, they are very
real.
In 1860 the South had no more vigorous hater than
Goldwin Smith.
His pen did valiant service for the
North, and hindered abroad that recognition of the
Confederate States by foreign powers, which was the
Yet thirty years
only chance of success the South had.
after the war, when
liis
passion had subsided, when the
Falsehood he had defended stood forth, stripped by
impartial
Time of
"Few who have
its
disguise, he said
of Secession
looked into history can doubt that the
Union originally was a compact, dissoluble, perhaps,
most of them would have said, at pleasure; dissoluble
certainly on breach of the articles of Union."
It must
be very strong evidence to compel that admission from
such an opponent.
Of
course
it is
that when he was denouncing us in
charitable to think
1860-65 as "rebels,"
"traitors" and semibarbarians, and clamoring for our
extermination, pleading with
let
Uncle
Sam
England
itable to think that
to
—
wipe us from the earth
I
hands
say
off
it is
and
char-
when he was doing this he had not
It was the audacity of igno-
"looked into history."
rance.
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, who is a senator from
life of Webster in the American Statesmen Series.
In that work Lodge says:
Massachusetts, wrote the
"When
the Constitution was adopted by the votes of
States at Philadelphia,
and accepted by the votes of
States in popular conventions,
[26]
it
is
safe to say that
;
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
there was not a mian in the country,
from Washington
and Hamilton, on the one side, to George Chnton and
George j\Iason, on the other, who regarded the new
system as anything but an experiment entered upon by
the States, and from which each and every State had
nght peaceably
the
to withdraw, a right which
was very
likely to be exercised."
I will quote only one
a
man who, though
more testimony, but that
he fought against us,
is
from
and
is
fair
open-minded, and whose manly and honest utterances
about the South and her great struggle have helped to
from the
clear the clouds of prejudice
skies.
I
mean
Gen. Charles Francis Adams, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In
his noble
address on the
Washington and Lee
University, an address noble for its manly frankness
and fraternal spirit, Gen. Adams said this
"The technical argument the logic of the propooccasion of the Lee Centennial at
sition
The
in
—
—seems
plain, and, to
my
thought, unanswerable.
original sovereignty was indisputably in the State
order to establish a nationality certain attributes of
sovereignty were ceded by the States to a
organization
tral
;
all
attributes not
common
thus
cen-
specifically
conceded were reserv^ed to the States, and no attributes
of
moment were
tion.
There
to be construed as conceded
is no'
—
Now we come
was
—
ship—not among
as
allegiance
citizenship.
So far
all
is
to the crux of the proposition.
allegiance
by implica-
attribute of sovereignty so important
elementary.
Not only
the ricrht to define and establish citizenthe attributes specifically conceded
by
the several States to the central nationality, but, on the
contrary,
it
was
explicitly
reserved,
declaring that 'the citizens of each
[27]
the
instrument
State should be
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
and immunities of
entitled to all the privileges
in the several States.'
fore,
due
ship,
and not
to the State
as citizens
Ultimate allegiance was, there-
which defined and created citizen-
to the central
whomever
citizens
organization which accepted
the States pronounced to he such J"
(Italics mine.)
This testimony
is all
the stronger in that
Adams
takes
the other side of the question as to the right of secession.
Let us admit that there are two
is
sides to the subject.
It
preposterous to suppose the North did not have some
ground on which to stand.
But
so did the South,
immense preponder-
as far as I have been able to see, the
ance of proof
established
my
is
on the Southern
and
side.
I think I
have
second point, namely, that the right of a
State to secede from the Union was the understanding
of
parts of the country for a long period after the
all
Union was formed.
I will
now advance
to
my
third
argument.
The
right of a State to withdraw from the Union, or
at least the fact of secession, and,
by implication, the
grounds on which
proved by the treat-
it
was exercised,
is
ment of the seceded States after the war.
let
Here again
us face the facts.
Eleven States, acting on their constitutional right, as
they claimed, by due and proper process of law, reas-
sumed the powers they had originally ceded
eral Union,
free,
and became what they were
sovereign,
to the
in the
and independent States.
Fed-
beginning,
The North
denied the right of these States to withdraw, and held
that a State once in the Union was in forever.
This
was the view Mr. Lincoln held, and on which he proceeded
to act.
According to
this view the
Confederates were
a lawless combination of disaffected people within the
[28]
::
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
States that claimed to have seceded, in rebelhon against
legitimate authority
the
of the Federal government,
which the President was in duty bound to suppress.
It
was to maintain the doctrine that a State could not
secede from the Union that the North fought the war
The emancipation of the slaves of the South
was definitely proclaimed as a war measure, and justito a finish.
fied
on the ground that
it
was necessary to preserve the
Union.
Now
on
this theory, it
was self-evident that when the
government
lawless combinations in rebellion against the
in
the seceded States were overcome, and the Federal
all,
the States were in their
former relation to the Union.
That had never been
authority acknowledged by
changed, for, they
said,
a State in once
is
in forever.
Gen. Sherman and Gen. Johnston made their agreement
for the surrender of Johnston's army on the basis of
an agreement which was promptly rejected
by the authorities at Washington, ostensibly on the
ground that military commanders in the field could not
this theory,
meddle with political matters
;
but they really had other
things in mind.
This
is
the place for a good story of Johnston's sur-
by John S. Wise in his entertaining book,
"The End of xVn Era." It is a httle long, but will put
Wise says
a little spice in the otherwise dry argument.
render, told
"Johnston had known Sherman well in the United States
army. Their first interview near Greensboro resulted
in
an engagement to meet for further discussion the folAs they were parting, Johnston remarked
lowing day.
'By the way, Cumps, Breckenridge, our Secretary of
War, is with me. He is a very able fellow, and a better
[29
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
lawyer than any of
If there
us.
is
no objection, I
will
him along tomorrow.'
fetch
"Bristling up, General Sherman exclaimed, 'Secretary
of War!
No, no; we don't recognize any civil govei'nment among you fellows, Joe. No, I don't want any
Secretary of War.'
" 'Well,' said General Johnston, 'he
general in the Confederate anny.
tion
to'
" 'Oh
his
'major general!
bring
I shall
major
also a
any objec-
presence in the capacity of major
quoth Sherman, in
!'
is
Is there
general.'^'
characteristic
his
Well, any major general you
But
be glad to meet.
no Secretary of War.
Do you
recollect,
way,
may
Johnston,
understand.'"
"The next day General Johnston, accompanied by
Major General Breckenridge, was at the rendezvous
before Sherman.
" 'You
was.?'
know how fond of
added General Johnston, as he went on with
story.
'Well,
For
absorbed.
difficult, if
effect
tlio
dull
liquor Breckenridge
his
nearly
eveirything
to
several days Breckenridge
not impossible,
to^
procure liquor.
of his enforced abstinence.
and heavy that morning.
had given him a plug of very
had found it
He showed
He
Somebody
fine
his
drink had been
was rather
in
Danville
chewing tobacco, and
he chewed vigorously while we were awaiting Sherman's
coming.
in
After awhile the
for being late.
a
latter arrived.
He
bustled
with a pair of saddlebags over his arm, and apologized
chair.
He
placed his saddlebags carefully upon
Introductions
followed,
and
for
a
while
General Sherman made himself exceedingly agreeable.
Finally, some one suggested that
the matter in hand.'
[30]
we had better take up
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
a iy
'Yes,' said Sherman; 'but, gentlemen,
me
to
and
occurred
it
that perhaps 3'ou were not overstocked with liquor,
I
my way
procured some medical stores on
over.
Will you join me before we begin work?'
"General Johnston said he watched the expression of
Breckenridge at
Tossing
his
when the
this
announcement, and
quid into the
bottle
was
it
beatific.
he rinsed his mouth, and.
fire,
and the glass were passed
to
him he
poured out a tremendous drink, which he swallowed with
great satisfaction.
his
With an
air of content, he stroked
mustache and took a fresh chew of tobacco.
