The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1864-09-13
The South Responsible for REBEL
..- ion.


1t is the,order of the day-and soon
will be more SOTO utter falsehoods
like the following which occurred in the
columns Of a leading daily not long
since: History will relate that we
(the North) manufactured this conflict,
forced it to hot-bed precocity, nour-
ished and invited it +"
Read the following extract from a
speech by Alexander III. Stephens, Vice
President of the Southern Confederacy,
in the Georgia Secession Convention,
January, 1861. Mr.. Stephens was OPP
posed to secession, but unable to stem
the tide, he soon after became rebel.
The Vice-Presidency of the confedera-
cy being his price:
"This step (the secession Of Georgia.
once taken, can never be recalled, and
all the baleful and whitening consequent
ces that must follow Gas you will see),
will rest on the convention for all COM
ing time. When we and our posterity
shall see our lovely South desolated by
the demon of war which this act of
yours will inevitably call forth; when
our green fields Of waving harvests
shall be trodden down by the murder
GUS soldiery and fiery car ofwar sweep
ing over our land; our temples Of JUS
tice laid in ashes; all the horrors and
desolations of war upon us-who but
this convention will be held responsible
for itg And who but him who shall
have given his vote for this unwise and
ill-timed measure (as L honestly think
and believe) shall be held to strict ac-
count for this suicidal act by the pres
ent generation, and probably cursed by
posterity for all coming time for the
wide and desolating ruin that will inev-
ltably 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
calmer moments-what reasons you
can give to your fellow sufferers in the
calamity that it will bring upon us {?
What reasons can you give to the ma
tons 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 name or point, on
which to rest the plea of justification -?
What right has the North assailed?
What interest of the South has been
invaded? What justice has been de-
MED? and what claim founded in JUS
tice and right has been withheld? Can
either of you to day name one govern
mental act of wrong, deliberately and
pHrpOsely done by the government of
which the South has right to COM
plain? challenge the answer! While,
on the other hand, let me show the
facts land believe me, gentlemen, / am
not here the advocate of the North, but
/ am here the friend, the firm friend
and lover of the South and her institu-
tons, and for this reason l speak thus
plainly and faithfully, for yours, mine
and every other mans interest, the
words of truth and soberness), ofwhich
l wish you to judge, and l will only
state facts which are clear and undeni-
able, and which now stand rs records
authentic in the history of our country.
"When we of the South demanded
the slave-trade, or the importation of
Africans for the cultivation of our lands,
did they not yield the right for twenty
years? When we asked three-fifths
representation in Congress for our
slaves, was it not granted? When we
asked and demanded the return of any
fugitive from justice, or the recovery
of those persons owing labor or allegi-
ance, was it not Incorporated in the
Constitution? ard again ratified and
strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law
of 1850?
"But do you reply that, in many in
stances, they have violated this COM
pact, and have not been faithful to their
engagements ? AS individuals and To-
cal communities they may have done
so, but not by the sanction of govern
ment f; for that has always been true to
Southern interests. Again, gentlemen,
look to another fact. When we have
asked that more territory should be
added, that we might spread the insti-
tuition of slavery, have they not yielded
to our demands, in giving us Louisiana,
Florida and Texas, out of which four
states have been carved, and ample
territory for four more, to be added in
due time, if you, by this unwise and
impolitic 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
decree ofuniversal emancipation, which
may reasonably be expected to followp
"But again, gentlemen, what have
we to gain by this proposed change of
our relation to the general government?
We have always had the control Of it,
and can yet, five remain in it, and arc
as united as we have been. We have
had a majority of the Presidents cho-
sen from the South, rs well as the con-
troll and management of most Of those
chosen from the North We have had
sixty years of Southern Presidents to
their twenty.four, thus controlling the
Executive department. SO of the
Judges of the Supreme Court, we have
had eighteen from the South, and but
eleven from the North, although nearly
four-ffths of the judicial business has