Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-10-07
The Rebellion InexcSable.
BY ALEX. II. STEPHENS.

utterances at that time, so terribly confirmed
by what has since taken place, deserve record
as showing its utterly inexcusabe folly and
guilt. In the Georgia Convention of january,
1861, pending the question of secession, he said :
"The step, once taken, can never be
recalled and all the banelul consequent
ces that must follow, will rest on the con-
vention for all coming time. When we
and our posterity shall see our lovely
South desolated by the demon of war,
which this act of yours will inevitably
invite and call forth when our green
fields of waving harvests shall be trodden
down by the murderous soldiery and the
fiery car of war sweeping over our land,
our temples of justice laid in ashes, all
the horrors and desolations of war upon
US, who but this convention will be held
responsible for it, and who but he that
shall give his vote for this unwise and i'll
timed measure, shall be held to strict
account for this suicidal act by the pres
ent generation, and probably cursed and
execrated by posterity in all coming
time, for the wide and desolating ruin
that will inevitably follow this act you
now propose to perpetrate?
Pause, l entreat you, and consider for
moment what reasons you can give
that will even satisfy yourselves in calm
er moments, what reasons you can give
TO your fellow sufferers in the calamity
that it will bring. What reasons can
you give to the nations of the earth to
justify it?
They will be the calm and deliberate
judges in the case and to what cause,
or one overt act can you point on which
to rest the plea of justification What
right has the North assailed ? What in
terest of the South has been invaded p
What justice has been denied-or what
claim, founded in justice and right, has
been withheld? Can any Of you to-day
name one governmental act of wrong de-
liberately and purposely done by the
government at Washington, of which the
South has right to complain ? l chal-
Ienge the answer.
On the other hand, let me show the
facts of which l wish you now to judge );
and l will only state facts which are
clear and undeniable, and which now
stand as records authentic in the history
of our country. when we of the South
demanded the slave trade, or the impor-
tation of Africans for the cultivation of
our lands, did they not yield the right
for 20 years? When we asked for a
three-fifths representation ia Congress
for our slaves, was it not granted ?-I
When we demanded the return Of any
fugitive from justice, or the recovery of
those persons owing labor or allegiance,
was it not incorporated in the constitu-
ton, and again ratified and strengthened
in the Fugitive Slave law of 1850 ?-I
When we asked that more territory
should be added that we might spread
the institution of slavery, have they not
yielded to our demands in giving Louis
lana, Florida and Texas, out Of which
four States have been carved, and ample
territory for four more to be added I'M
due time, if you, by this unwise and i'm
polite act, do not destroy this hope, and
perhaps by it lose all, and have your
last slave wrenched from you by stern
military rule, as South America and
Mexico were, or by the vindictive de-
cree of universal emancipation, which
may reasonably be expected to follow?
But what have we to gain by this pro-
posed change of our relations to the gen
eraI government ? We have always had
the control of it, and can yet, if we re-
main in it, and are united as we have
been. We Lave had majority of the
Presidents chosen from the South, as
we'll as the control and management of
most of those chosen from the NORTH
We have had 60 years of Southern
Presidents to their "a, thus controlling
the executive department. So of the
judges of the Supreme Court, we have
had Is from the South and but II from
the North. Although nearly four>ffths
of the judicial business has arisen in the
Free States, yet majority of the court
has always been from the South. This
we have required so as to guard against
any Interpretation of the constitution I'M
favorable to US. In like manner we have
been equally watcbful TO guard our in>
terests in the Legislative branch of the
government. In choosing the presiding
Presidents (pro tenn ofthe Senate, we
have had "a to their IL. Speakers OF
the House we have had 20 to their 12.-
While the majority of representatives,