Then
they settled down to business, and Breckenridge never
shone more brilliantly than he did
He
followed.
rule
seemed to have at
in
the discussion which
his tongue's
end every
and maxim of international and constitutional law,
—
and of the laws of war international wars, civil wars,
and wars of rebellion. In fact, he was so resourceful,
cogent, persuasive, learned, that, at one stage of the
proceedings, General Sherman, when confronted by the
authority, but not convinced
ing
Breckenridge,
of
by the eloquence or learnback his chair, and
pushed
exclaimed: 'See here, gentlemen,
rendering anyhow.^
me sending
who
is
doing
this sur-
If this thing goes on, you'll have
a letter of apology
to'
Jeff Davis.'
"Afterward, when they were nearing the close of the
conference,
thought.
Sherman sat for some time absorbed in deep
Then he arose, went to the saddlebags and
fumbled for the
ment.
tossed
it
Breckenridge saw the move-
bottle.
Again he took
his
into the fireplace.
quid from
his
mouth and
His eye brightened, and he
gave every evidence of intense interest in what Shennan
seemed about to do. The latter, preoccupied, perhaps
unconscious
of
his
action,
poured out
[31]
some
liquor,
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
shoved the bottle back into the saddle-pocket, walked to
the window and stood there, looking out abstractedly,
while he sipped his
expectation
the
From
grog.
on
expression
pleasant hope and
Breckenridge's
face
changed successively to uncertainty, disgust and deep
depression.
At
last his
hand sought the plug of tobacco,
and, with an injured, sorrowful look, he cut off another
Upon
chew.
this he
the interview, taking
"After
man
ruminated during the remainder of
little
part
in
silent reflections at the
bustled back, gathered
up
what was
said.
window, General Sher-
and said:
his papers,
'These terms are too generous, but I must hurry away
before you
them
make me
sign a capitulation.
to the authorities at
how they
I will
Washington, and
let
With that he bade
are received.'
off"
as he
you hear
the assem-
bled officers adieu, took his saddlebags on his
went
submit
arm and
had come.
"General Johnston took occasion, as they
left
the
house and were drawing on their gloves, to ask General
Breckenridge how he had been impressed by Sherman.
" 'Sherman is a bright man, and a man of great
force,'
replied
tion, 'but,'
Breckenridge, speaking with delibera-
raising his voice
and with a look of great
intensity, 'General Johnston, General
Yes,
sir,
a hog.
Did you
see
Sherman
is
a hog.
him take that drink by
himself.'"
"General Johnston tried to assure General Breckenridge that General Sherman was a royal good fellow, but
the most absent-minded
man
in the world.
He
told
him
that the failure to offer him a drink was the highest com-
pliment that could have been paid
tO'
the masterly argu-
ments with Avhich he had pressed the Union commander
to that state of abstraction.
[32]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
" 'Ah !' protested the big Kentuckian, half sighing,
half gneving, 'no Kentucky gentleman would ever have
taken away that bottle.
needed
it
"The
He knew we
needed
badly.'
make it pubhc
On one occasion,
story was well told, and I did not
until after General Johnston's death.
being intimate with General Sherman, I repeated
Laughing
him.
but
if
heartily, he said
Joe Johnston told
hustled
and
it,
me
day
so that
give them,'
I
it,
:
'I
was
it
it
to
don't remember
it,
so.
Those fellows
was sorry for the drink
and with that
sally
I did
he broke into fresh
laughter."
The
story
a
is
fine
of
illustration
the Confederate argument.
the
force
of
Breckenridge, doubtless,
shrewdly accepted Sherman's theory of the relation of
Confederates to the Union, and on that ground but one
Sherman had
conclusion could be logically reached.
Johnston "we don't recognize
among you
fellows,"
any
and refused
civil
to
told
government
consent to the
presence of Breckenridge in his character of Secretary
of
War
of the Confederate States.
According to Sher-
man's theory, which was the theory of the Federal government from the beginning of the struggle, no State
had
on
left the
Union, or could leave the Union.
this theory, the States, as States,
same relation
trouble began.
to
Of
course,
were in exactly the
Union as they were before the
when the armed resistance to Federal
the
So,
authority within their borders ceased, they would logi-
and naturally, and automatically, resume their
and exercise their powers. No wonder Sherman
was "abstracted" as he sat in the window. He was
right the truth about their high-handed and unlawful
cally,
rights
;
conduct demanded "an apology to Jeff Davis" and the
[33]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
civilized world.
when the
case
Sherman's sword was
came
into court, the truth
irresistible
;
but
was all-powerful,
and made the victor "absent minded."
But
the government at
Washington did not intend
allow the Confederate Secretary of
to'
War
to win a
Their argument from the
brilliant diplomatic victory.
had been the sword, the argument of superior
first
They had won
force.
The South
the case with that argument.
was defeated, exhausted, prostrate, and at their mercy.
They
did not intend to allow
Revenge and punishment were
upon
to get
it
in
its
feet.
order next.
So they deliberately reversed the theory on which they
had fought the war to a victorious end, and after spending
billions
of money and sacrificing hundreds of thou-
sands of lives to uphold the doctrine that a State once
the
in
Union was
in
forever, they declared that the
and proceeded to
seceded States were out of the Union
readmit them into the Union.
I
am
not now concerned
with the inconsistency of this course
whatever
dom,
it
South^
may have
been
its
motive,
;
its
but
I
wisdom or unwis-
completely admits the paramount position of the
—that
a State could withdraw
I think I have established
my
from the Union.
third point
—namely, that
the treatment of the seceded States after the
that a State could withdraw
advance to
The
hold that,
my
from the Union.
war proved
I will now
fourth argvnnent.
right of a State to withdraw from the Union
is
proved by the failure of the government to try Jefferson
Davis, or any other Confederate
was over.
one
;
I
admit that
this
officer,
argument
is
when the war
an inferential
but the facts are so significant that they are of
great force in the case.
[34]
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
According to the theoiy of the government from the
beginning to the
close of the
war, Davis and
Confederates were traitors and were
all
to
liable
other
all
the
During the war they were
uniformly accused by the North of treason, called
"rebels" and the war a "rebellion," and public opinion
consequences of treason.
When
clamored for their punishment as "traitors."
Davis and other Confederates were captured they were
thrown into prison and treated as
One by one they were
traitors.
if
they were in fact
released without trial.
Davis was formally indicted, but was not brought to
He
trial.
earnestly desired
so did his friends,
it,
and
the whole South, confident that he would not only be
acquitted of treason, but that the result of the trial
would demonstrate
whole
to the
civilized
After a long imprison-
justice of the Southern cause.
ment, Davis was released on
him was
world the legal
bail,
and the case against
finally dismissed.
Why was
Davis and the
rest of the Confederates never
tried for the crime with which they were accused with
such unanimity and vehemence during the war ?
It can-
not be ascribed to magnanimity on the part of the conquerors.
I
wish I could think
it
was, for
it
would help
away one of the darkest blots on the fair name of
American civilization. But the facts forbid the idea.
The largest magnanimity of thought about it now, when
to clear
all
motive for unjust accusation has vanished in the
kinder spirit that prevails,
treatment of Mr.
Monroe with the
Davis
unable to reconcile the
is
as
a
prisoner
idea of magnanimity.
in
Foi'tress
He was
held in
rigorous confinement, compelled to be under a bright
light
his
and the
sleepless eye of a
guard night and day
health was bi'oken and wasted with four years of
[35]
THE SOUTH WAS BIGHT.
anxiety and care
and
ball
;
yet they put handcuffs on his wrists
and chain on
his ankles, not for security,
but to
degrade and humiliate him and the South; they refused
him
all
little
intercourse with his family and friends
when
;
his
three-year-old girl asked "if she might write to
papa," they consented, provided what she wrote was
proper for him
Instructed by her devoted
read.
to
mother, and to be sure that what she wrote would not
be refused, knowing that just the sight of her hand-
writing would comfort her
afflicted father,
the
little
girl
copied the twenty-third Psalm, but they refused to allow
it
to go to him.
who were
Oh, no
In the dark souls of the
!
men
power then there was no thought of clemency,
and they were as incapable of magnanimity as the Prior
in
of the Spanish Inquisition.
