The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1864-10-06

bellion.
A few base and infamous men in the
North have sometimes undertaken the
guobie task of feycusing the traitors who
have taken up arms against the Govern
ment, by attempting to show that the
rights ofthe slaveholding States had
been invaded. There can be no better
answer to these men who have been SO
swift to apologize for rebels, than that
made by the Hon. ALEXANDER II. SrE
PHENs, of Georgia, (now the Vice Pres
ident of the bogus Confederacy,) in the
Convention in Georgia, in 1861, which
passed the secession ordnance. The
candid reader is requested to carefully
peruse what Mr.. Stephens says, and see
ihow completely he answers the misera.
BILE lickspittles and Southern sympathi-
zers in the North, who palliate and ex-
cuse the great crime of secession. Mr..
Stephens said
This step (Secession) once taken, can
never be recalled; and all the baneful
consequences must rest on the con :
vention for all coming time. When we
and our posterity shall see our lovely
South dosolated 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 trOd-
den down by the murderous soldiery and
the fery car of war sweeping over our
land, our temples ofjustice laid in ash
es, all the horrors and desolations of
war upon us, who but this convention
viii! be held responsible for it, and who
but he that shall give his vote for this
nnwise and ill-timed measures shall
be held to strict account for this
suicidal act by the present generation,
.qnd probably cursed and execrated by
posterity in all coming time, for the
wide and desolating ruin that will inev-
itably follow this act you now propose
to pcrpctrate.
Pause, | entreat you, aud conside er for
a moment what reasons you can give
that will even satisfy yourselves 10
oaImer moments, what reasons you can
give to your fellow sufferers in the ca
lamity that it will bring. What reas-
ems can you give to the nations of the
earth to justify it2 They will be the
the calm and deliberate judges in the
case; and to aohat cause, or one overt act,
can yo~ point on 'ohich to rest the plea Of
justifcation2 What right has The North
dSSailed9 What interest of the South has
been inUaded? What justice has been de.
MED, or ,ohat claim founded in justice
and right has been toilhh-ld? Can ann
of you to day name one governmental act
cf'orong deliberately and parposely done
by the Government at Washington, of
'0hich The South has a right to complaint
l Ichalle"ge the Gns'oer: !
On the other hand, let me show the
facts Ofwhich I wisf0Eou to Judge.
will only state facts which are clear and
undeniable, and which now stand as
records authentic in.tbe history of our
country. When we of the So nth de.
manded the slave trade, or the importa-
ton of Africans for--the cultivation Of
our lands, did they not yield the right
for twenty years2 When we asked for
three-6fths represeata in Congress
for our slaves, was it not granted2-
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 strengthen.
ed in the fugitive slave law of 1862
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 Loui
siaua, Florida, and Texas, out of which
four States might have been carved,
and ample territory for four more to be
added in due time, if you, by this un-
wise and impolilic act, do not destroy
this hope, and 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 vindiotive
decree OF universal emancipation, which
may reasonably be expected to follow
But what have we to gain by this pro-
posed change of our relation to the Cen
eral Government We have always had
the control of it, and can yetif we re-
main in it, and are united as we have
been. We have had majority Of the