They tortured Davis with
damn their memory
a refinement of cruelty that will
forever, and which no effervescence of patriotic twentieth
centui'y fraternity can expunge.
Why
their
did they not try him.^
way except one
and that was
thousands.
They had everything
thing, and they were afraid of that,
truth.
The Torch
The Sword
could slaughter
its
could reduce to ashes the sacred
homes and shrines of the South.
A
million
men
in arms,
make
the nations stand in awe. But the Sword and the Torch
and the Bayonets of a million men recoiled from the
adamantine front of Truth as it was represented in the
the seasoned veterans of a hundred battles, could
frail,
emaciated person of Jefferson Davis.
The}" could
persecute him, but they were afraid to prosecute him.
him and they
left him.
among them Daniel
O'Connell,
Justice held her shield above
Davis had eminent counsel,
the famous Irish barrister, and his trial would have been
one of international interest.
[36]
Secure
in
the power of
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
the Sword, the victors were too wise to allow their
title
to be tested b}^ the law before a court of justice.
The
of Jefferson Davis would have afforded the South
trial
a splendid opportunity to vindicate itself before the
civihzed world,
would have
where
it
and
I
have not a shadow of doubt that
settled the whole responsibility for the
it
war
belonged, on the North, and proved beyond dis-
and not the
pute that they,
Southerners,
were
in
"rebellion" against the Constitution on v.hich the Union
was founded
in the beginning.
But enough has been said to show that the States up
to 1860 had a legal right to withdraw from the Union.
That right no longer exists, but it did exist then and it
was the definite ground on wliich the Southern people
acted.
The fallacies of the Northern argument against
are
For example It was said that
it
easily exposed.
;
:
as the Constitution itself was silent on the question of
secession, it
had
as
was a matter of construction, and the North
much
right to construe
South had to construe
that
is
that
it is
it in
it
against secession as the
favor of
The answer
it.
to
a principle universally admitted that a
document must be construed according to the intention
of those who made
it.
I
have shown in the evidence I
have given that those who made the Union understood
that the States had the right
North,
the
therefore,
toi
withdraw from
construed the
it.
When
to
Constitution
forbid secession, they did so in violation of the universal
rule of interpretation of legal documents.
this respect
had the right on
Again
first
said
:
:
In his
The South
in
its side.
inaugural address, Mr. Lincoln
"If the United States be not a government proper,
but an association of States
merely, can
it,
in the
nature of a contract
as a contract, be peaceably
[37]
unmade by
less
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
than
the parties
all
tract ma}'^ violate
not require
It
is
it
who made
—break
One party
it?
so to
it,
to a con-
speak —-but
does
it
to lawfully rescind it?"
all
strange that so clear a reasoner as Mr. Lincoln
undoubtedly was, did not
see that the simple
swerable repl}^ to that
that
is
and unan-
depends on the nature
it
made
of the contract.
If when the contract v/as
understood by
the parties to the transaction that each
all
it
was
one had the right to withdraw from the contract, and
if
was expressly reserved, then a notice of with-
this right
drawal was a legal dissolution of the compact.
have shown that
stand when
it
all
was
Now
I
the parties to this Union did under-
first
formed that they had the right to
withdraw, and several of them expressly reseiTed that
right.
did not, therefore, "require
It
intended
point.
sal
It
it
He
to'
lawfully
Notice of withdrawal was a legal dissolution.
rescind it."
Again:
all
was said that the foundel^s of the Union
Mr. Lincoln
to be perpetual.
stressed that
said: "I hold that in contemplation of univer-
law, and of the Constitution, the LTnion of these
States
is
perpetual.
expressed, in
the fundamental law of
Most
ments."
Perpetuity
assuredly.
not
is
implied,
all
national govern-
But there
is
a
if
difference
between a "national government" and a Federal government, such as was
in the
"contemplation" of the framers
of our Union in the beginning.
In a federal union per-
petuity depends on the fidelity of
tract.
I
take
it
that no sane
national government, such as
which he succeeded
all
man
parties to the conwill
Lincoln had
in establishing,
claim that a
in
mind, and
would have met with
any favor with the founders of the American Union.
Hamilton, perhaps, dreamed of it and desired it, but
the solidarity and centralized authority which
[38]
it
involved
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
power they were
too nearly resembled the monarchical
throwing
them to favor
off for
it.
They
intended
be perpetual only on the condition that they
the Constitution
;
if
all
it
to
obeyed
that fundamental law of the
Union
was disregarded and broken they were absolved and had
The
the legal right to withdraw.
idea of unconditional
perpetuity was read into the Constitution by the North
long after the Union was fonned.
The
Union seems
true history of the
to be as follows
After the American colonies had won their independence
from Great Britain, they became sovereign
For
States.
the more effective purposes of government these States,
in their capacity as sovereign States,
formed a federal
union, and adopted a Constitution.
This Union was
intended to be perpetual, but only upon the condition of
the faithful obserA'ance of the fundamental law of the
Constitution.
They
all
understood that they had the
reserved right to withdraw from the
stitution
was not obeyed.
national, instead of a federal,
North.
Union
if the
Con-
Gradually the idea of a
compact grew up
in the
The economic development
The great influx of European
of the
Northern
States favored this idea.
emigration introduced into the North a multitude of
people
who knew nothing of State Rights
sympathy with the South, were
African slavery, and to
whom
violently
the very
—had
no
opposed to
name of
the
Union was the synonym of the liberty they craved, and
came to America to enjoy. This idea of a National
Union, one and indissoluble forever, found an eloquent
spokesman in Danial Webster, and spread like wildfire
from New England to California. A whole generation
in the North was reared up to believe that the Union
was created immediately by the people, and that it was
[39]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
supreme over the States, and that loyalty to the Union
was the
first
duty of
all
On
Americans,
the other hand,
the South adliered to the idea that the Union was not
national, but federal, in
the States,
and had
its
nature
strictly
that
;
it
hmited powers
was made by
and
;
tliat if
the Constitution was violated every State had the right
to withdraw
the
South
as
an
country
agricultural
Generation
theory.
The economic
from the Union.
fell
And
they gave
this
it
lived,
and died
in
up only when they
This was the difference
bleeding at every pore.
between the North and the South
What
favored
after generation of Southerners
from the beginning were reared, and
this political faith.
interests of
part did slavery have in
in
1860.
it.'^
A very
The poor African savages were run down
great part.
in their native
jungles by cruel English and American slave-hunters
and brought to this country in New England ships by
Yankee slave dealers. They were bought and sold in
Boston as well as
But
in Charleston.
unprofitable in the rigorous climate
soil
of
New England,
the South.
while
So the shrewd
it
sterile
was highly profitable in
New Englanders
the few slaves they had for good
They
their labor proved
and on the
money on
unloaded
the South.
then became very virtuous and discovered that
slavery was a horrible crime,
South should liberate the
and demanded that the
As the North did not
slaves.
have slaves and the South did this became a sectional
issue.
It
was the North against the South.
grew apart both
in their political
their property interests.
So they
convictions and in
This went on until the dispute
culminated in the terrible war for the Union.
Let me resort to a parable to
of the Negro to the struggle.
[40]
illustrate the relation
Once there were two men
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
who were neighbors.
They were very
friendly for a
long time, but gradually they became estranged.
He was
Smith had a large black dog.
and Smith was anxious to get
Jones.
sold
him
The dog soon became very
Newfoundland.
He trained him to
gO'
Mr.
him
Finding that
rid of him.
wanted a dog he
his neighbor, Jones,
wortliless to
his black
useful to
errands and bring or carry
packages, and in various ways
to'
The
render service.
dog was well treated, indeed, he was one of the family,
and a strong attachment existed between him and all the
This excited the envy of Mr. Smith, who
household.
was an editor, and he began to wr^ite cruel things in his
paper about people who made their dogs work. Jones
was a high-spirited man, and he resented the unjust
things Smith said. This only made Smith worse. One
day he came over to Jones' home and said: "Jones, you
have got to> let that dog go. You shan't make him work
for you any longer."
of his business
Jones told Smith that
;
Smith said he did not care what
there was "a higher law," and he intended
to see that that
dog was turned
on the front door
step.
When
the house, Jones hit him
Then
was none
the law protected him in his right to the
;
dog, and he could leave.
the law said
it
the fight began.
Smith attempted to enter
straight between the eyes.
Smith got the worst of
away and
awhile, but he went
All this passed
loose.
ture was
way
smashed
in
for
hired a German, an Irish-
man, a Bohemian and a Negro, and with these
him, he forced his
it
into Jones' house.
the stitiggle.
to help
All the furni-
Jones' wife and
children were driven out, and the place was wrecked.
But they held
their
helping Jones
all
ground manfully, the faithful dog
he could.
"Fire the barn," shouted
Smith, and the Irishman hurled the torch to the barn.
[41]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
"Burn
fire to
German set
upon Jones, who,
the house," shouted Smith, and the
the home.
Then
all
of them
fell
exhausted bj the unequal and long protracted contest,
sank under the overwhelming odds.
All
sat on
poor Jones, and the big Negro put
Jones'
neck and spit in his face.
gratified their
would
of them
five
his foot
When
anger they made him promise before they
him up that he would not make the dog
let
more work.
on
they had
Then they
do'
any
him.
left
In this parable Smith represents the North, Jones
and the dog represents the Negro.
represents the South,
Jones fought, not to keep the dog, but to defend his
rights as a
and
man and
a free citizen against the impudent
lawless intrusion of
Smith into
his private affairs.
The North demanded that the South set the Negroes
free.
The South told the North to attend to her own
business.
Then the North resolved to force the South
to yield to her demand, and the South fought
for her rights.
fight,
Of
for fighting
difficulties
man who
;
a finish
course, there should have been
is
but who was to blame, Jones or Smitli ?
won't defend his
home against
deserves to be kicked out of
******
that the States
up
right to withdraw from the Union, I
to
I
1860 had the
now take up
the
Admitting they had the
right, did the circumstances justify
Here again
the unwarranted
any decent community.
second part of the subject.
A
a cowardly wretch who
is
think Jones did exactly right.
Having shown
no
a barbarous method of settling
intermeddling of outsiders
it.''
to'
them
in exercising
I unhesitatingly take the
affirmative
and appeal to the facts.
In 1860 very few people in the South doubted the
legal right of a State to secede
[42]
from the Union
;
but a
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
great
many doubted
advised against
it.
the wisdom of
and earnestly
it
Jefferson Davis held that a State
could secede, but he opposed resorting to this extreme
Mr. Davis was as much misunderstood in the
Mr. Lincoln was in the South. He earnestly
deprecated an armed conflict with the North, yet he was
measure.
North
as
under no delusion either as
secession, or as
to' its
"A Diary from
to^
character.
certainty in case of
its
In her interesting book,
Dixie," Mrs. Chesnut relates a conver-
Mr. Davis just before the battle of First
She says "In
Manassas, or Bull Run, as we called it.
Mrs. Davis' drawing-room last night the President took
sation with
:
a seat
by me on a sofa where
an hour.
We
He
I sat.
laughed at our faith
We
are like the British.
talked for nearly
in
our own powers.
think every Southerner
equal to three Yankees at least.
equivalent to a dozen now.
He
After
We
will
have to be
his experience of the
fighting qualities of Southerners in Mexico' he believes
that we will do
endurance
all
and
And
that can be done by pluck and muscle,
dogged
courage,
and
dash
red-hot
There
For one
That
thing, either way, he thinks it will be a long war.
already.
long
for
me
floored me at once.
It had been too
Then he said, before the end came we would have many
patriotism.
yet his tone was not sanguine.
was a sad refrain running through
a bitter experience.
He
it
all.
said only fools
courage of the Yankees or their willingness
doubted the
toi
fight
when
And now that we have stung their pride
fit.
we have roused them till they will fight like devils." I
think that puts Mr. Davis in a new light to some people.
they saw
Instead of being the rabid fire-eater and over-confident
revolutionary leader
many have supposed
that he was, he
appears to have taken a very sober and sensible view
[4'3]
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
of the situation, to have fully appreciated the character
of the Northern people and to realize the true nature of
South had entered.
the struggle on which the
He
General R. E. Lee was opposed to secession.
not believe in
"secession
is
it
But we must
nothing but revolution."
always remember, when
say General Lee did not
Ave
believe in secession, that he did not
believe the State
mean he
had the right to secede.
it, and he said
proved that he did believe
"The
did
remedy for our wrongs, and said
as a
His conduct
so.
act of Virginia in withdrawing herself
Union carried him along
did not
He
as a citizen of Virginia,
her laws and acts were binding on him.
I
and
said:
from the
my
and
people
considered the act of the State legitimate, and that the
seceding States were merely using their reserved rights,
which they had a legal right to do."
So firmly con-
vinced was General Lee of the justice of the Southern
cause that he did not consider the consequences of the
Succeed or
struggle.
He
our rights.
fail,
said:
principles to maintain
we were
in the
duty demanded that we defend
"We
had, I was satisfied, sacred
and rights to defend, for which
duty bound to do our
in
endeavor."
best, even if
we perished
This was said on the eve of Appo-
mattox, when the ruin of the cause was unmistakable,
by a man who never spoke at random. After
the war, when he had time to review it all and the
and
said
leisure
and calm needful for safe conclusions, he said
"I fought against the people of the North because I
believed they were seeking to Avrest
the South their dearest rights."
Hampton "If
:
it
in precisely the
like he ever
were
from the people of
He
said to General
do over again,
all to
same manner."
That
I
would act
does not sound
had any doubts about the righteousness of
[
44
]
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Yet General Lee, after the war,
the cause.
before the Committee on Reconstruction
may
may have beheved
have said and I
of the two sections which they held
testified
folloAvs:
a.s
"I
that the position
tO'
each other was
brought about by the politicians of the country
;
that
the great masses of the people, if they had understood
the real question, would have avoided
believe at the time that
it.
* * * I did
was an unnecessary condition
it
of affairs and might have been avoided, if forbearance
and wisdom had been practiced on both
It would
sides."
be hard to frame a more truthful statement of the case.
But not only was
wisdom of
the
among
the prominent leaders,
and
of the people doubted
file
and
my
it.
doubted
secession
many among
the rank
We lived in Mississippi
father was a private citizen and a Methodist
He
minister.
believed the State
had the right to
but he regarded the secession movement as
political madness.
opposed secession.
little
secede,
short of
He clung to the Union and earnestly
He continued to oppose it long after
Mississippi had seceded, and with such earnestness that
our neighbors were offended, and some would not hear
But when Lincoln called for troops to
South he exclaimed: "That ends it. If he
him preach.
invade the
can do that he can do anything."
he was forced to take
sides,
So, like
all
the rest,
and with us there was but one
side to take.
Two paramount
in
considerations controlled the South
taking the step of secession.
First,
the growing
North to the South, and, second, the
of the North toward the Constitution. Let us
hostility of the
attitude
look at these reasons.
The
hostility of the
First, the hostility of the North.
North
is
seen in three things
:
First,
opposition to the territorial expansion of the South
[45]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
second,
persistent attack on the local institutions of
its
the South, and, third, continued misrepresentation and
defamation of the people of the South.
North was hostile tO' the territorial expanThere was no particular or strenuous
First, the
sion of the South.
opposition to "the Louisiana Purchase" under Jeffer-
two sections were
son's administration, because the
to begin
and
But
work.
its evil
we have
as
still
and the mutual jealousy had hardly had time
friendly,
it
seen, Josiah
sion of Louisiana
soon began to show
would be a just cause for the
tion of the Union.
It
itself,
Quincy declared the admisdissolu-
wrought immense mischief
Avhen
the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was settled.
The American
sent
minister in INladrid had secured the con-
Spain to recognize the Rio Grande as the
of
southern boundary instead of the Sabine River.
New England.
alanned
Southern territory would never do.
dent
Adams had
Madrid
to
the
This
Such an immense expansion of
To
negotiations
Once
Washington.
there,
prevent
it,
Presi-
transferred
from
it
was easy to hint
to the Spanish minister that if he would contend for
he could make the Sabine the
So
take the hint.
line.
New England
was not slow to
statesmanship, through
Southern expansion, deliberately gave back
hostility to
Texas to Spain.
When Andrew
Jackson discovered the
went to work to recover what would have been
facts, he
New England.
ours but for the opposition of
Houston
When
He
it
to
Texas
to
He
sent
foment a revolt from JMexico.
Texas, after winning her independence, sought
admission
into
the
Union,
New England
earnestly
by the skin of the teeth,
and through Jackson's vigor. England was offering
opposed
it.
It succeeded only
Texas great inducements
to get a naval base at Galves-
[46]
—
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Once
ton.
fortified there,
and
league with Texas,
in
England would have planted herself squarely across the
path of Southern advance. Houston had about exhausted
his influence with the Texas Legislature.
New England
opposition to annexation was about to throw Texas into
the arms of Great Britain.
A man
was dispatched by
Houston from Nacogdoches, then the Capital of Texas,
on horseback, to Jackson at Nashville, Tenn., to infonn
Jackson that
if
Congress hesitated any longer the treaty
with England would become a fact.
Jackson rushed a
messenger on horseback to Louisville, Ky., then up the
Ohio
last
to Pittsburgh, thence to
Washington, and
at the
moment thwarted New England and prevailed on
How
Congress to agree to the annexation of Texas.
absurd
it is
especially
for any Southerner, in view of these facts,
any Texan, to sing the hymn of Dr. Smith
"My
country,
of thee.
'tis
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing!
Land where my fathers died.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride," and
Neither Dr. Smith, nor any of
"pride"
in
in the
so on.
his people,
had any
South, and so far from having any pride
Texas, they were moving heaven and earth to keep
from becoming a part of our "country."
whether you
song
is
sung
for
like
in
substitute the
my
it
It
I
always teach m}^
it
a fact,
When
to be told or not.
home,
is
that
childi^en to
word "Patriot" for the word "Pilgrim."
Respect for those rugged old Pilgrims who were trying
to get
up out of
coming
into the
their graves to prevent
Texas from
Union forbids that we should include
that fair land in the "IMy country" of Dr. Smith's song.
[47]
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Every step of Southern expansion to the Pacific was
opposed by the North. Deny it, who can
Now, there was no such liostility on the part of the
South toward Northern expansion. On the contrary,
bitterl}^
Virginia gave to the North a territory almost the size of
When
Texas.
the
War
of the Revolution closed, Vir-
ginia had a vahd claim to "the Northwest Territory."
But with
patriotic devotion to the whole country she
ceded her claim to the newly
made Union
;
and out of
that territory was formed the great States of Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, so that Vir-
won the proud title from the patriotic heart of
America in the good old days of "Mother of States and
of statesmen."
But this generosity was soon forgotten
in the growing hostility to the whole South.
This hostility of the North expressed itself, secondly,
ginia
in the persistent attack
South,
on the
and especially of
local institutions of the
They began, and
They
slavery.
maintained, a systematic anti-slavery agitation.
held public meetings to denounce the South and political
conventions to organize against
berless papers
it.
They printed numto stirring up and
and pamphlets devoted
educating Northern public sentiment to hate the South.
They
secretly circulated documents
inciting the slaves to revolt.
make war
They employed
parties to
life.
the masses and
people.
By
pushed their
it
societies
and
on the Southern system of social
the most gifted orators to address
fire their
passions against the Southern
speech and pen, in ten thousand ways, they
hostile crusade against the South.
culminated in
its
natui'al
attempt of John Brown to
Southern
throughout the South
They formed
slaves.
and proper
incite a race
John Brown was an
[48]
Finally
result in
war among
anarchist.
the
tlie
Yet
:
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
he was a hero
North because he impersonated the
in the
general feehng of hostility to the South.
still,
his
They
as for that.
memory
when
safe,
it
build costly
ought
lie
is
a hero
monuments to keep
to rot in eternal oblivion.
In his famous Cooper Institute speech Mr. Lincoln said
this
about John
"That
affair,
many attempts
An
ors.
in
Brown's mad invasion of Virginia
philosoph}^, corresponds with the
its
at the assassination of kings
and emper-
enthusiast ventures the attempt which ends
in little else than his
own
Lincoln, which I believe
execution."
is
correct,
This estimate of
put John Brown
in
the class of Gitteau, the insane wretch who murdered
Garfield.
According to Lincoln,
assassin that "goes
it is
the "soul" of an
marching on," and monuments are
and peans sung to the arch anarch of our history. Lincoln classed John Brown with J. Wilkes Booth,
The North honors Brown and damns
his own assassin.
erected
Booth!
Can any one wonder that
the South felt that
her most sacred rights were in danger when the North
applauded John Brown as a national hero, and held him
up
as a glorified "martyr" and representative of the
and purposes of the North? What might we not
expect when the political party that claimed him as its
spirit
forerunner acquired the vast powers of the Federal
government
The
hostihty of the
North
seen in the continued
is
misrepresentation and defamation of the Southern peo-
greatest men, on whose memory,
It is by one of their
when he died, our own
great Lamar, sounding the
note of returning fra-
ple.
I
need
cite
only one example.
first
ternity over the subsiding floods of sectional hatred,
pronounced a noble eulogy.
If such a
man
could use
such violent, intemperate, vulgar, and insulting speech
[49]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
on the
floor of the
United States Senate, what might not
be expected from speakers
who
neither
for the ethics of public discussion ?
knew or cared
I refer to the speech
"The Crime Against Kansas,"
assault of Preston S. Brooks, mem-
of Charles Sumner on
provoked the
w^hicli
ber of Congress from South Carolina.
is
Every
vituperative.
speech
is
epithet
is
Every sentence
The whole
To' use his own
vitriolic.
an irruption of vulgar malice.
language, he "discharged the loose expectoration of his
speech" upon the South and her people.
an unfortunate thing,
There
chastised him.
it
was
do not wonder that Brooks
I
is
While
a limit to the license of abuse.
Human
nature can stand so much and no more, and
Sumner went far over the line. But as in the case of
John Brown, the North hailed in Sumner an exponent
of her sentiments and denounced Brooks as "a cowardly
assassin" and his State as a barbarous people.
this
In doing
they made the speech of Sumner an expression of
Northern sentiment
;
and
the South I do not
and darkness.
I
if
know
that speech does not slander
the difference between light
It smells of brimstone!
said one example of this misrepresentation would
serve
my
more
influential one.
purpose, but I must cite another, and a far
I
mean
the book, "Uncle
Cabin," by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.
West was
settled the wide prairies
luxuriant grass.
Tom's
Before the
were covered with
After a long season of rainless weather
a match carelessly thrown into the dry stubble would
would sweep in flaming fury
Nothing could stop it, or stand
carried ruin and death to man and beast
start a conflagration that
over the whole country.
before
in its
it.
It
path and
left a
blackened desert behind
it.
I
can
think of nothing that so appropriately illustrates the
[50]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
of Mrs. Stowe's book on the public opinion of the
effect
world.
was a lighted match thrown into the dry
It
stubble of the world's thought and set
who would never read
of people,
it
on
fire.
]Millions
a political speech, or
care for the argument of statesmen, read this vile book,
and got the idea that the Southern people were a
wicked barbarians, whose chief delight was
runaway
slaves
and
book was false
who read
believed it was true.
it
Over yonder
sit,
on
there
is
it tells
church,
the
in
to the core
us that
Of
but the millions
from where
I
The inscription
memory of Bishop
wall.
sacred to the
it is
;
visible
a marble tablet on the
of
set
hunting
upon them.
inflicting tortures
course, the
in
William Capers, of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.
is
Among many
revered
is
other things for which his
So
missions to the slaves."
Stowe was writing her
making
memory
the fact that he was "the founder of the
at the very time that Mrs.
libellous
account of slavery, and
millions believe the Southern people were little
better than savages,
and investing her slanders with
the romantic charms
of a pharasaical philanthropy,
Southern ministers of the Gospel, led by
this
godly
Bishop, were telling these poor benighted Negroes, torn
from
by Yankee cupidity, the story
their native land
of a Savior's love, and leading thousands of them to
Not one word
faith in Christ.
of this missionary work
among
Her purpose was
to blacken
succeeded in doing
it.
civilized
Her
does Mrs. Stowe
tell
the slaves of the South.
and defame
us,
and she
book, "translated into evciy
tongue, became world hterature."
The
effect
of this book in England in preventing the recognition
of the Confederacy was very great.
Francis
Adams
says:
General Charles
"There was but one way of
[51]
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
accounting for
tively
it.
Uncle
doing their work.
Tom
and Legree were respec-
So
was that The Index (a
it
paper that was pro-Southern)
despairingly
at
of the negro from
declared: 'The emancipation
slavery of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's heroes
is
last
the
the one idea
of the millions of British who know no better and do
Like the Cherubim with the flaming
not care to know.'
sword, this sentiment stood between Lancashire and cotton,
and the
made possible the subWith Pyrrhus, it was
inviolate blockade
jugation of the Confederacy.
thrown by a woman from a housetop
with Lee
a
tile
it
was a book issued by a woman from a printing press
The
were equally fatal."
missiles
When you
less
calmly
reflect
on
all this,
you
will
doubt-
admit that the South had good reason to be alarmed.
The North was growing more powerful
its spirit
more aggressive and
and
to the South,
its
;
all
intolerant.
the time, and
The
hostility
stern detennination to interfere with
domestic condition. Constitution or no Constitution,
justified the
South
in
seeking to protect
ing to the legal right of secession.
by
itself
At any
resoii:-
rate, the
vast majority beheved that their rights were no longer
safe in a Union controlled by such hostility.
But even more than by this
by the attitude of
hostility, the
influenced
the
South was
North toward the
Constitution.
The
Constitution was the basis of the Union.
attack that Avas to attack the foundation.
it
was to throw down
all
irresponsible
North
did.
I
affirm,
and
ignore
the barriers to tyranny, and
government to erect an
in the place of constitutional
despotism.
To
To
That
will
59.
]
is
exactly
what
the
prove, that the North
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
and
spurned
denounced
repudiated
They denounced
Wm. H.
the
Constitution.
and they disobeyed
it
Here
it.
is
They
it.
the proof:
Seward, one of their foremost men, and
afterward one of Lincoln's cabinet, said: "There
is
a
higher law than the Constitution which regulates our
authority over the domain.
and we must do
tive slave act
obey
this
it."
is filled
Slavery must be abolished,
Charles
Sumner
said:
"The
act."
William Lloyd Garrison said: "The Union
The American Union
is
!
Up with
is
a
lie.
an imposture, a covenant with
death and an agreement with
throw
fugi-
with horror; we are bound to dis-
hell.
We are
for
the flag of disunion, that we
its
over-
may have
a free and glorious republic of our own."
Joshua R. Giddings said: "I look for^vard to the day
when there shall be a servile insurrection in the South;
when the black man, armed with British bayonets, and
led on by British officei^s, shall assert his freedom and
wage war of extermination against his master. And,
though we may not mock at their calamity nor laugh
when their fear cometh, yet we will hail it as the dawn
of a political millennium."
Anson P. Burlingame said: "The times demand and
we must have an antislavery Constitution, an antislavery
Bible,
and an antislavery God."
This proof might be extended indefinitely
testimonies
from representative men
is
;
but these
sufficient.
They
express the true sentiment of the North, and disclose
an utter contempt for the Union on the basis of the
Constitution.
They disobeyed
the Constitution.
[53]
Here
is
the proof:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
The
Constitution recognized the right of property
and protected
States where slavery existed
it had not done so, those
when the Union was formed
would never have entered
it.
in slaves
million
slaves
in
If
it.
Now
and
South,
the
at the lowest computation a billion
Of
property.
were four
there
they
represented
worth of
dollars'
course slavery was an
evil.
All recog-
But the North was as responsible for it
as the South.
While it was an evil, it was not all evil.
As a rule the Negroes were treated kindly, and cruel
treatment was the exception.
The unanswerable proof
nized that.
of this
the fact thai during the
is
war the great mass
of the slaves were faithful to their masters, and helped
us in the struggle, and
many
after they were free, pre-
ferred to stay with "their people" to going with their
liberators.
It
had
for the slave, too, for
its benefits
trained ignorant Africans to habits of civilized
was a great industrial school for the
race.
life,
its evil,
ments about
ished.
it.
and give the
It
lie to'
was easy to say
it
ought to be abolthat,
and but
for the unwarranted interference of the North,
highly probable the way
did
it
the Northern state-
South believed
]\Iultitudes in the
and
All of this
did not justify the institution of slavery, but
mitigate
it
it
is
Avould have been found for the
gradual liberation of the
slaves.
some Negroes belonging to
his
General Lee liberated
family while the war was
But right or wrong, the South had over a
billion dollars invested in this form of property, and it
was protected by the Constitution. Besides the whole
social, civic and industrial life of the South was inexgoing
on.
tricably intertwined with the institution of slavery.
suddenly liberate the slaves was to wreck civilization
the South, and do more
harm than good,
[54]
as
To
in
was amply
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
demonstrated when the North
of the sword.
Now
finally did it
by the power
the cold-blooded pui'pose of the
North was, Constitution or no Constitution, to suddenly
destroy this vast property without compensation to the
and turn loose these four million ignorant
Negroes as free people upon the South. But to the
owners,
proof that the North disobeyed the Constitution.
Section 2, of Article IV, of the Constitution, says:
"No
person held to Service or Labor, in one State,
under the laws thereof, escaping into another State,
shall, in
consequence of any
Law
or Regulation therein,
be discharged from such Sei*\dce or Labor, but shall be
up
delivered
whom
(italics
mine) on Claim of the Party to
such Service or Labor
may
be done."
This is the law which no less a man than Charles
Sumner said, "We are bound to- disobey" it. To quote
Dr. Curry on this point: "Ten Northern States, with
impunity, with the approval of such men as Governor
Chase, afterward Secretary of the Treasury under Mr.
Lincoln and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, nullified
the Constitution, declared
reference
a 'dead
to'
that
its
stipulation
in
the reclamation of fugitives from labor was
letter,'
and to that extent they dissolved the
in the tenns upon
Union, or made an ex parte change
which
it
was fonned.
These States did not fonnally
secede, but of themselves, without assent of those
Mr.
Jefferson described as 'coparties with themselves to the
compact,' changed the conditions of union and altered
the articles of agreement."
stitution
In short, though the Con-
expressly agreed that fugitive slaves should
be given up, the North deliberately said they shall not.
If that was not disobeying the Constitution, I confess
I
am
incapable of understanding in what disobedience
[55]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Of
consists.
course, if they could declare one part of
the Constitution "a dead letter" because
them, they could abrogate any part of
did not suit
it
for the same
it
reason.
In 1850, only two years before his death, Daniel
Webster, Senator from Massachusetts, made a speech
which became known as "The Seventh of
I once
heard Mrs.
Mary
March Speech."
A. Livermore, of Boston, deliver
her really great lecture on "Wendell Phillips and His
She boasted that she was one of the original
Times."
and stood by the side of Wendell Pliillips
when he faced the mobs to plead for the liberation of
Abolitionists,
the "cruelly oppressed slave."
Referring
to'
Seventh of March Speech, she said that up
Webster
Avas
proud of
his
the idol of
fame and
New England.
felt
that in him the
Webster's
toi
that time
They were
Nation had
a champion that no foe would care to meet, or meeting,
would rue
it
was toppled
forever.
But
in the dust,
proved a recreant coward.
reading
it
was a
after that speech, the idol
and the admired champion had
She said the
first effect
sort of dazed amazement, which
on
was
succeeded by a sickening revulsion, and that by a violent
indignation, and Webster was thenceforth regarded as
a "traitor" who had betrayed the nation's trust.
Mr.
Br3'^an says, in a note
on this speech
in his
"The
World's Famous Orations," "Curtis, the biographer of
Webster, admits that
this speech
favor throughout the North."
antislavery
angel."
men
met with general
Schurz describes the
as contemplating "the fall of
Webster was
"a fallen star," and "a bankrupt
gambling for the presidency," while Whittier,
his
an arch-
called " a recreant son of
chusetts,"
poems, wrote:
[56]
dis-
Massa-
politician
in
one of
;
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
"All else
gone
is
The
When
soul
faith
from those great eyes
;
fled;
is
lost,
is
The man
is
when honor
Then pay the reverence of
To
his old
Walk backward
And hide
old days
fame
with averted gaze
his
shame
!"
And what was it that the North called
What was it that the enlightened North,
Poor Webster
"his shame?"
dies,
dead.
!
shuddering with horror at the
sin of slavery,
thought
put out the light of Webster's "great eyes," exiled
"soul" and slew his "honor?"
to the Constitution
It
!
was
It
was Webster's
lized people,
fidelity
his conscientious obedience
to an oath which was equally binding
ican citizen.
his
Fidelity to one's oath
upon every Ameris,
among
all civi-
regarded as an essential attribute of honor
but the North denounced this as "shame" in Webster,
him "a
fallen archangel" because he kept
faith with his oath.
If that was not putting darkness
and
called
Let us see what Webster
will give it up.
we may clearly understand how completely
the North, in its rage against the South, had repudiated
for light I
said, that
the basic principles of political morality on which the
Union was founded.
will allude to other
cially to
Here
one which has,
and that
is,
what he said:
is
"But
I
complaints of the South, and espein
my
opinion, just foundation;
that there has been found at the North,
and among legislators, a disinclinaperform fully their constitutional duties in
regard to the return of persons bound to service who
among
tion
individuals
to
have escaped into the free States.
[57]
In that respect, the
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
in
wrong.
is
my
and the North is
Every member of every Northern Legislature
South,
judgment,
bound by oath,
like
is
right,
every other
the country,
officer in
to support the Constitution of the United States
and
;
the article of the Constitution which says to these States
that they shall deliver
up
fugitives
from
in
No man
fulfils his
duty
any Legislature who
in
self to find excuses, evasions, escapes,
tutional
service,
honor and conscience as any other
binding
obligation.
from
is
as
article.
him-
sets
this consti-
have always thought that the
I
Constitution addressed itself to the Legislatures of the
States or to the States themselves.
It says that those
persons escaping to other States "shall be delivered up,"
and
I confess I
have always been of the opinion that
was an injunction upon the States themselves.
it is
it
When
said that a person escaping into another State,
and
coming therefore within the jurisdiction of that State,
shall be delivered up, it seems to me the import of the
clause
is,
that the State
stitution, shall cause
my
and
judgment.
I entertain
I
it
itself, in
obedience to the Con-
him to be delivered up.
That
is
have always entertained that opinion,
now."
and true and brave. Yet the saying
it, probably, cost Webster the prize of the presidency
of the United States, and the North regarded him as "a
That was
clear
The
fallen archangel."
reference to fallen archangels
suggests a different construction to me.
If
to'
stand
firm for the truth amidst universal rebellion against
if to
be loyal to one's allegiance when
throAving
it off,
if to
be noble, then Webster
in
;
—
if this
the United States Senate on
the Seraph,
[
it,
others are
keep faith with conscience
the seventh of March, 1850, reminds
than an archangel
all
58
]
me of one higher
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
"Abdiel, faithful found
Among
Among
the faithless, faithful only he;
the innumerable false, unmoved.
Unshaken, unseduced,
His loyalty he kept,
unterrified,
his love, his zeal
Nor number, nor example, with him wrought
To
swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though
But
single."
bitterness
this
attitude of the
toward Webster emphasizes the
To
North toward the Constitution.
quote Dr. Curry again, in his "Civil Histoi-y of the
Government of the Confederate States," a book, by the
way, that ought tO' be read by every one whoi desires to
understand the truth about! the
War
for the Union,
"The Northern
States, not in
the regular prescribed
form, but
most irregular,
illegal,
in the
and contemptu-
ous manner, by ecclesiastical action and influence, by
legislative
and judicial annulment, by public meetings,
by pulpit and
associations,
Constitution,
by mobs and conspiracies and secret
and void a clear mandate of the
protective of Southern property, and
press,
made
null
adopted as an indispensable means for securing the
entrance of the Southern States into the Union."
They
disobeyed the Constitution.
Now
in
1860 Mr. Lincoln was
the party that
had for twenty-five years fostered
hostility to the
South and gloried
to the
Constitution.
What more
by
elected President
this
in this disobedience
reasonable than
to
suppose that the principles of the party would control
the policy of the administration?
Can any one wonder
or blame the South for taking steps to protect
itself
from the danger that menaced it? They must do it in
For an honorable people this
the Union or out of it.
[59]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
offered
no
They had no
alternative.
ing in the Union to
right while remain-
authority
resist its
but they had
;
the legal right to withdraw from the Union, and since
the government had
now passed
into'
the hands of a party
bent on the destruction of Southern rights, they were
fully justified in the step of secession.
Lincoln was a sincere man, and honestly
I think
to'
be his duty to resoii to anns
candidate of a party
;
but he was the chosen
had proclaimed
tliat
felt it
And
independence of the Constitution.
its
virtual
did not Lincohi
soon show that he was in full accord with his party, so
far as the constitutional limitations on his authority
M^ere
What
concerned?
constitutional right did he have
to call for troops to invade the South?
do that, he could do anything."
thought
call
so.
Virginia
She voted down secession
That ended
for troops.
all
do that he could do anytliing.
Here
L^nion."
is
his
it
evidently
until Lincoln's
debate, for if he could
And
he did do a world
He
of things without warrant of law.
course on the ground that
"If he could
his
justified
was necessary "to save the
language: "I
felt
that measures
otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becom-
ing indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution
through the preservation
wrong,
assumed
I
That was
heroic,
this
I
Right
now avow
nation.
ground, and
and success made
was not revolutionary
of the word.
of the
it
I
patriotic
;
but
or
it."
if it
have yet to learn the meaning
It was the bold assumption of autocratic
power under the plea of public necessity,
in Napoleon and applaud
A man knows very little of
patriotism in Lincoln.
and
illegal
which we denounce as tyranny
as
human nature who would expect an
spirited,
intelligent, high-
and liberty-loving people, such as the Southern
[60]
;
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
people of that generation were, to yield one iota to such
To
tyrannical authority.
resist it to the
utmost became
the sacred duty of every freeman.
But Lincoln and
his
party did unconstitutional things
which they could not justify on the ground of military
necessity, such, for example, as the admission of
What warrant
Virginia into the Union.
have for
West
of law did they
According to the theory of the Union,
that.^
which they had a million of men
in
arms to enforce, a
Virginia had not withdrawn
State could not secede.
from the Union, and those of her citizens who were
The
resisting the Federal government were in rebellion.
relation of the State of Virginia to the Union, therefore,
was exactly what
it
was before
its
claim to have left
it.
So when they divided Virginia they divided a State
in the Union as Ohio.
Where was
The truth is they had neither
the authority for that.-^
which was as much
law nor precedent, nor the excuse of military necessity
it
was pure, unadulterated despotism
West Virginia
sword.
ceived in sin
into the
and born
is
— the right of the
the bastard of the Union, con-
in iniquity.
Union contradicted
all
the
And
its
admission
North had proclaimed
about secession, for while they hurled a million men
against the South to prevent the secession of A'irginia,
on the ground that secession was a
and
justified
ical
heresy utterly ruinous to the American Union, they
allowed
Virginia
it
West Virginia
is
to secede
from Virginia.
polit-
West
the monumental proof that the I^orth in
1860 had thrown the Constitution to the winds, and
The South may be
ruled the country as a despotism.
overthrown, but
it
may be
counted on to
resist
such
lawless exercise of power as long as Anglo-Saxon blood
flows in her veins.
[61]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
have said far more than enough to prove
I
and
will
my
point,
only make a brief reference to the despotism
of the North after the close of the war.
Even
so fair
and conservative a judge as General Charles Francis
Adams
says:
"As an
then suspended.
irresponsible
historic fact, the Constitution
Congress,
exercising
revolutionary
I
but
common
unlimited powers over a large section of the
country."
was
was suspended by an act of an
It
General Adams' words apply to
think
Congress from the day the Republican party assumed
As a
the powers of government.
political
party
it
was
utterly lawless.
Southern States had
I conclude, therefore, that the
the right to secede in 1860, that the circumstances fully
justified
them
in
appealing to that right for protection
against the hostility of the North
had no constitutional right
;
and that the North
to coerce the seceded States
to return to the Union, but appealed to the right of
revolution to force
upon the States
new and
a
construction of the Constitution from
its
different
original mean-
ing.
Whether
not
;
the
North was
justified in this revolution or
whether a national government, with
centralized power,
is
its
highly
a better form of government than
the federal republic contemplated by Washington and
his
compatriots
;
whether republican institutions and the
government are compatible with
principles of popular
the imperialistic character implicit in the present organization of the national
government
that are outside of this discussion.
—
these are questions
Neither
am
I con-
cerned with the merits of the doctrine of secession.
That has nothing
to
do with the
case.
My
single aim
has been to show that the right of secession existed in
[62]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
1860, and to explain the reasons why the Southern people resorted to
it
for self-protection against the North,
The American Union has been aptly likened
solar system, in which the stability and harmony
to the
of the
system depends on the balance of the centripetal and
centrifugal forces.
If the centripetal force overbal-
ances the centrifugal, the planets will fall into the sun,
and ruin
will ensue.
If the centrifugal overbalances the
centripetal, the planets will fly apart,
will
be wrecked.
As applied
to the
and the system
Union, the national
idea represents the centripetal force, and the doctrine of
State's rights represents the centrifugal force,
perpetual problem of statesmanship
forces in equal balance.
carried
ment
tooi far, it will
will
is
and the
to maintain these
If the national principle
is
destroy the State and the govern-
become a centraHzed despotism.
ciple of State's right be carried too far,
If the prinit
the Union and involve everything in chaos.
will dissolve
It is one of
the wonders of political history, and one of the noblest
evidences of the capacity of the
self-government,
that
American people for
Constitution
the
sui-^aved
the
shock of the war, and after having been completely sus-
pended for a time, has again become the paramount
Nor
authority in the Nation.
is
there any sign of the
times more encouraging to the heart of the patriot than
new national
the maxim, "An indissoluble Union of
the political philosophy which expresses the
consciousness in
indestructible States."
The
integrity of the State
is
as
essential to the Nation as the solidarity of the Union.
When
the Americans resolved not to submit to British
oppression, Pitt exclaimed
America.
:
"I glory in the resistance of
Three million Americans who would submit
to the unjust measures of the British Ministry would be
[63]
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
instruments with which
fit
to'
Look-
enslave the rest."
ing back over the history of our country, so far from
condemning the South for her course
in her resistance to the
North.
A
in
1860, I glory
people
who would
have submitted to the lawless and unconstitutional acts
of the Republican party of that period could never have
made
the magnificent country Ave have today.
tism of blood consecrated the whole nation.
The bapEach side
learned to respect the other for the earnestness of their
convictions and the courage with wliich they maintained
Both
them.
sides are satisfied
Does any one ask why
fied
If the issues were definitely and
with the result?
forever settled,
with the final adjustment.
this discussion, if all are satis-
why not
let
the curtain fall, and the
whole subject pass into a happy oblivion?
There are
three reasons for not forgetting the past.
First,
remain
though the
and are as
issues
were
'vital
today as they were then.
settled, the principles
political problems, and
from no period of her history has she more or more
important lessons to learn than from the great struggle
America has not yet solved her
for constitutional government of these United States.
No
A
is
such Republic as ours ever existed before.
second reason
is
that an appreciation of the past
the inspiration of the present.
A
great
man has
told
us "that no people Avho are Indifferent to what their
ancestors did are likely to do anything for wliich their
posterity will have reason to be proud."
is
the product of the past.
The men, both
and the South, who are the leaders
in
The
present
in the
the
North
splendid
progress of today are men who have drunk deep at the
fountain of their country's history.
was right when he said
:
Patrick
Henry
"I have but one lamp by which
[64]
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
my
I
feet are guided and tliat is the lamp of experience.
know of no way of judging the future but by the
;
A
past."
flippant disregard for the past
When
sign of a fool.
a man, prominent
said in his rancid book,
the sure
is
in poHtical life,
"The Southerner," "About
the
Confederacy and the war I cared not a rap," he made a
sorry spectacle of his lack of self-respect, to say nothing
The
of his lack of respect for history.
sible
man
pendous event
Union
!
idea of a sen-
saying he does not care "a rap" for the stuin
American history, the
One wonders how he
War
for the
ever climbed so high with
such a narrow mind.
A
is a sacred reverence for the memory
They were bone of our bone and flesh of
From them we received our earthly Ixiing.
third reason
of the dead.
our
flesh.
They poured out
their life-blood for our sake.
To what
lower degree of baseness could we sink than to forget
them, and
perity
the sordid concerns of a material pros-
let
obliterate
What more
sentiment
the
that
reveres
them.
ignoble cowardice could we show than to
allow the youth of the South to quietly imbibe the opinion that, if not traitors to their country, they were
deluded
and
reckless
revolutionists
!
Could we more
effectually renounce our claim to be patriots than to
quench the hallowed
martyrs of liberty!
sible
in
to forget
them
fire
of admiration for them as the
Perish the thought that
it is
as long as their blood shall flow
our veins
"Where
pos-
shall their dust be laid?
On the mountain's starry crest.
Whose kindling lights are signals made
To the mansions of the blest:
[65]
!!
!
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
No, no, no!
For bright though the mountain
It has no gem in its diadem
Like the hf e-spark of the free
"Where
On
be.
shall their dust be laid?
the ocean's stormy shore,
With wailing woods
And
at their backs arrayed,
shouting seas before:
No, no, no!
For, deep as
its
waters be,
They have no depth like the
The martyrs of the free
"Where
By
As
it
faith which fired
shall their dust be laid?
the valley's greenest spot.
ripples down, in leaps of shade.
To
the blue forget-me-not:
No, no, no!
For, green as the valley be,
It has
Of
no flower
like the bleeding-heart
the heroes of the free
"Or where muffled pageants march.
Through the spired and chiming
To
the chancel-rail of
Up
its
pile,
oriel arch,
the organ-flooded aisle:
No, no, no!
For, grand as the minsters be,
They could never hold all
Of Jackson and of LEE
"Where
the knightly
shall their dust be laid?
In the uni of the
Human
[66]
Heart,
liosts
!
:
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT.
Where
And
its
purest dreams are
its
passionate longings start
first
displayed,
Yes, yes, yes
By memory's
pictured wave.
Is a living shrine for the
Dead we
love.
In the land they died to save."
We
Rome
read in the classic legends of old
that there
was an earthquake which opened a wide chasm
very heart of the
it
At
up.
filled until
last
The people
city.
tried in vain to
an oracle declared
A
fill
would never be
it
the most precious thing in
into its depths.
in the
Rome was thrown
brave young man, Marcus Curtius,
hearing the oracle, said that courage was the most
He
precious thing in Rome.
mounted
his steed,
clad himself in full annor,
and calling aloud upon the gods to
witness that he devoted himself to
country's weal,
liis
The
he made his horse leap into the yawning gulf.
chasm instantly closed. A
greater chasm rent the mighty republic of America than
legend declared that the
ever cracked the foundation of
in vain
tO' fill
it
up.
It
Rome.
would not
The
precious thing in the republic, the glorious
America, was thrown into
its
people tried
close until the
depths.
Legions of noble
men, the flower of the North and South
Marcus of
most
manhood of
alike,
old, clad in full arjnor, leaped into its
like
yawn-
ing abyss, and the bloody chasm closed above them
forever.
So may
it
be with our great republic!
[67]
